I can’t believe this is this author’s debut! First off, she came up with an amazing concept, being basically: tradwife goes back in time. Then, even more gallingly, she really hit the execution of the concept out of the ballpark. I won’t give away too much, because it has a fun twist, so let me just quote extensively as I like to do with books I like:
On her brother-in-law: “A pimple-faced corn dog of a young man with a bad temper”
On her husband, a rather sad figure who she forces into what she thinks his gender role should be: “he still wore his masculinity so roughly and unnaturally, as if it were an ill-fitting sweater I’d forced over his head”
And then best of all:
“Natalie’s like a border collie,” my mother used to say to the other women at church. “She needs a project, otherwise she starts chewing the cabinet corners.”
“Are you saying my son is a project?” I imagined (my father-in-law) saying.
“No,” I imagined my mother replying. “I’m saying he’s the cabinet corner.”