Title: The Summer That Melted Everything
Author: Tiffany McDaniel
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 9781250078063
Number of Pages: 320
How I Got It: from the author
Format: Kindle
Goodreads Description:
Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil. Sal seems to appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby farm town. When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed, not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel. Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperatures as an unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever.
My Review:
This book has shaken me in a way I haven't experienced from a book in a long time. Part Milton and part Stephen King with a splash of To Kill a Mockingbird, the lines between "good" and "bad" are so completely blurred that you will find yourself alternating between scratching your head and wiping your tears. I even found myself crying later in the day after I had finished the book. It has stuck to my brain and my heart and I am contemplating whether I should reread it immediately or take some more time to mull it over. I have my fingers crossed with all my might that Tiffany McDaniel will be working on and releasing a second novel very soon because I will be snatching it up the instant it is released.
If you like perfectly formulaic predictable outcomes, this book is not for you. If you are ready to experience a story of a peaceful Midwestern small town with gothic horror just beneath the surface, a book that will make you question what you thought you knew to be true, a book that will shake you with its beauty and depiction of humanity, this is the book for you.
Enter my giveaway to win your own signed copy of THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING below (open to residents of the contiguous United States):
***Disclaimer:: I was given a copy of this release in exchange for an honest review. I received no additional compensation. ***
7 comments
Great review, Rhiannon! I'm putting this one on my TBR.
It was a bit bumpy in places but I'm so glad I stuck with it, Carmen.
Creepy but nice!
Another must-read! Thanks, Rhiannon! A couple of my favorites this year- Sister Dear, Lies and Other Acts of Love, Behind Closed Doors. Jennifer C
Excellent review! Made me want to read the book.
Mystica, it was subtly creepy. Have you ever read House of Leaves? It was a bit like that. Jennifer, I'm going to look these up and see if they need to go in my towering TBR. Thanks, Judy!
Some of my favorite reads so far this year have been First Comes Love, Jane Steele, and The Hand That Feeds You.
Post a Comment