Monday, 8 July 2013

House Parties. Pick-Up Trucks. Cherry-Vanilla Ice-Cream. Prom Night. Unrequited Love.

I had the opportunity to meet the lovely Janet E. Cameron, the author of CINNAMON TOAST AND THE END OF THE WORLD and she was so lovely that it inspired me to pick up her debut novel.  Now I gotta tell you, don't judge this book by either the title or the cover.  Picking this one up and reading the back I was expecting a much different story then the one that was actually between the covers.  And I'm really glad of this because this was a wonderful coming-of-age and coming out story.  Taking place in 1987 Nova Scotia, we are introduced to Stephen Shulevitz who, with three months to go before graduating high school, realizes he's fallen in love with the wrong person; his best friend Mark.  This is really well done and kept me reading (took me only two days to get through it!) late into the night.  Be warned, it is really hard to read at times, especially since it is dealing with a young gay man in the 80's in a small town and Cameron does not sugar coat what an experience like this would be like.  An excellent first novel and an author to watch!

4 comments:

  1. Woo-hoo! Thank you so much, Sam! (Lovely? Aw, shucks.) I just found this on a google trawl looking for news of my beloved book. I'm back in Ireland and in total suspense wondering what's happening with it in Canada, so this is wonderful to see. Again, thanks!

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  2. You are so welcome Janet! It was such a great book and I love recommending it to people! Congratulations on all its success! Are you working on anything at the moment?

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  3. Thanks! I am working on something now, but I'm not sure if it's going to turn out to be a book or an enormous wrong turn. At present it's set in Riverside and the main characters are minor background figures from Cinnamon Toast.

    Can I link to this page on my website?

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  4. That sounds great! I know I would be interested in hearing more about some of the minor characters in Cinnamon Toast!

    Of course you can link this page to your website! I'm flattered that you would be interested in doing that! Thanks so much Janet! :)

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