32 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Finished it.
I didn't love it or think it's particularly well written. But I did think the author was making some interesting points about feminism, child rearing, conspiracy theorists, "Christian" values, what women want ...
I think it probably hits more of a nerve in America, where the trad wife movement is strong.
It satirises the whole genre, made most famous by Ballerina Farm, the ex Julliard ballet dancer who lives a very similar life (on the surface at least) to the protagonist Natalie in Yesteryear, also Ruby Franke, who ended up in jail for abusing her children.
I read the book by one of Ruby Franke's daughters last year and learned a lot about these trad wife influencers and the way they serve up a constant diet of what many American women want.
The book takes us through Natalie's life and the development of her insta account, which has 5 million followers by the end.
That part of the story is fairly formulaic and, like I said, it follows the stories of real life trad wives pretty faithfully.
The more interesting part for me was the chapters where Natalie is living a more realistic life as a frontier wife from the 1850s. This is all a bit strange as you read it, but I must admit I was hooked on understanding what on earth was going on and how it would end.
The ending is completely daft, but it is relatively coherent and fits the overall satire and the reality of what has happened to some of these trad wife accounts.
Btw my brother in law is SO like the husband - obsessed with conspiracy theories and I recognised a few of his favourites.
I think it is a book more for a US audience but it had enough to keep me intrigued.