i put this off for so long because every time i tried to rate it i'd go through an endless cycle of it's actually great no actually it sucks ass but wait maybe it is good no nevermind it’s not. in the end the latter kinda won.

i think the concept is better than the execution. i was entertained throughout, but that’s about it. none of the characters felt like real people, but like caricatures that burke is telling you to hate. natalie in particular is spared no compassion. yes, the point is that she is an awful terrible person and i should hate her, but that conclusion should come from me, not the author. everyone is also weirdly self-aware. i feel like we didn’t explore how conservative fundamentalists really think, but rather how a left-leaning author assumes they do.

i was also disappointed by the ending. i could overlook the big plot twist being as outlandish as it is for the sake of making a point, and i do like the idea of using individual pathology to comment on larger social issues, but by the end i wasn't even sure what i was supposed to focus on. even if taken as a metaphor, it felt like the twist leaned a little too much into the shock value of it all and distracted from any meaningful commentary on natalie’s public role as a tradwife influencer and what it means for women like her to promote the kind of values they promote, who really profits from it, and (imo a crucial but largely absent detail) the public’s complicity in continuing to platform her.

these are my main gripes with the book, but i have other issues as well, mainly with structure and internal logic. the pacing was all off between the two timelines, and i struggled at times to understand what the stakes are supposed to be, since natalie hates both her 'past' and 'present' lives equally. burke’s style is kinda repetitive, and the book is full of inconsistencies you’d think an editor would’ve caught. a couple i highlighted: in ch 26 caleb’s father is running for his “eighth senate reelection campaign”  (isn’t that like 50 years in office? how old is this man?), and later on in ch 52 natalie’s mother is knitting with sewing needles. 

i do think my negative feelings are in part due to poor marketing and me expecting this book to be something it never set out to be. nevertheless, it’s public knowledge that it was optioned by big name studios long before it hit the shelves and, by the author’s own admission in the acknowledgements, they had direct influence on the final product. so i have a hard time believing that the issues above aren’t at least somewhat the result of fast-paced hollywood deadlines and the need for mass appeal. which is a shame because this could've been an instant classic.