Yesteryear-Review

(some mild spoilers ahead)

I’m sure that you may have seen Yesteryear floating around the online book world being hyped up to high heavens and endlessly discussed both in the book community and in wider conversations. Well, I have finished the book and I am here to tell you that it definitely lives up to the hype.

Is it the most intricate, feminist literature exploring the complexities of womanhood and differing identities?  Probably not but I don’t think it needs to be. In some way I think it provides a similar purpose to the Barbie movie. It gives you a starting point and some questions and it's up to you to do the rest. I enjoy books like this and I found the specific focus on online identity and how it's crafted a really intriguing starting point.

I thought I knew what to expect with this book; time slips, unlikable main characters, feminist talking points and criticisms. I expected these points to be laid out on a neat platter, how I’m sure the protagonist Natalie would try and display them. Instead this novel is punctuated with messy, obsessive and spiraling thoughts. Constant jabs at characters, including the narrator to herself, create a cynical tone. This is something we see Natalie trying to fight within herself throughout the book.  

There are clear parallels between the internet persona of Natalie Heller Mills and ‘real’ women on the internet who create similar personas. Sometimes these parallels felt a touch too obvious but perhaps that’s the point. It made me question the world that these women have created; the reality that is obscured in favour of creating an envious life in short form content. This is done by hiding the mess of life, childcare and motherhood off screen. I think all good books make you question the real world as much as the world created within the pages. 

Moreover, Caro Claire Burke also explored the complexities of women like Natalie. The pressures that can mould them into these refined, restricted and self imprisoned ‘tradwives’. The expectations of women who grow up in heavily religious or conservative settings and how these expectations can be passed down through generations. This idealised world captures these women, and expects them to conform to the vision, despite making it incredibly hard to do so. When they struggle, much like we see Natalie struggle when she is postpartum, they are painted as poor mothers and bad wives. 

This was something that took me by surprise. Often we see women like Natalie as a kind of antithesis to women’s liberation. They revel in not being independent and relying on men. They show themselves as perfect wives happy to sit at home and raise thousands of children whilst maintaining a perfect body and not complaining about a thing. Yet, something darker lies underneath for Natalie. The constant feeling that she is faking it. It’s always forced, it doesn't come naturally and it certainly isn’t enjoyed. She feels she is failing but at least she’s not like the ‘angry women’. Caro Claire Burke portrays a woman trying to bend herself into what she thinks a woman should be, but some things don’t bend; they snap.

Burke's introspective writing shows a woman who is angry, frustrated and most of all trapped. A victim of her own making. I thought I’d hate Natalie, I thought I’d be one of the ‘angry women’, but instead I found myself equally feeling sympathy for her as well as disliking her. It brought up a question that the book left me with over and over again; how did we get here? 

The theme of performance is sprinkled throughout the book. Performance for an internet audience, for family, for loved ones, for oneself and for an imagined audience too. Constant scrutiny. It made me wonder who this lifestyle is even for. If no one's being genuine, if it makes people angry or envious, if any kind of joy has to be faked. What’s the point?

Burke also explores contemporary themes with a critical and comical focus. She explores the world of conspiracy theories and reddit culture with devastating wit. The little side comments, the internet comment sections, the hilariously brutal, completely unself-aware jabs coming from a ‘good christian’ woman. The humour in this book was surprising, but needed to break up the downward spiral the character finds herself on. 

In terms of the ‘timeslip’ element, I thought this was done really well. Short little insights, not lingering too long but creating an atmosphere of dread that pays off beautifully in the end. In some ways the structure reminded me of ‘Kindred’ by Octavia Butler, another incredible book. 

My once ‘criticism’ was the ending. The book doesn’t have a particularly magical realism tone so I was expecting some kind of ‘twist’ and at first I felt that this didn't really pay off. I thought it seemed so out there, far too silly and then I got to the epilogue. 

Without giving away too much, there is a mention of a character writing a book which shook me. As I said, the book creates clear parallels with real world influencers and it wasn’t until the mention of this book that I saw the bigger picture of who this character and her book mirrored. Again, without spoiling too much ‘The House of my Mother’ by Share Franke felt like a real world counterpart to me. 

The ending that seemed too out there because ‘no one would do that’ and ‘especially not with children’ actually was portraying something that can really happen and in fact has happened. Someone can show you the perfect family life whilst simultaneously forcing children to perform for the camera and abusing them off screen, even when this mistreatment seems unconventional and is rooted in living ‘a good, pure life’ the effect on the children is devastating. 

This was the lasting effect from this book for me; There are endless debates about this culture being curated and how it affects men and women, the political angles as well as domestic and how the internet influences and amplifies these arguments but, in reality, when it really comes down to it; it’s the children who will suffer and have to bear the consequences.