At first, Natalie, the main character of Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel “Yesteryear,” seems to have her life under control. 

She bakes sourdough bread from scratch for her six adorable children and cowboy husband. She begins each morning by applying a full face of makeup, and she only drinks fresh, raw milk from the cows on her Idaho farm. Natalie never stops smiling — at least, not when she is on camera — showing off her “perfect” life for her millions of Instagram followers. 

Natalie is the epitome of what many would call a “trad wife” influencer. Through her whimsically curated farm life aesthetic, she promotes traditional gender roles by emphasizing a woman’s commitment to homemaking and domesticity. 

But Natalie’s life as a trad wife isn’t as flawless as it might seem. Instead, it’s a carefully fabricated facade that crumbles when Natalie inexplicably finds herself thrust back to the year of 1855. 

“Yesteryear,” published April 7, follows Natalie as she is forced to live out the “Little House on the Prairie” fantasy she promotes. Now, she must fight to survive as she works to determine how she ended up in the past: Is she on a reality show? Did she really time travel? 

Through Natalie’s journey to the 19th century, “Yesteryear” expertly examines trad wife culture through a satirical lens. It provides a critical statement on performative social media culture and the toxic trad wife ideal. With its dark heroine and a shocking twist, “Yesteryear” easily lives up to its hype as one of this spring’s most anticipated novels. 

While its premise is fresh and unique, the story is eerily familiar amid the growing popularity of the trad wife ideal, made popular by online personalities such as Nara Smith and Ballerina Farm’s Hannah Neeleman. 

Burke, a podcaster who discovered trad wife culture in 2024 and started making videos about it, expertly provides a relevant, yet nuanced, representation of the movement. “Yesteryear” extends beyond the internet trend, opting to examine the modern state of feminism, social media and politics. 

“Yesteryear’s” success lies in its expert character building, especially the development of its main character. Natalie’s personality is distinct, yet deeply complex. Her perspective is deliciously aggravating — she is selfish, neglectful and judgmental. Yet, she is also smart, ambitious and, often, very funny. While it’s easy to be enraged by Natalie’s hypocrisy and bitterness, it is also easy to sympathize with her. 

Natalie isn’t a one-sided depiction of trad wife culture. Instead, she is a woman seeking control by embodying the role of the “perfect Christian wife.” As she grapples with her husband’s obsession with the online misogynist community known as the “manosphere,” her father-in-law’s ultraconservative political career and the raw realities of motherhood, Natalie uses her persona as an outlet for agency over her time and finances. As a result, Burke’s criticism extends beyond Natalie to the systems in place that push her to pursue a homesteading ideal in order to obtain power.

While the term “trad wife” is new, Natalie’s dream isn’t. Through “Yesteryear,” Burke paints an important picture, and critique, of modern fascination with the “ideal” ways of the past. While Natalie seeks stability in traditional gender roles and adherence to her homesteading lifestyle, when she actually must live out the past she worships, she realizes that it isn’t everything she expected. 

The true reward at the end of “Yesteryear” is its shocking, “Gone Girl”-esque twist. Better than any ending I could have imagined for this story, the book’s final chapters firmly solidify “Yesteryear” as this spring’s must-read novel. 

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X: @emilymlichty

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