If you like novels with a protagonist who is a narcissistic, mean, pseudo-Christian tradwife Instagram influencer, then Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear is for you. And even if that does not sound like your cup of tea, I think you should still read this book because it will suck you in and you won’t want to escape it until you have finished the last page, even with its absolutely terrible main character.

Yesteryear is about a woman named Natalie Heller Mills who sells the idea of a traditional family lifestyle to her million Instagram followers. Natalie, her husband, Caleb, and their five kids (with another baby on the way!) live on a ranch in Idaho called Yesteryear. Natalie’s followers see a picture-perfect family that grows their own food and bakes their own bread. Behind the scenes, though, Natalie and Caleb have Mexican farmhands working the fields, nannies to help Natalie raise her brood and their lifestyle is funded by Caleb’s rich family. And little does anyone know, Natalie hates her idiot husband and her children are just props she uses to grow her Instagram following.

After her producer quits, Natalie wakes up to find herself in the year 1855. She is still at Yesteryear ranch, but the buildings are rundown and there isn’t a modern convenience to be found. Her husband looks like a different version of Caleb, but her children are not the ones that she knows. Natalie does not know how she ended up in the past, but she is desperate to find a way back to her life in the future.

Yesteryear eventually reveals how Natalie became an Instagram influencer, what caused her producer to quit, and how she ended up in the past version of Yesteryear. I found the story to be a fascinating behind the scenes look at tradwife influencer culture and I was entertained as Natalie’s carefully curated life came crashing down. Yesteryear makes me wonder how many of the influencers peddling a trad-lifestyle are actually real-life Natalies. If Natalie didn’t subscribe to a religion that she doesn’t really believe in and wasn’t such a bigot, she could have been so much more than a fake tradwife. It is just so bizarre to me that despite her religiosity, the smartest thing she could come up with was to pretend to be a tradwife so she can become Instafamous. This isn’t a story of woman finding out the hard way that women living the traditional role of homemaker, who have no job experience and no money of their own, are fucked if their husbands decide to leave them. Natalie already knows before she starts popping out babies that she is disadvantaged by her dependence on her husband’s rich family.

The ending of Yesteryear threw me and I don’t really like it. And don’t expect a redemption arc, because this book isn’t it (you are going to get so much enjoyment out of hating on Natalie anyways). Still, Yesteryear is a wild ride, and I can understand why it is such a buzzy book right now.