Review: The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel

Title: The Summer That Melted Everything
Author: Tiffany McDaniel
Format: Ebook
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publish Date: July 26, 2016 (Today!)
Source: Author

What's the Story?:

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 Two Cents:

Not only is the title "The Summer That Melted Everything" the perfect title for this week if you're sitting under the heat dome as I am but it is a great story! Fielding Bliss is young in the summer of 1984. An oppressive heat has settled over his mid-western town and his father has invited the devil to him. The devil comes in the form of Sal, a 13 year old boy who will change everything. And that is only one story line in this intricate and engaging debut novel (super impressive for a debut novel)! This book is literary fiction with a touch of magical realism and some horror elements thrown in for good measure and it is like nothing I have read before! 

There is a lot going on in this book. You have Sal the Devil. You have Fielding facing events that will lead to his downfall decades later as an adult. The heat itself plays a huge role in the book and then there is the story line of Fielding's older brother, Grand, who is trying to figure out his own life in the face of discovering who he is. There is more having to do with Fielding and Grand's father who feels major regret over a case that he once pursued where he ended up being dead wrong and is now fixated on his guilt over the situation. I only go into what these story lines are so that you can see how varied they are and so you can understand my amazement at how deftly McDaniel is able to put these story lines together and keep them flowing. Each story line is robust enough to stand on its own but tied together, it becomes something really special! In less talented hands, this could have just been a mess of too much going on but the way that McDaniel weaves everything together creates a story that is truly unique and so powerful.

Not only is the storytelling good, the writing is good as well! The book is told from the perspective of Fielding through different ages and periods in his life. I liked how the author showed the progression of Fielding from a very typically hopeful child to a broken grown man. Some of the turns of phrase used in the book were both thought provoking and beautiful. 

This book definitely has me anxious for what the future holds for Tiffany McDaniel! She is definitely already on my "to watch" list!