This book is so poorly written, it’s difficult to review, and yet…it’s a bestseller. Egad. I probably don’t need much plot summary here because it’s so well known by now. Trad wife influencer suddenly realizes that the traditional farming/prairie life she espouses to live and promote to her followers is not what she makes it out to be. It’s a story with promise—the exposure of social media influencers lying to their audience—though not very original now that we’re in 2026 and it’s been going on for a rather long time. But done well, it could make a good story, and now that Netflix has bought the rights to it, maybe they can execute better.

I get that the protagonist, Natalie, is meant to be an unlikable character, that she’s all about deception and hypocrisy and that she’s an unreliable narrator. She can be all of that in a well-told story. But this story is not well told. She’s an entirely unbelievable character because there is no character development deep enough to establish any sort of belief system that matches her actions or mindset.

She was accepted to Harvard from her little corner of Idaho but despises academia, has no ambition to use a degree, has no idea what college might be like, and we see no history of academic prowess beyond “she was smart.” She meets Caleb, decides to marry him but seemingly has no idea until a year later that he lacks ambition and is dumb, and she’s shocked to find out what he’s like.

God’s presence suddenly enters Natalie at various times, though not in any convincing way. We just get random lines like “tears at the reminder of the Lord’s bounty” or “a life with Him overpowers me” or “I strive to serve the Lord.” Could Burke not come up with anything more original than these?

All the characters are presented this way: strings of general statements, zero complexity or depth, no wrestling with issues, and stacks of cliches about religious, educational, healthcare beliefs like Burke just took all the MAGA headlines and crammed them into the story. How on earth an editor didn’t tear this apart and demand an overhaul is beyond me. Let’s hope Netflix can develop her idea into something believable and compelling. 2⭐️