A solid YA novel that was a good purchase for my library. Students have read and enjoyed it, and I purchased it because of this review copy.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get into this title. It just wasn't a good fit for me. Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this title. I will not be posting a review online, in order not to skew the ratings.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I felt as though you could see this moment of history in the 80s and the dialogue was really great.

While the 1950s were known for their obsession and terror surrounding the atomic bomb, nothing has changed in Laura’s Alabama town during the 1980s. She is sure that if an atomic war began, her town would be one of the first to get hit. Laura is an expert on all things atomic holocaust and these skills help her win a walk-on role in the atomic apocalypse movie being filmed in her town. It is going to be tough to figure out who her plus one is going to be, considering of her two friends, one is annoying and the other is totally self-involved. Laura decides to take her stepbrother, Terrence, who is the best thing to come out of her mother’s infidelity. Things start becoming more and more real as the filming of the disaster movie continues. On the day that the town is supposed to be filmed as being bombed, things become more real than anyone ever thought was possible.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, simply because I like end of the world books. It was a quick story, the footnotes didn’t really flow or work for me, but perhaps in the final product with the formatting developed it may make more sense and flow better.

The year is 1984, and much like the George Orwell book of the same name, sixteen-year-old Laura Ratliff is afraid that her life will soon resemble a dystopian novel. Fear of the atomic bomb is real, the Cold War is raging, and Laura is convinced that the “flash” will happen in her lifetime. She just doesn’t want to die young.

It doesn’t help that Hollywood has planted themselves in the midst of her small Arkansas town to film the sequel to the box office smash hit, The Year That Never Was. The sequel, The Eve of Destruction, has taken over her hometown ... and her life. Especially since Laura has won a walk-on role in the film by correctly answering several incredibly difficult nuclear-related questions in a local radio station contest (Laura is part scientific genius, but the way.) Now there’s really no escaping the bomb.

While Laura enjoys herself on the set of the film, and even finds some ways to allay her fears, things take a strange and destructive turn for the worse on the day the cast and crew are set to film the atomic bombing. There is a huge explosion, a brilliant flash of light, and a wave of unease as everyone tries to determine if they just got bombed for real.

The Incredible True Story of the Making of the Eve of Destruction by Amy Brashear is set in the ‘80s, and does a fantastic of capturing the country’s fear that a USSR bomb could be in our future. This novel is full of cultural references to nuclear war preparations and drills, as well as to music and movies. Brashear shows readers that anticipating the bomb was a way of life, and through Laura, demonstrates what effect this doom and gloom had on our country’s youth.

Despite an interesting premise and an atmospheric first half, much is left to be desired in this novel. Brashear packs the book with numerous random cultural references, and provides footnotes to explain them (as her target audience wouldn’t have even been born until nearly two decades after the events in this book.) While some of these footnotes are intriguing, many just give the basic facts, such as a movie’s premiere date and the starring actors. If young readers wanted to look up useless trivia about movies and music they’ve never send or heard, they now have the Internet for that. The footnotes quickly became a bore and were just something more to plod through in a novel that is in desperate need of plot and character development.

Then there is the problem of the second half of the book, particularly when filming for The Eve of Destruction begins. Brashear introduces us to too many Hollywood caricatures, that 1) make the novel difficult to follow, and 2) remove any sort of connection that readers might have felt with the plot or characters. Even Laura’s personality seems to change, and the book turns into what seems to be a long stream of dialogue. Outrageous characters, unbelievable events ... it all amounts to “who cares?” When the maybe-maybe not nuclear explosion happens, things get even more over-the-top and I had a difficult time following what was going on. It’s not a good sign when you read a novel and feel like you’re missing something vital.

In all, you may enjoy reading this book for the nuclear war references, but don’t expect an outstanding plot or characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Soho Teen for an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The title and the cover led me to expect a fairly tongue in cheek, darkly humorous affair, when in reality this is a fairy serious coming of age drama tackling serious topics like divorce, integrating with stepfamily, nuclear war and dealing with the fear that understanding brings you as you become an adult. I didn’t dislike it but I never really engaged with any of the characters. It was thought provoking and made you ask questions but I think the style was just not my cup of tea. Those who enjoy 80s flashback books or books exploring the questions surrounding the Cold War may well really enjoy this.