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Children's books

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Looking for 80s/ 90s YA book about threat of nuclear war

8 replies

EllieQ · 13/03/2022 10:34

Hoping someone can help me find this book! I read it in the late 80s to mid-90s, and it follows a girl (Megan?) and her mother over a few days when there is a real risk of a nuclear war between the US and the USSR (like the Cuban Missile Crisis, but in the 80s/ 90s).

I think they lived in California but somewhere fairly rural/ isolated - possibly the mountains. The girl’s boyfriend stays over one night and they might have had sex for the first time. There might also be a scene where they see a flash in the distance and think a bomb has been detonated.

I also think that the end, when the crisis has passed, she says something like ‘Let’s make a baby’ to her boyfriend but doesn’t really mean that she wants a baby, it’s just an expression of having a future again.

Haven’t had much luck on Google as it just brings up post-nuclear war books (Children of the Dust, Z for Zachariah, Brother in the Land etc). Feels like a very long shot but maybe someone else will remember it!

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EllieQ · 13/03/2022 20:01

Evening bump. Think it’s fairly obvious why this has come to mind now Sad

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Extrabreit · 13/03/2022 20:07

The Day After?

EllieQ · 13/03/2022 22:59

@Extrabreit

The Day After?
Was that a book as well as a film? I can only find information about the film on Google (which I hadn’t heard of before).
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Extrabreit · 14/03/2022 19:58

Oh sorry could be just a film (tv mini series possibly)

EllieQ · 16/03/2022 20:44

Thanks anyway! It’s hard to search online as the topic brings up some grim results, but I’ll keep looking.

I’m now doubting myself and wondering if it’s actually set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, not the 80s. That might explain my vague memory of limited communication/ TV news.

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StellaOlivetti · 16/03/2022 20:54

It’s not Life: An Exploded Diagram, is it? That was written later than the 90s but set during the Cuban missile crisis.

VeggieSausage · 16/03/2022 21:02

Could it be by Louise Lawrence? I remember enjoying her books as a teen in the early 1990s although I think they were written earlier than that.

EllieQ · 18/03/2022 07:41

@StellaOlivetti That has a similar storyline, but was published after I read the book I’m remembering (it was definitely while I was in secondary school).

@VeggieSausage Nice to find another fan of Louise Lawrence! I don’t think it’s one of her books as most of them were set in the future/ after some kind of apocalyptic event. I still have a copy of Children of the Dust and it’s definitely not that one.

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