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.

I received an advance audio copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

I have no idea how to review this book without spoiling anything. I don’t want to even chance spoiling anything because this book is meant to be experienced for the first time with as little knowledge as possible. And then it’s worth reading again, just so you can point out to yourself the obvious clues that were staring you right in the face that you didn’t pick up on the first time you read it. So rather than spend a whole lot of time talking about what the book is, I’ll spend more time talking about my experience.

First of all, the book both was and wasn’t what I was expecting. I’m morbidly fascinated by trad wives. Like, I seriously don’t get how anyone could be as delusional as these people, so naturally I was more than ready to read this book.

Natalie is a traditional lifestyle influencer. She’s got millions of followers who watch her live her perfect pioneer life on her charming farmhouse with her handsome cowboy husband and six adorable children. She sells raw milk and farm-fresh eggs and homemade jam and an entire aesthetic. Never mind that there are nannies and producers behind the scenes and her kitchen is hiding industrial-grade equipment. Her followers don’t need to know that.

And then one morning, Natalie wakes up and something is very, very wrong. Her home, her husband, her children are all familiar, but everything is off. Her children are her children, but they’re not. Her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. She no longer has electricity or indoor plumbing and she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Did she wake up on the set of a brutal reality show? Is it time travel? She has no idea, but she knows this isn’t her life, and she needs to escape.

I spent a good portion of this book confused. I wanted more time-travel stuff. I honestly started to grow kind of bored with the backstory of how she became a trad wife and things weren’t really clicking for me. Up until the last quarter of the book I was like, “Yeah, not as great as everyone says it is. Likely a 3-star for me at best.”

And then something happened that confused the hell out of me. I spent the next several pages feeling like I had totally missed something. I had no idea what in the hell was going on. And then it all came together and it made so much sense. Well, it made some sense. I still don’t understand a certain choice that was made, mostly because it is not a choice I would have made, but it worked for the most part.

I listened to the audio of this one and Rebecca Lowman did a great job narrating it. She especially captured Natalie’s voice perfectly.

The book is as unsettling as it is darkly funny. I can’t say much more without spoiling it, but just know that if you’re fascinated by trad wife culture, or if you like books that mess with your head, this is worth picking up. I implore you to stick with it even if you’re frustrated and not sure where it’s going. Trust me on that. Not a total 5-star read, but the reveal, and how obvious it all should have been from the beginning, raised the rating for me. I’ll definitely be going back at some point in time to read it again from a new perspective.

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