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The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
Published by St. Martin's Press on 7/26/2016
Pages: 320 pages
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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.
The Summer That Melted Everything is a story told in the voice of Fielding Bliss now 84 years young, but 13 at the time and set in the year 1984.
A lot happens in the year 1984 as the author excruciatingly reminds us and for me, I wish it had been a much shorter version. Fielding’s father Autopsy Bliss is the town prosecutor and sends a letter inviting the devil to the town of Breathed, Ohio where he lives. Not sure why he invites the devil but nevertheless a young boy named Sal shows up and says two things. He wants ice cream, and he is the devil. That is when the town folks lives change forever. Fielding takes Sal/the devil home with him, and that is where he moves in with the man who invites him to the town.
When Fielding introduces Sal as the devil to the townspeople, the town reels into a downward spiral they never recover from that is dark and complex.
I am not a fan of the constant metaphors the author used, and I am sure I did not understand all the underlying messages I was supposed to get from reading the book. There is a lot of darkness in the themes of the book that made it depressing for me. Not a fan of that type of work.
With that said I’m sure there will be readers who will love it. It does have an interesting storyline because who summons the devil, and he appears?
I’m sure we will see more work from this author and I suggest you buy this book and read it for yourself. This could be one you love.
Reviewed by: Linda C.
