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A review by happyreadings
The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This was a such an unsettling novel about a town in the middle of a heat wave and the devil. When Sal shows up unexpectedly after Autopsy Bliss sent out an invitation for the Devil to come, he claims he's the devil. A thirteen year old black boy in the middle of Breathed, Ohio. The Bliss family takes him in with no questions. When accidents happen when Sal is around, people in the town are too quick to blame it on him, the devil.
Fielding, Autopsy's son, becomes close with Sal and learns where Sal came from and the trauma he went through with his abusive family. However, word spreads of Sal being the devil and a cult forms. Things escalate at the end of the summer when the cult takes it too far and the heat becomes too much.
This book was a lot but if you've read Betty, by Tiffany McDaniels, then you'll understand this is her kind of story telling. This story had a lot of lessons mostly being not to judge something just because we're told that it is bad.
Fielding, Autopsy's son, becomes close with Sal and learns where Sal came from and the trauma he went through with his abusive family. However, word spreads of Sal being the devil and a cult forms. Things escalate at the end of the summer when the cult takes it too far and the heat becomes too much.
This book was a lot but if you've read Betty, by Tiffany McDaniels, then you'll understand this is her kind of story telling. This story had a lot of lessons mostly being not to judge something just because we're told that it is bad.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Racism, and Suicide