Book Review: The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel

the summer that melted everything

Title: The Summer That Melted Everything
Author: Tiffany McDaniel
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date: July 26th, 2016
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: from Author for a review

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 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.

vrpca

Review:

Here is the truth: this book is perfect.
When you look at every single element of this story, every single character, phrase and all of the parts of the plot, you get one perfect whole, compliteness that leaves you breathtaken in an absolutely literal way.

I am sorry if I already used the word perfection too many times at the very beginning of my review, but the truth is, I am lost for other words. This book, to me, was pure perfection.

It played with my emphaty in a way I can’t describe, it broke my heart, torn me apart and I am still picking myself up, days after I finished it.
I am lost for words and I already know that my review won’t do a justice to this masterpiece, but I will try my best.

The Summer That Melted Everything talks about summer in a year 1984, the year when the HIV virus was discovered and scientists gave it a name.
It takes place in Breathed, a small town in the West America, where people are still afraid of unknown and are very judgamental.

Even though this book contains more then few diverse elements (like gay people, black people and people with dwarfism), the way characters talk about people and things that are diverse or different is plain brutal.
For example, people say that AIDS is God’s punishment for gays, God’s tool to get rid of them.
Those kind of references you’d hear even from characters you’d like.
Keep in mind that it is 1984 and even though that kind of phrases were hard to read about, they also represent the reality of the story.

The novel is written in first person, following two different times: first being placed in 1984 when Fielding was a 13 years old boy and the second that takes place when Fielding is and old angry man, and we can see how much tool summer 1984 took on him, how happenings from that summer shaped him as a person and destroyed him in a way.

The writting style is astonshing. McDaniel’s voice is so beautiful. It is different from other voices I read and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that The Summer That Melted Everything is a piece of literary fiction.

This book reminded me how much I enjoy reading literary fiction, even though I don’t read it too often.

My opinion is that this book demands to be read more then once. I know I will reread it for sure in my close future.

This is not a happy book, it will probably leave you under an impression and you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.
I already knew this was a five stars read for me after I finished it, but I also learned to appreciate it even more after some time passed.
I would give it all the stars in the world.

This is the best book I have read this year and it is one of the best books I read in my lifetime.

Tiffany McDaniel surprised me with her debut novel and after reading only one book written by her, I already know I want to read everythig she’ll write in the future.

Recommending books is something I often do in my reviews, but if there’s one book I would recommend of all the books I liked, it would be this one.

I really, wholeheartedly recommend you to read this book!

5

Three Short Book Reviews: The Unexpected Everything, The Nearly-Weds and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There

Recently, my good Goodreads friend and a blogger, Lola from Hit or Miss Books , gave short reviews to multiple book in the same post. You can read it here.

I really liked that idea and because of Lola I got an inspiration to do similar thing.

I decided to post three short reviews for book I read but didn’t feel like writing full lenght reviews about them.

 

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

the unexpected everything

The Unexpected Everything was a really fun summery read. It follows the story of Andie who is a politician’s daughter. Because of the scandal behind her father’s name, her summer plans changed and she finds herself a job as a dog walker.
Along the way, she meets a cute guy and you can  all guess where the story goes from there…

The story also focuses on friendship and how, with time, we can just grow apart.
With some cute scenes, swoony moments and some predictble situations handled in an unimaginable way, this book is one that should be on your tbr list for this summer.
I highly, highly recommend it to every ya contemporary lover.

Who could say no to this adorable cover anyway?

3,75

The Nearly-Weds by Jane Costello

the nearly weds I had some fun time reading this book.

The story takes place in Boston where our main character Zoe goes as an English Babysit.

If you didn’t know, this book is a winner of Romantic Novelists’ Association Romantic Comedy Award.
That being said, I don’t think I have to tell you it is full of funny situations and toughts.

Zoe was a great narrator and I think it would be awesome if there was movie based on this book.
Who knows, maybe one day we’ll have a chance to see it.

4

 

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

alisa I had the strangest dream.
I dreamed I found myself in Wonderland, went there trough the looking glass, but while I was there, I couldn’t remember what Wonderland looked like.

After I woke up, I decided it was the best time for me to finally read this book and find my answers.

When I was growing up, I liked watching Trough the Looking Glass animated movie better then Alice in Wonderland, even if it wasn’t Disney’s.

Now when I was reading it, some pictures from that movie came to my mind, I was reminiscing about some scenes I complitely forgot about.

What took me by surprise was how I knew some quotes even though I couldn’t have know them from that very movie.

Also, I noticed how some characters that weren’t in the first book, but were in Disney’s movie for the first time showed up here, in Trough the Looking Glass.

When I look at them only as books, I can’t say I’m sure which story I like better.
I think this one made me smile more often, even if I think that Alice in Wonderland has better quotes in it.

5

Bout of Books Day 1 Update

bob16 As you already know, Bout of Books Read-a-thon started yesterday and I am participating for the first time.
I already said I am reading 7 books at time (you can see which ones here), but I guess 7 wasn’t enough for me, so I went and puchased an ebook version of The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson.
The thing is, I was in such a great mood to read this book that I just had to go and read it (so far it’s amazing) and even though I don’t usually prefer paying more then 13$ for an ebook, I knew that that was the only way to have it in my hands as soon as I purchase it (plus I had a 25$ Amazon GC so thank Heaven for that 😀 ).

My Progress:

Day 1:

the unexpected everything pages read: 69

I also participated in the #boutofbooks #insixwords challenge.
These are six words I used to introduce myself: Cat lover. Book reviewer. Dreamer. Believer.

 

If you’re participating, share your reading process in comments.
If you’re not participating, feel free to tell me what you’re reading at the moment and how you’re liking it.