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 heir to a political dynasty? 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 ruthless 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.

Published
April 7, 2026
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6/10

The story’s protagonist is Natalie, a quintessentially American woman with Christian family values, who has an unsatisfying husband and six children. As a stay-at-home mom on social media, she presents a glamorous, do-it-yourself, eco-friendly, and organic lifestyle on her country farm. Reality, however, is different from what’s on social media. Suddenly, she finds herself transported to a bygone era; her husband, children, and home remind her of the present day, yet they are different.

At first, it was uncomfortable to read the protagonist’s inner thoughts, which are a satire on the American “tradwife” lifestyle. The book is compelling, though. The story is told across two timelines, keeping you constantly wondering what’s happening, why, and how it will all end.

I can’t decide if I liked the book. I suspect it will linger in my mind. Hopefully not for too long. If a movie adaptation ever comes out, I’ll probably watch it.

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