Absolutely obsessed with this book! There are so many things relatable to the world we live in today even though this takes place in the 80s. The writing was so well done and hooked me in and I absolutely loved and related to the characters. From a closeted father, a mother at the end of her wits, and an outspoken daughter, there are so many great themes that add to the addictive plot. The way this book paints a picture of the shockwaves left behind after a disappearance really was impressive. I found this book so hard to put down and the plot was unique and exciting the whole way through. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Review will be posted on Instagram and Amazon on pub day and links added to NetGalley.

In the winter of 1982, 15 year old Bridget is tired of her family’s secrets, and the perfection her mother wants their family to project. Flyers on the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp catch her attention, and when an opportunity arises, she runs away to join the protest. But her running away impacts her whole family, her father’s secrets come to light and her mother discovers parts of herself she never faced before. As the metaphorical fallout of Bridget running away (to protest the literal fallout of nuclear weapons), will her family be able to pick up the pieces?

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.

This should be required reading. Fallout is a fierce, tender, unforgettable story—just like the author.

Eleanor Anstruther’s Fallout is the kind of novel you don’t want to put down, and when you finally do, the characters follow you everywhere. I read it with that sense of urgent intimacy that comes when a story feels startlingly alive, when its people feel like ones you’ve known and wish you’d leaned in closer to understand. Emotional honesty runs through every page. Bridget’s runaway fire, her mother’s quiet implosion, her father’s long-held secrets. Each pulled me closer, revealing how a family can fracture and still find its way back toward truth. The winter of 1982 rises off the page with a raw, electric charge, and yet the questions it carries are timeless: What do we inherit without knowing? How do we begin again when the old ways collapse? What if the secrets we fear most might actually save us?

There’s humor here too—sharp, sly, perfectly timed—but always in service of something deeper. By the end, I felt as if I’d witnessed three people learning to live more honestly inside their own lives, quietly inviting the reader to do the same. Fallout left me moved, shaken, and unexpectedly hopeful. A brilliant, big-hearted novel that feels both intimate and expansive, and one that lingers long after the last page.

Anstruther writes with a clear, steady style that gives weight to small decisions and their long reach. This is a family story first, with secrets and loyalties pulling at each chapter. The setting feels specific, the timelines are easy to track, and the voices sound like people with history. I liked how the past presses on the present without turning the book into a lesson. You get rooms, letters, and awkward conversations that feel true, and the tension comes from what each person is willing to say out loud.

Scenes close at natural stopping points that make it simple to keep going, clues are planted early, and reveals land without tricks. The point of view shifts are purposeful and help you see the same event from angles that matter. Side characters have their own aims, so the story keeps moving even when the lead needs time to think. The tone stays serious but never sinks into gloom for shock value. If you enjoy character first fiction where truth is uncovered piece by piece, this hits the mark.

I rated this book four stars because the voice is consistent, the momentum holds, and several images stuck with me the next day. It is thoughtful and tense at the same time, with clean sentences and a focus on people over spectacle. I would hand this to readers who like layered family dramas, questions of inheritance and responsibility, and endings that feel earned.

nteresting book giving a “snapshot” of the history of Greenham Commons, which is a story of feminist activism. Based true events in England in the 1980s when a group of woman attempted to prevent the installation of American cruise missiles.

This is a coming-of-age novel. Fifteen year old Bridget runs away from her dull town and uptight parents to join the Greenham Commons protest. What she finds is a dizzying world of people some like her and some so unlike her. This opens Bridget’s eyes to the diversity of the world and the need to preserve this. In the meantime, the secrets Bridget’s family has hidden emerge which also shows that underneath our skins we are all striving for acceptance.

The writing is uncomplicated and terse which contributes to the success of this book.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Empress Editions for allowing me to read this great book.

Before reading this book, I had (somehow) never heard about the history of Greenham Common. This book has opened a door for me into exploring that history further. This is a tale of family, belonging and becoming. Activism and feminism, the book touches on a lot of important topics. I found the book easy to get through, with some unexpected twists keeping me drawn in.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and author for access to this book.

I got this an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in April. This was interesting. I wasn't sure what to expect but I got invested in what becomes a story of the good and the bad of activism and the complications of queerness in that era. It wasn't an easy light story but a deep coming of age, no matter the age of the characters. I was fully invested in these flawed characters. * Please note that it doesn't just tell of the events of the time, as it is historical fiction, but that the language will reflect the language of that time as well. The book has a lot of casual discrimination in there, because that happened back then too.

Fallout reminds me a bit of Sarah Hall's The Carhullan Army: both books focus on women's political movements and communes, both reckon with sexuality and reproductive rights, and both have protagonists who are trying to find their ways in the world, enduring abuse to become who they want to be. In Fallout, Bridget, an unhappy and naive teen, becomes attached to a protest camp set up by women trying to stop the proliferation of nuclear missiles. Her mother, desperate to keep the facade of her family intact, goes after her daughter only to find herself caught up in the movement, as well as rediscovering her sexuality. And Bridget's father, a closeted transwoman who has channeled his fear and despair into becoming and WWIII prepper, is able to finally admit his true persona to his wife. Ansthruther does a terrific job of creating these and other characters of the book, giving them depth and having the reader understand them with a single phrase or action, and the historical research she's done pays off in communicating what the camp was like and giving it context without being the least pedantic. Fallout is an excellent examination of British life during the Thatcher years, complex and compelling.

fun, unique, and effective book with cool characters throughout, though at moments it meanders. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

The other day I binged Netflix' grand (kind of) Russian monarchy series "The Great", which opens each episode with the asteriks-marked comment: "an occasionally true story". The same could be said for Eleanor Anstruther's soon to be published novel "Fallout", which (re)tells stories of some of the women of the Women of Greenham Common initiative, plus some of their husbands and neighbors involved. Remember the 1980s, when the superpowers wanted to deploy nuclear missiles in the world (namely in Europe), in order to be ready for the next world war. The Women of Greenham Common in the UK, and numerous other anti-armament and anti-atomic movements and initiatives in England and elsewhere would not have it. Anstruther paints a documentary and very realistic picture of those years, by writing about her fictional heroines Bridget (aged 15, soon 16), Janet (her mom, young housewife and dinner woman at the local school, eventually joining the fighters at the camp), Kate (her neighbor, mother of 5 girls and married to her self-declared but in reality not so much feminist husband Simon), Annabelle (lesbian in the closet and art teacher at the local school), Monica (one of the very few black woman, who joined the all-white mostly middle-class CND movement) and several others. Don't forget Ray, a very special "man", Janet's husband and a bit strange-dash-mysterious in his anti-fallout-shelter obsession (and more I won't say here, in order not to spoil). Anstruther feels a lot of love for all her characters, and they are all protagonists in their own right, all equally important in her narrative. A nice feature, which makes the book an enjoyable and interesting read. I would have granted her 5 stars for this work, but I have to say that the eventually foreseeable and somewhat abrupt ending leaves too much open. Because, after all, this is meant to be fiction, so it could have an ending (or several endings). Unless it is meant to get a follow-up, so that we can accompany Bridget and her little brother into a very different future or get to know, whether Janet and Ray managed to live happy ever after, after all. I am, however, clearly grateful for having with Eleanor Anstruther's "Fallout" a novel to give to my daughter's daughter and their friends, because I would not want to have those female-feminist struggles of the 1960s/70s/80s and after forgotten. So, go and enjoy this "occasionally true story", because, indeed, it has happened.

@Eleanor Anstruther captures the tension of the early 1980s perfectly, as families scrambled to build fallout shelters as the Protect and Survive leaflets dropped through letterboxes. Bridget's father is no exception, and he is hoarding tins, provisions and a bucket in the downstairs toilet; however, for Bridget, staying at home is not an option. In this fast-paced and vital novel, which documents a pivotal time in history, we join Bridget as she discovers the Greenham Common Peace Camp and follow the stories of those already there and those who come to understand its power and importance. Life is not all it seems at face value, either for Bridget's own family, and there are twists and turns along the way for those Bridget is closest to.

This is a powerful book that packs a punch and has you turning the pages for more.

Wholeheartedly recommend.