Modern life is hard. Wouldn't it be better if we could just stay home and manage the house all day? That’s the promise of the Tradwife fantasy, but as “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke shows, it’s an unfeasible and unfulfilling lifestyle more inclined to trap women than free them from the horrors of modern life. 

The shallow satisfaction that comes with instant gratification and fulfilling directionless desire is exactly what Jenette McCurdy explores in her debut fiction novel “Half His Age” and I think most readers missed that point because they didn’t like the image being reflected back at them with her narrative.

I really find very little idealization in the concept that “youth” is the superior option to aging. The act of getting older isn’t anything I can control (the sands of time march on regardless after all) so I find no purpose in regretting something I never really enjoyed anyways.