Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World

Author/Guide: Janet E Cameron

Why a Booktrail?

1980s: The novel perfectly captivates the every day happenings of a small town life in 1980s Canada.

ISBN: 978-1444743968
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

A heart-wrenching coming of age story, written from the perspective of Stephen, a gay teen in the 1980s.

Stephen Shulevitz remembers the end of the world. Two o’clock in the morning on a Saturday night, in Riverside, Nova Scotia when he realises he has fallen in love – with exactly the wrong person.

There are no volcanic eruptions. No floods or fires. Just Stephen, watching TV with his best friend, realising that life, as he knows it, will never be the same.

The smart move would be to run away – from Riverside, his overbearing hippie mother, his distant pot-smoking father – and especially his feelings. But then Stephen begins to wonder: what would happen if he had the courage to face the end of the world head on?

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Travel Guide

The lonely life of a boy growing up and realising that he’s in love with his best friend Mark must be quite a lonely place. It’s the 1980s for a start and times must have been different to what they are now – but with any burgeoning love affair, your world is a lonely place and a terrified place and for a gay teen even more so.

The setting here therefore is being gay in a small, small minded community and feeling the stifling and isolating winds you encounter each day.

“I felt drained, lifeless. I was sure that everything was ruined. I’d never feel the same way around Mark. It would never be easy and comfortable between us again. I was right, as it turned out.”

Now you tell me that’s not the end of the world. A poignant read – very sad in places but gay or not, this is about a teenager in love, and most of us can relate to that world.

Bridgetown

Riverside, is fictional yet is probably modelled on Bridgetown at the heart of the real Annapolis Valley. This is where the author grew up and there are many similarities between the two.