Thank you Knopf, #partner, for the advanced copy of Yesteryear in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Knopf
Published: April 7, 2026
Summary:
A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.
My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.
Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.
Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.
A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.
My thoughts:
This was one of my most anticipated reads and it exceeded all my expectations and then some! And it’s a debut…I’m stunned!!
I’m not even putting a brief synopsis up because you really need to go into this book as blind as possible to fully enjoy it. But mark my words…this is going to be one of the most talked about books this year. It takes the tradwife trope and turns it on its head.
Timely, addictive, gripping, this genre-bending novel had me anxiously flipping pages. Our MC, the tradwife Natalie, was so unlikeable and yet I was completely engaged in her life. I loved how we effortlessly switch back and forth between the past and the present so we are able to learn about Natalie’s past, so crucial to understanding her. It made me have some empathy for this very unlikeable character. And I loved that it’s all told from Natalie’s POV. Being in her head, being privy to her inner dialog makes this even scarier at times, but we see all her thoughts. Talk about unsettling!!
I give kudos to the author for maintaining this balancing act — keeping me fully invested in a story with such terrible characters, because Natalie isn’t the only one who’s so unlikeable. Most of the secondary characters are unlikeable, too. But never once did I want to walk away from this until I reached what was probably one of the best endings I’ve read in a long time! So unexpected but absolutely fitting for how the whole book went and made me love the book even more!!
This book is so thought-provoking. It constantly has you questioning what is going on. There’s so much to discuss and unpack, making it a great choice for a book club and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the celebrity book clubs selects it as a choice.
This will undoubtedly be a top read for me this year and I cannot wait for more people to read it!!
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