Yesteryear by Caro Clair Burke reveals its big twist in the third act, leading to a truly infuriating book ending. 2026 is officially the year of trad wife horror, and Yesteryear is, by far, the book getting the most attention. The story follows Natalie, a social media influencer who promotes the tradwife lifestyle without actually living it. However, she wakes up in 1855, forced to experience the life she pretended to live before.
The marketing of the page-turning thriller centers on one big question: how did the tradwife influencer wake up in the 1850s? The book presents a few possible answers. Natalie could have traveled back in time to the 1850s, or she was kidnapped and put into a tradwife reality TV show. She also poses a third idea that this is some kind of test from God, though it's unclear what the mechanics would be.
Other possibilities that weren't in the test are just as compelling. The entire thing could be part of a dream sequence. Natalie could have died and gone to a version of Hell where she has to live the life she was faking. The book also could have gone the supernatural route, having a curse cause the situation. Because there are so many possibilities, many readers were stumped by the ending. The truth of Yesteryear is much sadder and more realistic, leading to an infuriating and unbelievable epilogue.
Yesteryear’s 1850s Scenes Are A Product Of Natalie’s Psychotic Break
Even though Natalie believes she’s in the 1850s, the whole thing is a facade that started with a scandal and ended with a psychotic break. First, Shannon outs Natalie for her lies about the farm. She reveals the child and animal abuse that she witnessed, and she accuses Natalie of sexual assault. This shatters the entire illusion of Yesteryear Farm. She sues Natalie, and her father-in-law, Doug, has to settle the case. He loses his run for president.
In the midst of all this, Natalie deletes her social media and starts abusing Valum. She wants to go completely off the grid, withdrawing from the modern world, and her husband agrees to start living like they did in the past. She orders prairie dresses and takes out the tags. She removes everything modern from the house and sells the car. She and Caleb raise their children to believe they are in the 1800s, telling them that their siblings, who actually left with Clementine, died.
Caleb started regularly drugging her. In the book, she describes slowly starting to believe the lies. Then she explains, “Over those years, my brain began to whine and smoke from the pressure, until finally it snapped in half like a twig.” Natalie experienced a prolonged psychotic break, causing her to forget almost 20 years. She truly believes she’s a settler in the 1800s, and Caleb won’t let her go anywhere that would break that illusion, abusing her to keep her docile. Of course, like the hypocrite he is, Caleb spent almost all day in a shack with a TV and a refrigerator.
Yesteryear Includes Small Hints That She’s In Present-Day Idaho
Although Yesteryear kept the readers guessing about what was really happening, the twist makes sense in retrospect. The book leaves plenty of hints that Natalie is still in present-day Idaho, rather than existing in the past or a dream. The dialogue is modernized, which seemed like an oversight on the first read-through, but it reflects the truth of Natalie’s situation. The characters use words like “snack, “hello,” and “anyways.” Rather than having jars of food, Natalie has a “can” of fruit.
On top of that, Caleb references a cold front coming in, a term that wouldn’t be coined until World War I. They also wouldn’t have had weather reports on the frontier in the 1850s. Natalie also finds the plastic of a lapel mic, which wouldn’t have existed in the past. Plus, she describes a chemtrail in the sky, which obviously wouldn’t be a thing since the plane wouldn’t be invented until December 1903.
Yesteryear’s Ending Is The Most Unbelievable Part Of The Book
Yesteryear should have ended without the “Five Years Later” epilogue, because that is the moment when things become far too unbelievable. The epilogue relies on the big twist that Natalie has been keeping her children away from society for almost 20 years, lying to them, not educating them, not giving them medical care, etc. It's morally repugnant and unlikely, but possible to imagine. That being said, the dialogue states that Natalie is in prison for 30 years for four charges of aggravated child abuse and “lesser charges.”
Amazon MGM Studios picked up the book Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke for a film adaptation, Anne Hathaway will produce and play Natalie, and Hannah Friedman is writing the script (via Deadline)
Unless there is some major part of the story not presented to us, those charges don't make sense in the state of Idaho, based on the definitions of neglect and abuse provided by the government website Child Welfare Information Gateway. And the idea of her getting 30 years is laughable.
Yesteryear details the children eating food regularly. They had a roof over their heads and clothes. The children were parentified, which is psychologically damaging, but that isn’t actually a crime. They kept the kids out of school, but unschooling is legal in Idaho. So, that wouldn’t qualify as child abuse. Lying to your kids isn’t a crime. They weren’t shackled or restrained. The state of Idaho has some of the strongest religious exemptions regarding medical care, and faith healing, aka prayer, is considered legal, as stated by the Child Welfare Information Gateway.
On top of everything else, the epilogue crosses the line to infuriating because it doesn't mention anything about Caleb facing charges. Caleb secretly drugs Natalie, so she cannot consent to sexual acts. He unlawfully possessed prescription drugs, which he was using against his wife. He also beats her, kidnaps her, and keeps her locked in the house when she tries to leave.
If Natalie hadn’t been charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse, it would be easier to overlook Caleb getting off scot-free. As frustrating as it is, it’s not unrealistic for spousal abuse to get ignored. However, Yesteryear decided to take the unrealistic route with Natalie. They either needed to apply that across the board or not apply that at all because readers are now left to question what happened to Caleb.
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