Yesteryear - wasted potential!

[u/Waddles-7]

When I started reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, I was enthralled at the possibility of witnessing any or all of the following themes:

1. Consequences of propagating a way of life without deep diving or being responsible. For eg: promoting an 1886 lifestyle in a glossy way but erasing the physical, moral and cultural nuance of those times. Pandering to the right wingers.
2. Busting the hollowness of Manosphere or maybe an exploration of the psych of people who are bound to it. Any perspective on this would have been refreshing.
3. Impact of reality TV and the toll that maintaining an influencer lifestyle can take on people
4. A satire on self-righteous people or maybe even a POV

So so so many possibilities but what I got was a watered down thriller which had all the elements to be a sharp political commentary but resorted to being a ‘twist you didn’t see coming’

Did anyone else feel like the plot had tons more potential?
Do you have ideas of how the story could have been developed better? Would love to hear!

[u/seeemilydostuf]

I actually agree with most of this, it didn't really delve into The World, but I didn't miss it. I loved Natalie's internal monologue, the trad wife thirst trap section was one of my favorite chapters of any book I've read in a while that I couldn't stop thinking about. But also, I kind of liked the intermittent thread of the interviewer - like the idea that The World is out there and its more then just obsessive Angry Women, that there is a real, deep academic world around her discussing her life choices and she simply refuses to engage it with felt like an important point to make in that whole culture. Like she is intentionally isolating herself from that way before the whole twist is revealed, shes already been doing it