Yesteryear

[Anonymous]

Has anyone read this? I was very excited to read it based on reviews. I mostly enjoyed about half of it, even if it did not live up to the promise of biting social satire. Then it took a weird turn and I kind of hated it. Really just underwhelmed.

[Anonymous]

I was excited to read this, but then when it was available to read an excerpt, I was underwhelmed. For now, I'm waiting. Will watch this thread.

[Anonymous]

Just finished it. Really good book.

[Anonymous]

Just finished it. It wasn’t as good as I hoped or as bad as I feared. I definitely think it is more a twisty interesting psychodrama - not really a funny satire - so good to manage expectations going in. I may be one of the few that actually liked the last part/ twist.

[Anonymous]

Just started and losing interest.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it got pretty dark and left me depressed. Understand they are making a movie of it. Wonder if they will change the ending or anything.

[Anonymous]

I think this is one of those books that is going to be disappointing to a lot of people because of all the hype. But, it is actually very good. It is not funny or a light read. It is also not imo a thriller or horror. You do wonder what is actually happening. But, while I didn't guess the ending, it is not a twist. I thought the ending made sense. I would have preferred a little more explanation of the ending but otherwise I thought it was a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, it got pretty dark and left me depressed. Understand they are making a movie of it. Wonder if they will change the ending or anything.

One thing I noticed is that in the Acknowledgment section, the author thanks Ann Hathaway and Amazon film. So they apparently had a hand in the book before it was published. I found that a bit disappointing. I prefer books not written deliberately to be a movie. But, I still thought it was a good book.

[Anonymous]

I just finished this and mostly enjoyed it. It did drag out in a few places and wasn't what I was expecting but definitely kept my interest.

[Anonymous]

It was super engaging, but got hard to read after a while because the main character / narrator is so unlikable

[Anonymous]

Ok, just finished. I don't care if a main character is likeable, I just want them to be interesting. And she was.
I've never cried reading a book but this one got me close. She was an awful person, but I'm not sure she was 100% to blame for it. She was mentally ill and her mom lied, everyone lied. The kids suffered because of it.
She was sold a bill of goods from the church and fell down the rabbit hole.
My one question - how's she get into Harvard?

[Anonymous]

I'm listening to it. Really enjoying it.

[Anonymous]

Hated it. Def not satire, with nothing to add to conversation. It basically was a anti-feminist treatise -- all women are miserable, let's hate on the one who is the worst, and excuse all the slacker men. It was DCUM personified, frankly.

[Anonymous]

I read it and enjoyed it, but it's not funny. I found it to be a twisty drama. I thought the ending was interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hated it. Def not satire, with nothing to add to conversation. It basically was a anti-feminist treatise -- all women are miserable, let's hate on the one who is the worst, and excuse all the slacker men. It was DCUM personified, frankly.

I had a 180-degree different understanding! I thought the message was you could basically never flourish (or even, in this story, survive) by trying to meet the standards of the patriarchy. There is no real "winning" if you stayed in this system. Certainly that applies to women - from the protagonist to her Harvard roommate - but also, as the story suggested, to men too. It was pretty clear that her husband, who was depicted as a fairly awful, pathetic character, really would have only been "realized" if he had naturally progressed into being a yoga mat-toting kindergarten teacher, which of course the system did not permit!