Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke - 3/5

I feel a little mixed about this one. Overall, I did enjoy it and was always interested in picking it back up, but on reflection, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t completely fully formed. There were so many fascinating ideas and themes that I wanted explored further, and I felt there was potential for it to go deeper. That being said for a debut, I was impressed.

I found the discussions around Natalie’s character particularly interesting. A lot of criticism focuses on how she is the villain, but I think that misses the point of what the book is exploring: the different standards women are held to and the imbalance of blame placed on them compared to men. I actually think Caleb’s lack of consequences made sense, because it reflects the very imbalance the book is exploring. It mirrors a world where fault is not always applied equally.

My biggest criticism is that the book sometimes felt too obvious in its messaging. There were so many rich areas, especially around religion, community, and the tradwife movement, that could have been explored with more nuance.

Despite that, I think the book has something valuable to say. It’s sharp and an interesting exploration of a complicated modern conversation. I just wish it had pushed its ideas even further.