Adrian Thorby is an ordinary schoolboy: daydreaming in class, evading bullies, squabbling with his sisters, and pondering the mysteries of sex with his equally baffled friends. But Adrian lives in northern England in 1962: a world of bleak buildings and even bleaker prospects, where the shadow of the Cold War looms over the wreckage of WWII. When the Americans announce a nuclear buildup on the island of Cuba, all that boring grownup talk about Reds and bomb shelters becomes dangerously real, and the Space Age future Adrian longs for seems doomed to obliteration before it can begin. Adrian watches everyone around him carry on with their routines, refusing to acknowledge the fiery demise bearing down on them all; as the days go by, he feels increasingly disillusioned and out of place in his own life. The events of one ordinary yet pivotal week form a parallel between an outside world in transition and the transition from childhood to adolescence.
I chose this book out of curiosity and discovered a hidden gem. Some might not consider 1962 history, but to a Florida girl born in 1977, tripartite education in ’60s Yorkshire is a foreign world indeed. And yet I identified with Adrian on many levels — the weird kid I was knew exactly what he was going through, while the (kind of) grownup I am was fascinated by the differences in our worlds. I was really rooting for him, and the engaging, straightforward writing kept the pages turning. Fear Week is enthusiastically recommended.