Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke was one of the most gripping, infuriating reads I’ve read in a long time. I could not put it down. Mild spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution …

I may write a more in-depth piece on Yesteryear in the future, but for now I wanted to share my initial thoughts while also keeping things fairly spoiler free while this book is still generally new. It is all over my feed at the moment, and I think a lot of people are still in the middle of reading it.

In this book, Burke relentlessly interrogates the world of family vlogging, exploring what it means to be one thing on social media and something else entirely when the camera turns off, though that is a rare occurrence indeed.

Creating the facade

Perfectly curated homes, absolutely spotless and perfect children, a dashing husband, and a bright smile. Natalie is a good Christian woman and she’s going to make sure everyone knows it … Only she’s not good, not at all. Every smile is pulled together by barely contained rage.

Exploring questions we may not wish to truly answer

I do wonder if we’re ready to discuss the questions that this book asks readers. Is family vlogging ever ethical? Personally, my answer is no. Children can’t consent to being posted online no matter how much their parents claim that they love being involved.

Are we ready to investigate the idea that religious beliefs can and often do foster and encourage hatefulness and cruelty? Throughout this entire book, the phrase “there’s no hate like Christian love,” kept passing through my mind.

The use of religion as a tool

Crucially, I believe Natalie would be cruel no matter her environment, religious or not, however the way she uses her religious beliefs to be piously cruel, thinking that she’s earning a shiny seat in heaven was especially frustrating. The hypocrisy is rife throughout the book.

In my opinion, the crowning moment in this book is when Natalie’s mother has had enough and she screams down the phone at Natalie, pleading with her daughter to just tell her why she finds it so hard to be kind. It’s a striking moment, and as a reader it stayed with me for a long time.

Abuse behind the vlog camera

The book explores abuse, those who dish it out and crucially, those who observe and let it happen. Natalie’s husband is an interesting figure. At first I felt sorry for him; looked down on by his father, mocked by his brothers, even Natalie grows to despise him.

By the end though, I thought he was the worst character after Natalie. That haplessness, that willful incompetence, that mind boggling ability to just forsake all ideas unless it’s a conspiracy theory and sit back while your wife torments your household, all while she’s claiming to be a good wife who lets her man provide. Caleb is a special kind of insidious because he’s the type who can appear harmless for far too long.

So, Natalie claims to be a good Christian woman who obeys her husband, scrubs her house, lovingly mothers her brood of children while she makes bread by hand as her husband works the farm, never showing her nannies or the other staff.

She insists things would all be better if women, especially The Angry Women as she calls them, went back to the good ole days.

Do not twist words

To be clear, as I am seeing a lot of bad faith arguments already circulating, I am not telling anyone that they cannot or should not choose to stay home with their children if that is what they wish to do. I firmly believe in supporting women’s choices so if someone can afford to stay home with their children full time and this is what they wish to do, I think that is fantastic. What I do object to in 2026 is women being told that we must stay home with the children and that this is what should make us the most fulfilled simply on the basis of being a woman.

On that point, I take no issue with the character Natalie being a stay at home mother, but I do think it is hypocritical to tell women that they should feel guilty for having career aspirations and that they should stay at home and let their husbands provide meanwhile Natalie is the breadwinner of her family. She is actively earning an income via telling her audience that they should not wish to do the same. She firmly states that they should be the most fulfilled by their children when she herself finds being around her own children grating if they are not performing for her vlog camera, and she often leaves them with the nannies that she never shows on camera, making her a liar and a hypocrite.

One day, Natalie wakes up in a very strange place. It seems she’s trapped in the past, apron firmly tied around her waist with none of the rights she claimed to despise. Can she put her money where her mouth is?

You’ll have to read to find out.

I thought that Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke was simply excellent. Absolutely worth the hype. I look forward to seeing the discussions that this book will prompt, as they will no doubt be layered and complex.

An absolute must read! Have you read it yet?