"Confusing and Inconsistent

I can’t prove this book was written by AI, but I sure hope it was. Grammar, descriptions, and sentence structure were almost too good to be human without an editor. There is no sense of consistency through out the book.

In the prologue we are introduced to the idea that Mari (our female lead) has been in hiding as a witch for years in the city and the city is a modern place. I’m talking mentions of neon signs and sirens, ect. That is almost immediately thrown out. There are no other mentions of modern technology and we are thrust into a world where everyone in town is aware that she is a witch.

We are introduced to Rowan (our male lead) as a fae man who lives outside of town and is wary of humans, but that’s also almost immediately thrown out of the window when the next chapter he’s in town helping Mari and the townspeople. About halfway through the book any mention of being fae is thrown out and he seems to just be a regular guy who grew up in the town and knows Mari from childhood. In fact, he seems actively surprised to see Mari perform any kind of magic later in the book. At one point she mentions that he has moved in not once, but twice. Then in the next chapter he is no where to be found and constantly just wanders off into the night to his own house I guess?

Pandora, her cat, starts off the book with she/her pronouns, spends several chapters in the middle of the book with he/him pronouns, then goes back to she/her pronouns at the end of the book. So I guess this might be the world’s most progressive book since it has a gender fluid cat.

Many of the names and occupations of characters get swapped around throughout the book, the most notable being our main character’s, Marigold Thistlebrook’s, name changing to Marianna Meadowfern during a trial and remaining Marianna Meadowfern throughout that entire trial. Eye colors and descriptions were also constantly changing. Time was wibbly wobbly and explained poorly, there were no mentions of seasons changing but from the perspective of the trial the start of the book and Mari’s move to Wisteria Hollow was at least a year and a half prior.

There are at least 5 events that could have been the main plot of the book and every single one ends in everyone in town clapping and a festival. One of the festivals has the audacity to say that it had been so long since their last festival in the narrative when it was something like 20 pages prior.

At worst this is AI slop. At best someone asked chat gpt for help with phrasing then dropped their manuscript, mixed it all up, and published it as is."

"

And who was I?
A flawless Christian woman. The manic pixie American dream girl of this nation's deepest, darkest fantasies. The mother every woman wanted to be, and the wife every man wanted to come home to. Like a nun in a porno, it didn't make sense, but also, by God: it worked.

4 1/2 stars. I keep flitting back and forth between 4 and 5 because this book gets pretty deranged in the last quarter or so. Did I love the ending? Was it too nuts? A bit of both? Either way, the journey there was excellent. What a fabulous cultural critique wrapped up in a pageturner.

As what Natalie would call an Angry Woman™, I found this book absolutely delicious. After reading the premise, I thought it might be a story about an airhead unknowingly romanticising being a tradwife and getting schooled in the reality when she finds herself whisked back to the 1800s. But actually it's better because Natalie knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s known all along that the image she sells is completely fake.

'It's a performance, Shannon. It's political theatre. Not real.'
[…]
'Do you honestly think there are no consequences to performance?'

This is definitely not one for those who need to actually like their narrator. Through Natalie, the book viciously goes after the women lying to cameras to convince an impressionable audience that being a “tradwife” is romantic and an antidote to whatever they dislike about modern America. These women are not stupid and they are NOT traditional wives, they are businesswomen, charlatans, and snake oil saleswomen. It is very satisfying to see one of them get the life they claim to sell.

And yet, while unlikable, I find Natalie very fun unlikable. I'm talking June from Yellowface, Sam from Idol, unlikable. That particular breed that is aware they’re kinda shit, but also defensive of their behaviour. Natalie is very much caught up in her own cult of personality and is a conniving bitch. Yet... I was fully invested in her story. Perhaps because some of her frustrations with the world are genuinely relatable; perhaps because she is actually quite funny.

I had not been prepared for sex to feel and to look like Caleb's penis did, which was fine in girth and length but lacked the fortitude to enter me of its own accord. I felt like I needed to throw a dish towel over his penis and wait an hour to let it rise.

The story alternates between the 21st century— where we see Natalie starting a family alongside building her online brand —and her struggling through pioneer life in the 1800s, and it covers a LOT. Themes of performance vs reality, platforming children who can’t consent, the danger of venerating the past, conspiracy theories, the manosphere.

What I liked most was the complex profile of blame the author created. It would have been easy to be lazy and put the blame on misogyny or particular political figures, but it goes deeper than that and explores reasons why a woman might become Natalie, and why other women might buy into the dream she sells. Liberal women tearing into homemakers don’t escape criticism either.

As mentioned, the ending is wild. But, after some thought, I think I love it. MAJOR SPOILER: (view spoiler)[I think it’s super clever how the past becomes the future. Natalie thinks she’s stuck in the 1800s, but it’s actually the future she created for herself— and it’s a nightmare. I find it powerful that Old Caleb is not some 19th century pioneer, but instead the bleak future of someone who falls prey to the manosphere. In fact, I think having a twist in which it is not the past but the future result of your actions is brilliant. (hide spoiler)]"

"I wrote this book. I hope you enjoy it, a love story set in a hostage situation. "

Caitlin Fortier wants to read The Backyard Bird Chronicles