Yesteryear

[Anonymous]

I also think they over punished her. Shackles?! long prison sentence? Unnecessary and misogynistic

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Hated it. Def not satire, with nothing to add to conversation. It basically was an 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.

Clearly you don’t understand satire. Lol

HTH was that satire? I'll wait. (Just because it's marketed that way doesn't make it so.)

Also, interesting that the publisher has now changed the marketing. "A “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut." Everything after the dash is new. Probably because people are pissed off about the dumb ending.

The AUTHOR wasn’t anti-feminist — only the character was, but the character certainly struggled with being anti-feminist. She was jealous of her fellow classmates who chose not to be trad wives, but she would talk herself into believing she was righteous. All of the commentary about anti-femininity was satire.

Why did the college roommate end up miserable and underemployed? Why did the woke producer fall for the moronic MAGA husband? Why did main character’s mom and sister call her horrible things? Why did the daughter not rescue her sisters sooner? Why did only the main character go to jail?

There was zero accountability for the men and every single woman was miserable and against each other.

You may think the author is a feminist, but she wrote an anti-feminist novel. And had nothing new to say — she just recreated the influencer model: let’s hate this woman.

She totally botched an amazing premise!

They were all conflicted. Also, you were only hearing from Natalie’s point of view — she believed her college roommate was miserable. IIRC, the producer did not “fall” for Caleb — she seduced him because she could, then moved on (I got the sense shew was bored). Natalie’s mom and sister are from the same stock — totally conflicted, too. Also, there is good and bad to both sides: being a feminist can be miserable, just like being an anti-feminist can be miserable. That was the point — there is no right or wrong answer, but we were hearing it through Natalie who wanted to believe she was right (but she was miserable). I didn’t hate Natalie — I felt sorry for her because she wasn’t living her true self. I did not read this at all as an anti-feminist novel.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Ok I just finished it and I didn't see that coming at all and I still don't understand what happened.

She was a trad wife living in current times, she had a mental break and her husband indulged her fantasy to live in olden times. Her older kids left but the boys lived nearby. She had more kids, the last one of which had Down syndrome (that's what I got anyway).

Maeve had Down Syndrome? I missed that.

From my reading, it was a hypoxic brain injury due to a difficult delivery with no medical care. Sort of like Rosemary Kennedy.

You're right, I was wrong. Natalie's old age is what I was focusing on as more the culprit.

She was 40 when she had Maeve. Not really that ancient.

If you don't think the chances of having a child with Down syndrome are higher when you have a baby at 40 I don't really know what to tell you.

[Anonymous]

4% of women who give birth are 40 or older. 40 is very old to give birth.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Ok I just finished it and I didn't see that coming at all and I still don't understand what happened.

She was a trad wife living in current times, she had a mental break and her husband indulged her fantasy to live in olden times. Her older kids left but the boys lived nearby. She had more kids, the last one of which had Down syndrome (that's what I got anyway).

Maeve had Down Syndrome? I missed that.

From my reading, it was a hypoxic brain injury due to a difficult delivery with no medical care. Sort of like Rosemary Kennedy.

You're right, I was wrong. Natalie's old age is what I was focusing on as more the culprit.

She was 40 when she had Maeve. Not really that ancient.

If you don't think the chances of having a child with Down syndrome are higher when you have a baby at 40 I don't really know what to tell you.

Maeve is described as being blue after birth until Mary steps in and gives mouth-to-mouth. So brain injury from birth seems much more likely here.