Book of the Week March 12, 2026
In this astute skewering of social media and the (gag) tradwife trend, we meet Natalie Heller Mills in two timelines. In one, she’s an insufferable influencer with an ever-growing brood of kids with names like Stetson and Junebug, farmwork keeping her busy, and sourdough starter constantly in the camera’s frame (while the family’s two nannies and multiple farmhands are decidedly off-camera). She and her nepo-baby husband, Caleb, have finally found their homey niche, far from Caleb’s rich father, who is yet again aiming for the White House. But then Natalie wakes up in quite another situation, one that’s far less idyllic. She’s living on the same farm but with no modern conveniences, different children, and no access to the outside world. Burke succeeds brilliantly in keeping us in the dark as to why the two different worlds exist while spinning ever closer to Natalie’s reckoning, a disaster that readers will long to have revealed. Natalie is a fascinating character whom readers will love to hate (her daughter Mary isn’t far behind), and this debut novel will surely be on year-end best-books lists.—Henrietta Thornton
