Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Last winter, after the third or fourth time a friend of mine shared some influencer’s post to their story in hopes of winning the giveaway the influencer was running (hence the need to share the post to their story), I had the thought that social media influencers are, in many ways, no different than pastors preaching the prosperity gospel. Instead of asking for money, they ask for our attention and time, and so many of us willingly give it up in an attempt at reaching… something. I’m not sure what, as it depends on your flavor of influencer, but we wouldn’t be so captured if we didn’t think we could get something out of it, even if it's only a chance to peek into the windows of a (supposed) dream life. Which is why I think the premise of Yesteryear is so intriguing.

In Yesteryear, Natalie Heller Mills turns her nascent dream of a farm and a family into reality through the help of social media (and a $5 million check from her father-in-law). Her children wear the perfect palette of neutrals woven out of natural fibers, eat a healthy diet of food grown and raised on their own land, all of it far away from any liberal influences. It’s everything a good Christian woman could ever want, and it's what she peddles each day from her social media accounts. Who cares if she doesn’t know the first thing about farming? Who cares if her husband, the coddled youngest son of a career politician destined to be president someday (in his mind, at least), spends most of his time spiraling slowly down a right-wing rabbit hole of online misinformation and conspiracy theories? She’s Natalie Heller Mills, and she’s self-proclaimed as “perfect at being alive.” But when she wakes up in the past, with a husband who isn’t quite her husband, and children who aren’t quite her children, she finds herself put to the greatest test of her life.

It would be easy to reduce Yesteryear down to being simply a satire of a specific breed of social media influencing (namely, tradwives), and while it is that, it’s also in some respects a demented coming of age tale of a woman who managed to make one defining decision for herself and her future, but immediately bailed out the moment it didn’t align with her expectations. Natalie is not a likable character, and it’s hard to find sympathy for her. She is horribly judgmental, and uses her religion not only as a spiritual armor against evil, but as a weapon to be wielded against any person, particularly other women, she deems as less than. Going viral online and suddenly finding herself with millions of followers is just proof of her superiority over all the Angry Women out there who look at her pictures and watch her videos and secretly wish they could be just like her (may the checks that this attention gets her always clear, forever and ever, amen).

Caro Claire Burke does an excellent job in teasing this story out. She sets things up quickly, then alternates chapters of Natalie’s life leading up to the moment of her time travel with her experiences of now living in the past. There’s an eeriness to the chapters that depict Natalie’s farmstead life, particularly in the moments when she interacts with Mary, who is now her eldest daughter in this strange past. Mary has an adult weariness about her, the kind of weariness that only comes with being forced to grow up too soon, to be mother to both your younger siblings and your actual mother. The more time Natalie spends with Mary, she also realizes the toll this has taken on Mary, and finds herself strangely upset over the thought that someday soon, Mary will have to leave home to become a wife and mother too, just like Natalie, with no other option for her life. And this is just a fraction of the themes Burke touches on in this book. I haven’t even gotten into Burke’s use of gender roles, politics, being online, and wealth in crafting this story, and it would take a more experienced reviewer than me to deftly pull those pieces together.

I won’t get into too much detail about the ending. Wanting to know how Natalie ended up in the past kept me reading, and I think Burke’s choices in explaining how this happened were unexpected and far from any theory I may have had leading up to the end. I can understand why some might find the ending unsatisfactory, but I also think the conventional explanations would have been taking the easy way out, so I was pleased with the direction Burke took.

Yesteryear is a book that will leave an impression on you, and will have you begging your friends to read it too so you have someone to discuss it with. And if you feel inclined to share this review on your social media pages, feel free! Unfortunately, I have nothing for you to win as an incentive to do so. But I thank you for your attention anyway. Don't forget to follow us online!

Also, if Caro Claire Burke wanted to write a version of this story from the perspective of Natalie’s husband, Caleb, I would 100% read that. He may be a manchild, but I strangely found myself more sympathetic towards him than Natalie. Now that I've read Marianne's excellent review, I perhaps need to ruminate on why I feel that way...

Goth by Otsuichi

Goth was added to my TBR at a time when I dreamed I'd live in Japan for a year, reading only Japanese literature. Years later, that aspiration has faded, but Goth remained. 

Side question: Do books ever fall off your TBR until they are read? There is a t-shirt I saw online that briefly tempted me, a skull and a headstone reading "Bury me under my TBR." But enough talk about mortality! 

Through a series of short stories, Goth introduces us to two high schoolers obsessed with true crime. Initially, the stories were released online, and they retain that creepypasta vibe and style of writing, with all the limitations that entails. The writing does improve as the collection goes on and the author matures. 

The narration, like the teens, are detached, even as they encounter increasingly gruesome situations. The book is not for the faint of stomach. In the first story, the kids visit a remote mountain in search of a crime scene -- and find it. Even as they find clues to uncover the murderer, they don't turn them over to the police. They are interested in why and how a criminal commits atrocities, not in justice or preventing future crimes. And as in places where Jessica Fletcher goes, there is plenty of violence for the kids to explore. 

The collection cast a kind of spell over me. The first story involves a disturbing series of murders, but mostly serves to introduce us to our mysterious, unnamed narrator and his classmate Morino. The narrator is outwardly normal, he plays sports and jokes with his classmates, but inside he covets a dark fascination with the macabre. Morino, on the other hand, is outwardly "strange," dressed all in black, she is abrupt with classmates and teachers and completely uninterested in social niceties. In other words, my type. The second story explores the inner mind of a criminal while we learn more about our two central characters. Even though, or perhaps because, it is about a person who cuts off as many hands and paws as he can get away with, this is the silliest story, and I'm not sure if it is always intentional. As here, when the narrator is exploring the criminal's house:

"Each time I left a room, I checked to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, like my student ID, a uniform button, a textbook, or a sock." 

Student ID I can understand, a uniform button, sure, but already that's weird, but why would he leave behind a textbook? And then: Sock. How would you not notice leaving behind a sock? 

And then later, when the criminal has to go to work knowing that his prized collection of hands has been stolen, he obsesses for half a page over hands and here, the repetition lends humor to the macabre: 

"Hands. Hands. Hands were more important than the other teachers. First, there were hands, and then the human followed. There was no point in talking with the human." 

On the last page, the narrator asks Morino what she would be doing if she had been one of the victims. She considers and replies: "It would be very hard to put on a watch."

However, it is the third story ("Dog") where the collection really kicks into high gear. I would argue this is Otsuichi's best writing in the collection, and from this story on I was captivated. What surprised me was I found it rather moving by the end. I wasn't expecting that at all, given how distant we were from the main characters at the start. 

The collection comes together as a whole towards the end, and what is fascinating is to see that through it all has been planted a surprise that makes sense only at the end. There's a lot more a person educated in Japanese mystery stories could say about this (see: honkaku), but that person isn't me. I will note that I didn't read the afterwards or the bonus story. 

-Michael G. 

Esperance by Adam Oyebanji

    What happens when people start randomly coming up drowned... in their own homes... with lungs full of sea water? It is a mystery Ethan is tasked to solve, even now as a Chicago detective down on his luck.

   This book was one of those reads where if you don't think too hard or deep dive into any of the topics, its fun. It was entertaining as a run of the mill mystery, but it was somewhat superficial with the themes it seemed to be exploring even with the sci-fi components. These themes in question seemed to be racism, xenophobia, colonialism, revenge, and reparations... among others. 

    I will give it its flowers though, because there were many instances where it was somewhat funny and snarky with its dialogue, only so effective because of the context surrounding the characters. There was also sapphic relationship that was progressing over the course of the book, which was an unexpected touch.

    All in all, it wasn't the most groundbreaking read, but it's nice if you want a sci-fi mystery to keep you entertained for a while. Give the book a try and let me know how it goes!

- Leo

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

Are you a fan of thrillers?  Then check out this chilling New York Times and USA today bestseller by Alyssa Cole.

Sydney Green grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood she calls home, but lately it feels like gentrification is changing her community overnight.  Hoping to reconnect to everything that is slipping away, she and her new neighbor Theo start creating a tour to highlight the neighborhood's past and present.  But what if all the people who've vanished from the block haven't just moved to the suburbs?  And what if their research puts Sydney and Theo right in the sights of some sinister forces?  Is it all in Sydney's head, or is something bigger at work?

I really enjoyed Cole's sharp, witty writing style. This is one of those psychological thrillers where something just feels... off for much of the book, but you can't tell who or what is to blame. It also did a good job of making everyday encounters a plausible part of the unsettling vibe, so you're never sure which sinister things are sinister on purpose. Check it out if you're looking for a fast, suspenseful read!

 

Big Summer

 If you're needing some body positivity mixed with social media stardom, then this is your book. 

Daphne Berg is a successful influencer and she's more popular than she's ever been. Her body positive, tell it like it is, plus-size style has gotten her designer duds and sponsors galore. So when her ex-friend invites her to be a part of her wedding, she's thrown through one massive loop. 

This story is a fun summer beach read, that takes a sharp turn about halfway through the book. While I don't want to give anything away, you'll be sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what exactly is going to come next. But one thing I can tell you, it'll be binge worthy.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good

"And though she be but little, she is fierce."

Helena, regarding Hermia, in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (slightly modified from its original form)

I cackled all the way through An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. Yes, a homicidal old lady is a hilarious concept, and none of the five stories disappoint. But my inner old lady and introversion felt a kinship to Maud, and that's what kept me turning pages. I took off half a star because mysteries aren't exactly my cup of tea, but I ended up loving these stories and there's so little of this book!

I cannot tout Maud enough. Little Maud, as we discover, has lived quite a life. Her fiance spurned her because she was not rich. She made a career as a teacher. She cared for her mentally ill sister, Charlotte, until Charlotte's death. Maud outlived her family and retained ownership of their large apartment. Her neighbors glared at her, a single, elderly lady, and she continued to live her life. Maud earned her comfortable life, which makes the intrusions all the more intolerable.

"Maud lived alone, and she went on vacation alone. That was the way she wanted it. Freedom, no idle chatter, and no problems."

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good

I recommend this book to anyone rendered mildly homicidal by an overly-extroverted neighbor. If you, dear reader, have ever contemplated the pros and cons of murder to avoid an imminent social situation, I beseech thee: live vicariously through Maud.

Read more at Aida Fox Reviews.