Social Media | Book Chatter

Trad Wife
By Sarah Langan
Atria, September 29, 2026, 320pp.

The Short of It:

Trad Wife is everything that Yesteryear wasn’t. There, I said it.

The Rest of It:

*No Spoilers*

“Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen, on her idyllic three-hundred-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven well-behaved children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she’s an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror.”

Naturally, someone with this following commands the attention of every journalist out there, but Jenny Kaplan is the one who lands the assignment. Why? She has no idea. She’s been trying to get bigger stories, but the smallish press she works for errs on the conservative side after her last story stirred up trouble with a rogue online group that targeted Jenny for the opinions she expressed. Unfortunately, those opinions cost her her job, and she is immediately let go.

It turns out Mia Wright requested Jenny specifically to cover her story. Everyone is chomping at the bit to get this story, so Jenny’s boss gives her the assignment, and Jenny heads off to Black Swan Farm.

Mia’s family is charming. Her husband, Steadman, is loving and fully invested in the family farm. Mia is pregnant with her eighth baby and still cooking everything from scratch while tending to her online business selling Black Swan merch. Jenny observes everything, and Mia is very kind. She opens her home to Jenny, provides her with living quarters, and, in a week’s time, they will switch places so Jenny can see what it’s really like to run Black Swan Farm.

Enter cherry-scented everything. The entire home smells like cherries because it’s the farm’s number one selling product. It also covers up the disgusting stench that wafts over Jenny’s room every now and then. What is that? One of the children explains that something probably died in the wall.

Um, red flag.

What follows is an intimate look at the influencer lifestyle, what it takes to be successful, and what’s a little more smoke and mirrors than actual fact. In just a week’s time, though, the farm has lost its shine. It seems run-down, almost withered. Looking at it with fresh eyes, Jenny can’t believe it’s the same farm she arrived at just a few days ago.

Well, things have changed. Trad Wife is so, so good. You see, there is a backstory and plenty of history to that little town. Jenny is introduced to it in bits and pieces, mostly through observation but also through Mia’s children and some others in town. What begins as an exposé turns into a horrifying encounter.

Why this one worked so much better for me than that other book:

Plot
Likable characters
A true sense of foreboding and horror
A deeper, underlying message
A good “what is going on?” factor

Buy it. Get a copy. Comes out September 29th.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Yesteryear
By Caro Claire Burke
Knopf, April 2026, 400pp.

The Short of It:

Innocently lures you in and then drops some very big ideas.

The Rest of It:

Natalie has created a perfect life for herself. She lives in a rustic farmhouse with her ever-growing family and stands up on Christian values, a TRADitional marriage, and prides herself on living simply. Her followers agree. She’s the real deal.

Does it matter that she doesn’t do it all on her own as her social media platforms suggest? Is it really so wrong to have producers and content managers and professional photogs at the ready to capture every splendid, clickable moment on the farm?

Something happens in Natalie’s world to make her question everything. She wakes up one day and doesn’t recognize her own children and her husband has grown…hostile. Spending her days doing laundry that only repeats its dirt cycle over and over again makes her want to lose her mind.

Who are these people? Always trying to guide her and tell her what to do. Who is this man who claims to be her husband? And goodness, she never has a moment to come to her senses because she’s either getting pregnant or having a baby. All those babies along with kids she doesn’t recognize.

Let me tell you how this book make me feel.

Enraged. Actual RAGE.

Besides the actual drama of it all, there is a lot to peel back here and I found myself getting quite worked up.

The world we live in is often created and curated for clicks. What we see is intentionally misleading and opens the door for comparison where we are often left wanting.
The conservative push to expand families without support for said families doesn’t make sense. Increasing the population when there are school children without lunch? Makes no sense whatsoever.
What makes a good marriage? Should give and take not be a part of it? Women are being encouraged to return to TRAD wife lifestyles. Stay at home. Have babies. Take care of your husband. But what do you do when your husband is as useless as Caleb is? Well, Natalie is not only expected to stand by him but she is expected to support him to boost his ego.
I could not help but question the role of children. Yes, living on a prairie long ago probably warranted a lot of children because work on a farm is never done but are they supposed to do the work of adults? Do they have a voice when they see it all going sideways? No.

I understand that Yesteryear has gotten a lot of attention. Anne Hathaway has already optioned it for a movie that she will star in. And it’s been said, that the book took its inspiration from a well known influencer who is currently battling a raw milk fiasco. All this aside, it definitely makes you feel things. It’s a book that needs to be discussed.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…