Yesteryear

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

This thread is to discuss Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

Pages: 400 pages

Length: 1 month (June)

Participants: Valerie, LinaVer, Lorraine, Dominique, Susan, Luisa, Min

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

[Min]

Hi everyone! This was a FOMO book for me, because so many people are talking about it. The premise is so interesting and I'm excited to read the POV of a character whose personality and character are so different from mine.

About 30 pages in so far, and I think I'm going to fly through this book!

[LinaVer]

Hey! I'm going to start this one a bit later in the week, after finishing a book I'm currently reading. I've watched some interesting video essays about the "trad wife" phenomenon lately and when I saw people discussing this book, I was intrigued. It's one of my planned books this month that I'm looking most forward to reading, so I can't wait to start. :)

[Valerie]

I’ll probably start this next weekend. I suggested it because it has an intriguing premise.

Edit: actually going to leave it until later in the month as there are a couple of other books I want to finish first.

[Lorraine]

Not sure if I will get my copy on time for the buddy read but I will certainly read it when I get it. There is a lot said about this book. Good and bad. So I am curious.

[Allison]

Hey, all.

Joining this Buddy read as my hold unexpectedly came in at the library and I picked it up today. I’ve never even heard of this author before. This is not usually my type of book but everyone has just gone so feral for it that my interest is peaked. Hope to start tomorrow.

[LinaVer]

I've started reading this book yesterday, wanting to read something a bit more riveting. And that it is! I'm surprised how quickly this book drew me in, and how (view spoiler)[delightfully morally unlikeable the main character feels to me. (hide spoiler)]
I do think though that there are probably people (view spoiler)[who genuinely enjoy living a life based on more traditional ideas and values, and as a somewhat of a feminist I believe every single woman (or just person in general) has a right to choose whatever life they want for themselves. So I feel like this over the top unlikeable character might ruffle some feathers 😆 🤭 But it is a good look (maybe?) into how dissonant a life can feel if you try to convince everyone, including yourself, you like it while you don't.
So far from what I've read (just started reading the time jump) it seems the author chose to portray the performative side of "trad wife" influencer's life and some other typically rage-bate type of topics connected to that (not that they aren't important to discuss of course), and I wonder if this is the general opinion of the author or if we'll see things a bit from more sides than one. (hide spoiler)]
I am enjoying the book so far. Lately, with the way the world is and looming wars and food prices going up, I have been thinking a lot about self-sufficiency and how much stuff people knew how to do in the past (like, even my grandmother's and mother's generation, not even that far into the past), and I don't know that I'd be able to survive in that kind of life. And I already consider myself as someone having quite a few handy skills (learned to garden, cook, sew, mend etc from said mom and grandma), but gosh lives were really much harder back then. Or maybe I'm just much lazier. 😆

[James]

I read this a few months ago - it's very under-researched and doesn't accurately depict right-wing Christian psychology; the theory of mind is plainly terrible. The presumption that ideological opponents secretly agree with oneself but are just hypocritical, narcissistic lowlifes is a tempting & comforting delusion, but very inaccurate.

[Mansi V]

Got this book unexpectedly early from the library so I'd love to join the buddy read!

[Temitayomiyoshiseun]

I just got the book and would like to join the buddy read as well.

[Allison]

I’ve started and it’s not drawing me in. I find the main character intolerable. Maybe she’s meant to be that way. I didn’t know how “Christian” this book was until she talked to, or about, God 70 times in the first 3 pages. So far, it’s just not making me yearn to pick it up but I am not far so maybe I just need to give it some time still. I did unexpectedly see a spoiler for something though so that’s a bummer.

[LinaVer]

Allison wrote: "I’ve started and it’s not drawing me in. I find the main character intolerable. Maybe she’s meant to be that way. I didn’t know how “Christian” this book was until she talked to, or about, God 70 t..."

It's always so frustrating if you see a spoiler, isn't it?!
So sorry you're not enjoying the book yet. Will you continue reading it still?

I've just finished chapter 13, I'm moving slow because I don't have so much time these days, but otherwise for me it reads quickly and I'm engaged with it, which I'm glad about. I'm at the part where she (view spoiler)[finds a piece of plastic (in the 1800s), a part of microphone, and I wonder how the author is going to explain this in the plot later on. (hide spoiler)] So far, I'm mostly (view spoiler)[sorry for the oldest "daughter" in the past timeline, as it seems she's so used to carrying the whole life of that family basically on her shoulders. And we know the woman is not her mother (mentally, I guess) but Mary having to mother her own mother... yeah, I feel sorry for her. (hide spoiler)]

[Allison]

LinaVer wrote: "Allison wrote: "I’ve started and it’s not drawing me in. I find the main character intolerable. Maybe she’s meant to be that way. I didn’t know how “Christian” this book was until she talked to, or..."

Yes, I did carry on and actually finished it. Ended up being a very bingable book. Bingable but still not likable. I definitely get why everyone was wild for this….its a new concept and certainly delves into things people should be talking about but it ultimately fell flat for me (the spoiler I saw turned out not to be THE spoiler). This book will 100% be great in face to face book clubs, I’ll give it that.

[LinaVer]

Allison wrote: "Yes, I did carry on and actually finished it. Ended up being a very bingable book. Bingable but still not likable...."

You've put it so well into words, Allison. That's exactly how I as well, after finishing the book. What a wild ride, totally different from what I expected. (view spoiler)[I thought for a while that Dough, the father in law, might "make her go away" by pumping her chock full of drugs and locking her up in a hospital or something, and that maybe that's why she was hallucinating the "1895" or whatever that "past timeline" (hide spoiler)] but I didn't expect the book to end the way it did! I feel like I had a crash course on (view spoiler)[narcissistic personalities, and wow what a harsh way to view the world (hide spoiler)]. I hated the main character but she's written so well to be unlikeable that at a certain point I realised I was actually rooting for her. *shocker* The pacing of the book was not entirely even and somewhere in the middle it lost me, but even despite that I was really invested the whole time. Happy I read this, now I can be part of this apparently hate-it-or-love-it discussion about it online, haha. 😆

[Luisa]

So I’m having a bit of mixed feelings right now. I’m about 20% into the book (chapter 8), and even though I really dislike the whole tradwife idea and everything around it, I’ve kind of been liking the main character and even relating to her… and honestly it’s giving me a bit of an identity crisis.

(view spoiler)[
I say that because during the pandemic, I moved to my then-boyfriend’s countryside place, and I was living a somewhat similar life. We had chickens, ducks… every morning when I went to feed the chickens, I’d even say “hi, ladies.” We had a garden, fruit trees, and lived a more natural/sustainable lifestyle.

I was never a tradwife — we both had regular jobs — but looking back at that life, how we lived, and even the things I used to post on social media, I’m like “oh my god, I used to do that” (even though I was never an influencer and don’t want to be — my accounts are private).

Even the parts where she talks about her college years, struggling to connect with other women, being very introverted… I relate to that too.

Honestly, I’m a little concerned hahaha. Definitely something I’ll be unpacking in therapy next week lol.
(hide spoiler)]

But overall, I am enjoying the book — it’s a really easy, smooth read and it flows well. Its hard to put down :)

[Mansi V]

I'm 100 pages in and I'm having mixed feelings at the moment. It's easy to read because of the short chapters and whilst I quite liked the beginning, I'm not feeling completely drawn in at the moment.

At the moment, characters seem to be very much opposite sides of the spectrum, and whilst I partially get it in the context of the book, it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine.

[Allison]

LinaVer wrote: "Allison wrote: "Yes, I did carry on and actually finished it. Ended up being a very bingable book. Bingable but still not likable...."

You've put it so well into words, Allison. That's exactly how..."

Thank you :)

(view spoiler)[Regarding Doug, it certainly seemed like it was heading that way and he’d have the means to do so! I think she wasn’t scared enough….probably because she’s even more unhinged than he is! (hide spoiler)]

[LinaVer]

Luisa wrote: "So I’m having a bit of mixed feelings right now. I’m about 20% into the book (chapter 8), and even though I really dislike the whole tradwife idea and everything around it, I’ve kind of been liking..."
Luisa, I think living on a farm, or growing veggies, animals etc doesn't necessarily make you a tradwife. From what I understand, there's a lot of Christian background related to the whole tradwife concept, but I would even dare to say that the "Christianity" or the values on which the tradwife thing is supposedly based on are not really a healthy sort of Christianity/faith. I think a lot of it has to do with performative, idealistic view of "being close to the land" type of thing, where for some reason it's perceived (or shown) as this easy beautiful glamorous lifestyle, while a lot of it is actually very unglamorous and hard. And I think that's one of the bigger reasons why tradwife influencers often get critiqued. But of course I might be wrong.
I grew up spending my summers helping my family in our garden, working hard (and, as a child, not really willingly). we grew bigger part of our food for the upcoming year, also gathering berries and mushroom in the forest, conserving whatever extra food we grew. I would never call myself or my mom, or grandma a tradwife though. It was what was normal at the time for a lot of people, so I guess it was traditional in the literal sense of this word, but also it was a means of survival in a low economy.
Anyway, rant over, but just wanted to say that you shouldn't give yourself such a hard time about it, love.

[LinaVer]

Allison wrote: "LinaVer wrote: "Allison wrote: "Yes, I did carry on and actually finished it. Ended up being a very bingable book. Bingable but still not likable...."

You've put it so well into words, Allison. Th..."

Lol, there are definitely a lot of unhinged characters in this book 🤣
In this sense I actually agree (somewhat) with some reviewers who think (view spoiler)[that the characters are a bit too unhinged and maybe a bit simplistic and stereotypical because of it. (hide spoiler)] what did you think?

[Min]

I'm done with this book and enjoyed reading through everyone's opinions :) I have mixed thoughts about Natalie - I found it so interesting that she's full of agency and belief in her own competence, and yet chooses to uphold a system that works completely against her.

Other thoughts about the side characters and the ending below:

(view spoiler)[ I found myself feeling pity for Caleb at first - it's quite obvious that he wanted a life independent of his family with his dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher. The slide into the manosphere was frankly pretty chilling.

Didn't know quite what to make of Shannon either - I believe that she came in as a young woman who had wanted to "escape the maze", but eventually found herself in too deep. I also wonder if her depiction of Natalie's assault on camera was truthful, or was it meant to shock TV viewers. It's interesting to me also that Natalie was more deeply affected by others thinking that she was a lesbian than all the other allegations.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but the ending felt a little rushed. I find it unlikely that Doug would run out of money, and that Clementine would have been able to remove Natalie's kids as easily as that. We know that Natalie went into jail for child abuse, but we never find out what happened to Caleb for keeping her captive and drugged over all these years. (hide spoiler)]

Overall a really impressive debut and I will be watching the film when it comes out :)

[LinaVer]

Min wrote: "I will be watching the film when it comes out."
Is there a movie coming out based on this book? Didn't know that.
I agree with you on wanting to see what happened to Caleb in the end, Min. I do think though that (view spoiler)[the book not explaining that to us could have been a conscious choice by the author. Patriarchy is such a damaged system, and I feel like it would entirely be plausible that he just lived on untouched and unpunished. (hide spoiler)]

[Min]

@Lina, yes - Anne Hathaway will be producing the adaptation. Apparently she bought the rights even before the book was released :)

[Allison]

Min wrote: "I'm done with this book and enjoyed reading through everyone's opinions :) I have mixed thoughts about Natalie - I found it so interesting that she's full of agency and belief in her own competence..."

Yes yes yes, Min, to Natalie!

[Valerie]

Finally going to start this. It’s generated lots of thoughts and opinions amongst you, which is a good sign, so looking forward to joining in.

[Lorraine]

I went from 13 to 10 weeks wait in 15 days. I will ask SarahKat to extend this for one month just in case that I get my copy in July.

[Amanda]

So I just finished and I'm gonna just copy and paste what I wrote as my temporary review because I think that explains my current state of emotional whiplash lol. Maybe reading some of you all's thoughts will help me clarify mine 😂



Temporary review:

(Not really any spoilers, just mention of an emotional reaction, but using tags just in case )

(view spoiler)["3.5 Stars ⭐️ (maybe 4? I really don't know)

Need to sit on this one for a bit before I write my full review...because I don’t know if a book has ever made me go from wanting to DNF to absolutely loving it and wanting to rate it 4 stars (while almost making me cry at the end) quite like this one did." (hide spoiler)]

[Valerie]

Finished part one. I agree with LinaVer that (view spoiler)[ she’s so determined in her obnoxiousness that it’s actually quite fun to hate her. I also have no problem with women who want to live that kind of life (just not for me) but this appears to be much more about the gap between truth and reality so far, hypocrisy and honesty and the selling of a false ideal rather than the lifestyle choice itself (hide spoiler)]. At the moment, I’d say it’s interesting rather than gripping but let’s see how it develops.

[Amanda]

Okay here's my final review. Just gonna copy and paste how I posted it:


Rating: 4 ⭐️

Original post: Need to sit on this one for a bit before I write my full review...because I don’t know if a book has ever made me go from wanting to DNF to going back and forth between 2 and 3 stars about 20x to loving it and landing on a 4 stars (while also almost making me cry at the end) like this. And I can't decide if I should appreciate Burke's ability to write such a mind-bending experience or if the book was just poorly structured.

EDIT: Honestly... might just leave this as my final review because it pretty much sums up the experience of reading this book 😂

EDIT #2: I do feel the need to give credit where it's due because, regardless of what I said below, Burke is extremely creative. Natalie's internal dialogue was *chefs kiss.* She's hilarious btw, despite not even being likable.

If there's one thing I love, it's the unraveling of the Repressed Woman. Burke mastered that.

[Amanda]

I'd love to hear if people felt similarly to me or not lol

[Dominique]

Finished was a 3.75 stars for me

(view spoiler)[ She was so unlikeable, at one point I was like she's crazy.. well the ending proved it. She wanted so badly that Traditional family that she went overboard crazy.
Her obsession with Reena was more of a jealousy type situation. Always comparing herself with her life and Reena's thinking she had the better one was unhealthy.

Her relationship with everybody was all about her. The way she treated her sister when she wanted to get out of her mariage, with her husband ( the way she got pregnant was disgusting but also funny), her staff (the dig Shannon said about her having sex with her husband.. priceless).
The twist at the end about her being in the past was super well done but the downside is the way she treated her kids and why did her husband not leave, his family had means, just leave with the kids instead of putting them through all this (hide spoiler)]

[Amanda]

Dominique wrote: "Finished was a 3.75 stars for me

She wa...."

We have very similar thoughts and feelings it sounds like lol

[Dominique]

Amanda wrote: "Dominique wrote: "Finished was a 3.75 stars for me

She wa...."

We have very similar thoughts and feelings it sounds like lol"

Great!!

[Valerie]

End of chapter 15. Not really what I was expecting in the past section. (view spoiler)[ Too much backstory about her actual past rather than the journey into the past for me. We do learn a lot more about what has made her the way she is, but understanding her doesn’t make her any more likeable. The jumping from her past to the other past isn’t working for me, it just feels disjointed. I want to immerse myself in the main mystery hinted at by the discovery of the plastic (hide spoiler)]. Hoping the focus shifts in the next part.

[Valerie]

At chapter 30. Not fun to read but I appreciate how well she captures the grinding grimness of it all. Still not liking the jumping between times in this part as I’m much more interested in one than the other. No idea where this is going so far.

[Allison]

Dominique wrote: "Finished was a 3.75 stars for me."

(view spoiler)[Her husband didn’t leave because he was just as messed up as she was just in a completely different way!! (hide spoiler)]

[Dominique]

Allison wrote: "Dominique wrote: "Finished was a 3.75 stars for me."

[spoilers removed]"

I agree!

[Mansi V]

Valerie wrote: "At chapter 30. Not fun to read but I appreciate how well she captures the grinding grimness of it all. Still not liking the jumping between times in this part as I’m much more interested in one tha..."

Around 2/3 way through and I feel the same about the jumping back and forth. Sometimes I don't mind a disjointed storyline but not so much here. I feel like I'm not getting enough of the past storyline.

I still can't say I'm particularly hooked, I'm not disliking the book but not loving it either. A very solid 3 stars at the moment for me, and I think the last third will make it or break it for me.

(view spoiler)[ Although the turkey baster definitely left me speechless ... 😂 (hide spoiler)]

[Valerie]

Ok, I’m done, so let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. (view spoiler)[ The good: interesting premise, starts well and really picks up in the final third. The final twist was unexpected (I assumed it was not really the past but was thinking she was either delusional or the victim of some kind of revenge plot) and the pace of her fall from grace interwoven with the reveal kept me reading (I love your phrase ‘bingable but still not likeable, Allison). The bad: the structure in the second section made it a slog to keep going and I considered not bothering. I understand why we needed to know some backstory but it just became a tedious rant taking me away from the thread I was interested in. The ugly: all the adults in this novel are flawed (only the children are sympathetic characters). Natalie is the most thoroughly ugly with really nothing to redeem her. This does make her fascinating, but also alienates the reader so you don’t really care what happens to her. (hide spoiler)]. Overall an ultimately compelling read that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

[Allison]

I like your last sentence and 100% agree.

[Mansi V]

Finished, and a very average 3 star read for me. Didn't love it, didn't hate it 🤷🏽‍♀️

What I liked:

- it is an interesting premise in general, and I can definitely see why people enjoyed it
- It was a relatively easy and accessible read, with short chapters and the writing isn't necessarily difficult to understand

What I didn't like:
(view spoiler)[
- The pacing was a bit off for me. I didn't really feel hooked until maybe the last quarter or third when it started to pick up. And then you have the big twist at the end, which I didn't predict but it was so rushed that I almost felt a bit underwhelmed. I do think the book could have been shorter too with some more editing, the internal monologue sometimes dragged a bit and got repetitive
- THE CHARACTERISATION!! Look, I love unlikeable characters, but sometimes it almost felt like the author was trying too hard to make Natalie unlikeable?! Like she's already a bad person, but the author just kept on trying to drive it home, to the point it almost started to feel like a caricature. Whilst I initially found the internal monologue quite funny, it eventually started to feel a bit cringey, and eventually Natalie was SO unlikeable that it almost felt a bit boring? 😳 This is generally just a pet peeve of mine in books though.
(hide spoiler)]

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

This has been moved to July's Buddy Read folder

[Susan, Games & Events]

Yay, glad this was moved to July as well. I haven't had a chance to read it yet!

[Lorraine]

Still 7 weeks waiting. But could be less.

[Alexandra]

I plan to start this book next week and it’s my first time joining the Buddy Reads challenge. I expect nothing from this book but hopefully i’ll enjoy it.

[Jakeyfatdog]

Never done this before but I am joining this body read. Just waiting for my copy to arrive in the library

[Luisa]

Finished today
4 stars.

(view spoiler)[ I liked this book, but it was absolutely nothing like I expected.

I honestly think it's being sold the wrong way. The marketing made me think I was getting a very different story. Weirdly enough, it also feels like one of those cases where the movie adaptation might actually be better than the book.

Another funny thing: Natalie reminded me so much of the main character from Black Mirror's "Nosedive" episode. At some point, I started picturing that character/her looks as Natalie, and from then on, that became my headcanon for her.

Even though it wasn't what I was expecting, I still enjoyed it overall and ended up giving it 4 stars.
(hide spoiler)]

[Amy]

I wasn't in the original Buddy Read but I just finished this yesterday. I enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts on the book.

[Amitha]

Just started this book. This is my first time reading this author and I've heard so many great things about it. Hoping it lives up to all the praise!

[Jen]

My library had 31 holds on one copy, so rather than wait 2 years to read it, I bought it. Hoping to get through it this week so I can gift it to family when I visit them next week. I'm also encouraging my husband to read it as there's so much hype around it.