anu

welcome! a 20-something girl who rambles mostly about taylor swift, with a sprinkle of politics and pop culture musings. the world’s biggest crazier stan. taylor followed (5/20/15) (she/her/hers)

[stuckinthistaydream]

masterpost!

i’m new to taylor and want to learn more!

starting post with helpful links to peruse

things i’ve written:

timelines:

the complete jake gyllenhaal timeline

the complete john mayer timeline

the complete harry styles timeline

a timeline of joever

a timeline of kendall/harry/taylor

song ramblings:

songs I've analyzed

ttpd thoughts

midnights thoughts

[stuckinthistaydream]

speaking of yesteryear, did you see ballerina farm’s recent profile where she’s asked about the book? i swear she talks exactly like the main character lmao

I DID LMAO

[stuckinthistaydream]

I haven't read Yesteryear yet, but I'm Mormon, so Ballerina Farm is way on my radar. A recent opinion column writer (Rebbie Brassfield) in a Utah newspaper had some really insightful comments about the religion in the book that I found fascinating:

"...it feels as though putting a religion under a microscope but then not looking through the lens is another form of exploitation. At this point, I’d love for these creators to either stop looking at me, or look more closely.

"I’ve seen some commentary that 'Yesteryear' is in fact about Mormonism because of Natalie’s intense scrupulosity; specifically the way she edits her own thoughts because God is always watching. It was the strongest tie for me, and the most genuine argument I’ve heard for why Latter-day Saint women make up so many successful influencers.

"[...] It’s more than likely the author wanted to keep Natalie’s religion vague so as to be broadly relatable, and make it extreme so as to provoke discussion. It’s possible she wanted her main character to feel like part of the evangelical right because of the current political landscape. But to write a character so clearly drawn from a real Latter-day Saint woman and then not make her a Latter-day Saint woman seems like a missed opportunity."

It really seems like there were ways to make the MC have more depth, but making the MC "broadly relatable" strips the ability of the author to give the MC interesting/relevant depth

Wow this is a super fascinating take!!! And I agree re: the lack of specificity - I needed the specificity for Natalie to feel empathy/connection to her, and I feel like I wanted the book to make me empathize with her a bit even though she’s villainous because that adds dimension to the social critique

[stuckinthistaydream]

“know we’ve talked about this a bunch, but it’s so interesting how TLOAS is her first album since evermore? that doesn’t have any allusion to religion.”

The Fate of Ophelia refers to Purgatory.

see but this falls under the ttpd religiosity to me because it’s describing the events of ttpd

[stuckinthistaydream]

I know we’ve talked about this a bunch, but it’s so interesting how TLOAS is her first album since evermore? that doesn’t have any allusion to religion /// "please god bring me a best friend who I think is hot" "oh my lord never met no one like you before" ??? also I distinctly remember some ppl being offended by wish list mentioning god

these felt more colloquial to me but fair point!!!!

[stuckinthistaydream]

I disliked yesteryear a lot for the same reasons you did (get that it's a super entertaining read tho). I read some interviews by the author and it said she did a ton of research talking to people who have left fundamentalist religions. And that showed to me, because she clearly didn't do research about people *still in them*. So Natalie just never comes off as an authentic character/inner monologue because of that. Signed someone who grew up extremely religious lol I'm a huge character reader so it bothered me the entire time even though it was entertaining! It meant, to me, that the book stayed at entertainment and didn't actually go into satire/actual social commentary

yes exactly!!!!! I needed more to get in the head of why Natalie was so committed to this, I felt like I was lacking that

[stuckinthistaydream]

did you read writers & lovers before reading this one? i think it’s so much better but the reveal at the end was fun

Oooh maybe I should read that one! I haven’t read anything by this author before

[stuckinthistaydream]

bestie what did you think of heart the lover? i read writers and lovers earlier this month and still not really sure how i feel about tbh, it was a very solid 3 star to me and not sure if i want to read heart the lover

i lowkey didn’t understand the hype for heart the lover 🫣 i found both the love interests to be uninteresting and egotistical and i really disliked the time jump because it made the book feel fragmented in a weird way. i get what she was trying to do but i didn’t feel like it was executed well

[stuckinthistaydream]

I know it’s really hard sometimes, but I think authors need to have empathy for their characters even if they dislike them because you can fully disagree with their choices, but you have to think about why someone would make a choice like that.

YES this is actually exactly it. i get that the main character is villainous but i felt like the author really despised her, and given that she too is a victim of the christian patriarchal structure, i wanted the author to give me something so that i could feel empathy for her

[stuckinthistaydream]

i feel like a lot of the insights in yesteryear can be found on ballerinafarm’s reddit snark page, honestly. so much of it felt too surface level to me which was odd cause i could see she did quite a bit of research on the subject. i kinda agree with the people who saw it as revenge fantasy tbh it was entertaining but didn’t wow me

see i definitely got the impression that she did a lot of research but i also felt like she didn’t give me a good emotional basis for WHY the main character was religious or how her religion shaped her decisions (and when she did say it, it was very much written in a snarky tone. which is fine!! people don’t need to like religion, especially not in this setting. it just made the main character’s motivations really unbelievable to me because i’m supposed to believe her relationship to god and how she thinks the perfect godly woman behaves is what’s driving her actions, so if i’m missing that, the emotional throughline gets a little weak)

[stuckinthistaydream]

I know we’ve talked about this a bunch, but it’s so interesting how TLOAS is her first album since evermore? that doesn’t have any allusion to religion. It’s interesting to me because I think she no longer feels like fate is controlling her life and choices.

yes!!! and i find that so interesting because i think ttpd is probably her most religious album in a lot of ways. i’ve said this before but i’ve wondered if she’s reexamined her relationship with religion in recent years

[stuckinthistaydream]

lol as someone who was raised in rural America with a farmer grandfather I was also bothered that she very clearly didn’t know anything about ag.

so valid omg but at least that bit tracked with the main characters not knowing shit either lmao

[stuckinthistaydream]

random but do u think taylor will incorporate religion at all into her wedding

honestly i’ve gone back and forth but i also don’t think we’ll know regardless

[stuckinthistaydream]

I really like Yesteryear and think that she wrote the main character too surface level in so many ways. There’s a really interesting connection to me between her mom lying to her daughters about their dad and the choices the main character made. How playing the part and doing the “right thing” doesn’t bring you satisfaction regardless of the path you’re on. And how a traumatic event can cause you to make many irrational decisions that feel rational in the moment. Also I needed the twist earlier or with more time after for the fallout.

yes!!!!! also it was odd to me because her mom and sister felt so fleshed out to me?? but the main character felt soooooo one dimensional. and maybe that was intentional because of the twist, but it also seemed like halfhearted writing (agree with you on the pacing too!!!)

[stuckinthistaydream]

solito is perfect btw every single person should read it, i stared in silence for twenty minutes just thinking about it when i finished it because it was that good

[stuckinthistaydream]

marinating on this last week of reading and another reason why yesteryear annoyed me (still a five star read tho) is because it’s clear that the author doesn’t actually know any religious people irl lmao

[stuckinthistaydream]

2026 BOOKS 🫶📚😌

Town and Country by Brian Schaefer

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai

The Names by Florence Knapp

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter

Audition by Kate Kitamura

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy

The Long Game by Rachel Reid

Tough Guy by Rachel Reid

Role Model by Rachel Reid

Strangers by Belle Burden

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Solito by Javier Zamora

Heart the Lover by Lily King