The premise of this novel is that a tradwife influencer, Natalie, is transported back to the 1850s to see what the lifestyle she claims to aspire to was really like. Well, despite it being marketed as satire, the only funny thing about it is that it fails to deliver on all of its promises. I'm just going to jump around because the plot can be summarized "Brutal Tradwife TAKEDOWN!!! You'll Never Guess What She Did" [woman crying with dead cow thumbnail, red arrow “Liar”]
My source is myself but my understanding was that tradwives are a fictional female archetype spun up by conservative misogynists who think a woman's role should be limited to childrearing and homemaking. Aside from religious brainwashing, pickme influencers adopted this lifestyle because it gets them clicks. But I'm also not terminally online enough to really understand the tradwife influencer. I went in with the belief that the devout Christian stay-at-home-mom, the grandola mom, and the homesteader were all fairly distinct groups not necessarily unified by their politics, but in Burke's world, this is the same group. I'm going to have to trust that the author, being a podcaster, is dialed in enough for that much at least to be accurate./p>
However, not knowing this corner of the internet does make the unified group setup confusing for probably everyone else not in this sphere. No proper definition of this "community" is offered (in fact, Natalie takes “tradwife” as an insult), and the book makes no actual effort to explore the underlying socioeconomic circumstances that make that lifestyle seems desireable. I don't think Burke has enough empathy for women and the damage religious indoctrination can do to your self-worth. There is one reoccuring theme where Natalie thinks she should have divorced her husband, she should have not had children. But she wants to be a “good Christian wife” so she stays married and keeps popping out kids. So her punishment is post-partum depression, abuse, and rape. If you're stupid enough to want to be a "good Christian wife", what else could you expect? There is no discussion of how religion as an institution can convince women to make poor decisions for themselves in legitimate fear of burning in Hell for all eternity. But on top of that, Natalie is only vaguely religious and her background is inconsistent. She goes away to college, but not a religious one. She waits until marriage for sex, but is disappointed by her husband's performance as if she would have had any frame of reference. Lots of detail given to Natalie being a big fat meanie, none given to what made her that way. She is just a stupid crazy woman!
There also isn't any deeper analysis about the influencer culture. Natalie goes to jail for child abuse but the book presents the worst of this being that the kids don't want to be on camera. I don't think putting your kids online is a good idea but that in itself is not exactly abuse, so why not focus on the actual damage it can cause? Because I really can't suspend my disbelief that Natalie's oldest daughter never learned the word “ocean” due to poor homeschooling or something, I don't know. Nothing is really made clear and this just another of many small things that make you tilt your head.
Natalie is too shallow for a character study, too unlikeable to root for her individual success as an influencer, but also given no opportunity to grow as a person or change her beliefs. Her only character development is a mental breakdown from which she never recovers. Seems she only exists for the reader to laugh at, but for what? Her author hates her, all of the other characters hate her, and her suffering is artificially prolonged that it would have made more narrative sense if she had killed herself, and the book would have been improved by shaving off a hundred or so pages. When I wasn't bored, I found it so mean spirited and cyncial that it made me angry.
And I'm really sick and tired of “unreliable narrator” being an excuse for convoluted nonsense. Why the fuck am I reading your book if I have to make up for the inconsistencies and plot holes myself. I am begging for this crutch to disappear forever and for writers to stop being scared of sticking to an idea and having something to say.
I almost think that this book is the result of Burke fantasizing about a particular influencer's downfall. If Natalie had a LC thread, Burke would be banned for constantly a-logging. I think I'm most upset that despite all of my complaints, it really is almost good. Almost! Which makes it worse than bad. But I also have to admit that this book is just not for me. If you like R*ddit influencer snark, this book is for you. If you don't keep up with whatever grift Literally Who has got going on, this book is not for you.