C
Yesteryear is nothing more than an effigy to the tradwife influencer. It’s a humiliation ritual where every bad thing that happens to its main character, Natalie, happens because she deserves it instead of coming from a natural evolution of the characters around her. At no point does it feel it understands the appeal of the tradwife movement and Christianity, or the thought process of those who find it appealing, and is incapable of making any meaningful critique of it as a result. The prose is clumsy and has the stink of late millennial humor to it (there is an honest to god “record scratch” line early on and it doesn’t get much better from there), and the narrative feels as if it's cobbled together from stereotypes and cliches of the characters and their ideologies instead of coming from a place of experience or even basic research. Worst of all, the author’s true beliefs constantly slip through Natalie’s voice as well as many of the supporting casts’, many of whom have no business sharing these beliefs. Actually no, the true worst part was the twist that invalidates the entire premise of the book. The fact that this got a movie deal before it was even published reeks of insincere virality.
Yesteryear is nothing more than an effigy to the tradwife influencer. It’s a humiliation ritual where every bad thing that happens to its main character, Natalie, happens because she deserves it instead of coming from a natural evolution of the characters around her. At no point does it feel it understands the appeal of the tradwife movement and Christianity, or the thought process of those who find it appealing, and is incapable of making any meaningful critique of it as a result. The prose is clumsy and has the stink of late millennial humor to it (there is an honest to god “record scratch” line early on and it doesn’t get much better from there), and the narrative feels as if it's cobbled together from stereotypes and cliches of the characters and their ideologies instead of coming from a place of experience or even basic research. Worst of all, the author’s true beliefs constantly slip through Natalie’s voice as well as many of the supporting casts’, many of whom have no business sharing these beliefs. Actually no, the true worst part was the twist that invalidates the entire premise of the book. The fact that this got a movie deal before it was even published reeks of insincere virality.