I just finished "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke. Prima facie, it's satirical commentary on influencer culture, the glossy facade hiding the cesspool of social media brands, and the tradwife movement. More deeply, the novel draws attention to a wide array of points:

• the challenges of balancing our public and inner personae
• the lies we tell ourselves when things go well or go badly
• the myth of the self-made person (basically "lies," above)
• the immense weight borne by women in traditional gender roles
• the fundamentally man-child aspects of the manosphere
• the disinformation campaigns of the rural vs urban lifestyles
• the cognitive dissonance required to be a tradwife influencer

I do some computer and video editing work for a couple far less sanctimonious social media brands. Burke captures and perfectly characterizes the mental toll and physical toil of maintaining a specific public image. Even when not lying about the nature of reality, there is still a huge amount of work involved in just making things camera-ready. For example, clutter tends to look bad on camera, getting the lighting right so that things show up properly is a perennial struggle, editing for an enjoyable flow is complex work, etc. These aspects get a good amount of ink.

As if on cue, NYT suggested this article this morning (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/style/ex-tradwife-influencer-bernadine-bluntly.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GVE.2dtb.Qd-iJrloTskB