Yesteryear

Minor Spoilers

Yesteryear is the debut novel by Caro Claire Burke. And what a debut it is! The only first-time author's work that has been in the same league as this book for me is Lee Child with his Jack Reacher series.

This story ties back into one of my recent posts. The main character, Natalie Heller Mills, is a famous social media influencer. She loathes her followers and calls them "The Angry Women". Natalie is exactly the type of personality that drives me to make sure that people in my community know how valued they are to me.

The story begins with Natalie recounting the events of "the last day of my planned life". She introduces all her family members. Caleb is her husband and the father of their five children. He is described as a wonderful husband, a terrific father, and a gifted farmer. She talks about his love of learning and how their dairy cow, Sassafras, moos in pleasure each day as he milks her.

There is her eldest daughter, Clementine, the one who made her a mother. Next come Stetson and Samuel, her only two boys who are less than a year apart in age and frequently mentioned as closer to twins than simply brothers. Jessa who is just over three years of age, comes after the boys. Lastly, there is the toddler, Junebug. Then there is the yet unnamed child on the way to be their sixth.

After finishing filming her video, Natalie has a tense encounter with her producer, Shannon. Shannon has been keeping the two nannies awake at night with her nightmares. Natalie stresses the need for Shannon to control herself, as she is disrupting other members of the household. After their conversation, Clementine has a brief encounter with her mother, where she asks what a tradwife is.

This innocent enough question sparks the first cracks in this "perfect" life Natalie has made for herself. She portrays online that she and her husband raise five children who are homeschooled, care for the animals on the farm, grow all their crops, and create her media empire with no outside help. There is, however, a small army of people assisting with each of these tasks.

She has nannies Louise and Aimee who wake, dress, teach, feed, and care for the children. There is Shannon, who films, edits, and produces all of Natalie's videos. They have several migrant workers who tend to the actual work of farming, while Caleb does only the things he enjoys.

Hoping to avoid the question of what a tradwife is and attempt to distract Clementine, Natalie suggests they take a rare trip into town to go shopping at Target. Natalie meets an old acquaintance, Vanessa, while shopping, who laughs at the old-fashioned names of her daughters.

This is the first time we encounter Natalie's juxtaposed external and internal personalities. Outwardly she remains calm and collected; deftly handling the minor slight and laughing things off. Her inner thoughts reveal how ruthless and ill-tempered she can be. Furious after this meeting at the grocery store, and certain that her old "friend" will go home immediately to post about their encounter online to reveal that Natalie partakes in all the modern pleasures that she derides online, Natalie films a video in the car to share her rare trip into town with her daughters to usurp the shock value of Vanessa's hypothetic post.

It is at this point Clementine reveals that she does not wish to be filmed. This simple request from a nascent teenager further enrages Natalie internally. She merely states that she has always told Clementine to let her know if she doesn't wish to be filmed (she has never said this) and drives them back home while her hands trembled with fury.

When they arrive back home, Natalie goes through her unread emails and notices one from her producer. Shannon is formally submitting her resignation. She cites her deteriorating mental state and the "incident that occurred over the summer". Natalie has known of this "incident", a brief sexual affair between Shannon and her husband, Caleb. We learn Natalie has been working to orchestrate Shannon's departure and Caleb's upcoming political career.

Natalie goes to bed after praying with Caleb. In her prayers, Natalie asks for her plan with Caleb's father, Doug, to succeed and for Shannon to fail.

Natalie wakes alone in her bed, but the power is out and her room has grown frigid. Their emergency generators have failed to restore power, and she realizes she is covered in an unfamiliar, thin, hand-knit quilt. She reaches for her phone on the bedside table, but neither is there. In her grasping, she overreached and fell out of bed onto the floor, which is not her smooth imported hardwood flooring, but rough-hewn, wide planks.

Natalie becomes terrified that she has been kidnapped. Then she hears children laughing, and one of them calls her "Mama". She follows the sounds into a kitchen that vaguely resembles hers, but is lit only by a fireplace. Gathered around the fire are four children in pioneer-styled clothing who look like her children, but aren't.

She asks the children who they are, and one of them instructs her to go out to the barn. She slowly makes her way outside, noticing the height markings of the growing children on the door frame with the year 1855, and sees her ranch, but it is old and run-down. In the barn she finds a man who is like Caleb, but is old and has dead eyes. He tells her that he is her husband.

Natalie offers the man money to release her. This "Old Caleb" instructs her to return inside and behave. Natalie bolts and attempts to flee the property on foot. He catches her with ease, and she spits in his face and swears at him. He replies by saying these are not the actions of a good wife and slaps her so hard that she falls unconscious.

I don't want to provide any further spoilers than these. Suffice to say this novel contains many plot twists and revelations that caught me off guard in good ways. This book brought emotion to me as I read it, and I feel that any time an author can move you emotionally, they have done excellent work. I would give this an easy nine out of ten. If you are looking for a good read, then this is one.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. If you've read this book or have comments or questions, please leave them below. I attempt to respond to everyone.