Yesteryear

Review

Fun, solid satire. I thought at first that I was going to find it a little too on-the-nose and get bored quickly, but I ended up having the opposite impression—as the story got more over-the-top, I enjoyed it more. Natalie reminded me a lot of Amy from Gone Girl, with that same mix of sunny public disposition and seething jealousy and rage underneath, and for me the most interesting part of the book was watching her machinate. I thought it was an interesting portrayal of a particular kind of psychopathy, where a refusal to ever see anyone else as a full person eventually results in Natalie seeing herself as a fracturing collection of characters and tropes. That made me enjoy the ending, though I'm not sure there was ever going to be an ending that could be truly satisfying given how deeply unnerving the premise is.