1. All of the adult characters in the book sucked. Natalie, while having severe mental issues, being another Ruby Franke; Caleb for being useless, dumb, and dangerous who was used to having everything handed to him; Doug and Amelia for how their son turned out to be and avoiding accountability; Natalie's mom for how her daughter turned out to be, she was a terrible parent who lied to Natalie and her sister Abigail. She also coddled her A LOT and didn’t do a whole lot to correct her condescending behavior outside of telling her to be nicer; Shannon only going in for an agenda to take down Yesteryear Ranch, not even calling CPS on the children; and Nanny Louise and Nanny Aimee seeing the child abuse/neglect and also doing nothing about it. I only felt bad for the children. Also, why didn't Natalie's and Caleb's families interfere with the child abuse/neglect once Natalie entered her delusion of living in 1855?!
  2. Caleb is pretty much Rusty Yates. I would say Caleb is the true villain of the story--he kept impregnating his wife no matter how visibly batshit insane she was getting, until he was drugging her tea and beating her to keep her there and never, ever lifting a finger to actually help their children. He was watching football and eating food from Target in his "man cave" while they all suffered, including Natalie.
  3. Natalie suffered from postpartum depression and psychosis, and she should have never had children to begin with. This is why she was obsessed with Reena, Vanessa, and the Angry Women--she desperately wanted their life and was an "Angry Woman" herself. If Natalie didn't grow up in a screwed up home, she would have chosen the option to be childfree and lived a badass life as a working woman in a city.
  4. The parentification gave heavy Duggar vibes. Clementine being told to watch her siblings and poor Mary basically running the household as a teenager. Speaking of Mary, the fact that she only mentioned her mom in the prologue of her memoir without a single mention of her dad says a lot--Caleb is pure evil at the end, without any mitigating mental illness. Clementine is Shari Franke coded while Mary is Jill Duggar coded.
  5. Natalie should have been committed to a mental institution for the rest of her life instead of prison. It was clear that she was disjointed from reality at the very end. And I hope Caleb is rotting in prison for the rest of his life, as he was just as complicit in the neglect and abuse as Natalie was. However, I get the feeling that once he was arrested, Doug and a couple of Caleb's brothers banded together to get the blame to fully fall on Natalie to save their last shred of their reputation. Most likely, he got a year in jail followed by a lifetime of probation. I do think that Caleb and Natalie ended up divorcing.
  6. About Shannon's attack, I only thought it was a physical attack because Natalie was pissed about her affair with Caleb. However, after the part about Shannon's interview, I went back and reread the attack and it indeed discussed her underwear. I have a feeling that Natalie is either a closeted lesbian or bisexual and had an attraction towards Shannon--hence was livid about the affair and was obsessed with trying to get Shannon to like her. Also, why Natalie was pissed when her mom avoided a bookstore because a man "had spring in his step", but all of the sudden, praised Pastor Ben (Abigail's boyfriend) for being accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. And, why she felt zero attraction to Caleb and only used him to have more babies.
  7. Even though Caleb is evil, he was failed by his parents. He wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, but was shot down by his wife and Doug as "not being masculine". I think life would have been different if he went back to school, got his teaching degree, and became an elementary school teacher--with Clementine being an only child. That could have been the thing that saved him and gave him purpose. Thus, he was easily manipulated and was constantly seeking community and identity--his alt right conspiracy online forums and when he met Shannon. Also, he used Natalie as much as she used him.

I liked the book and I think the author does a great job of making us feel empathy for the characters even though all of them really are terrible people.The animals that died. The abuse suffered by their children. That part was awful. I thought it was a time travel where she had to live without electricity and only the bare necessities and then at the end, comes back to the present and realizes that influencer life is ridiculous. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.

This book is going to stick with me for a long while.

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