Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Summer That Melted Everything

beautiful. heart-wrenching. elegantly written.

this book is like the temptation of the burning flame—impossible to turn away from; painful to the touch.

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catrickbateman's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

It’s hard not to fall in love with the only blanket in winter. And love, Grand did.

IM SO DEVASTATED THAT I FINISHED THIS WAAHHH 😖 tiffany mcdaniel is the IT girl for me now.. both of her books are so magically written, so familiar and so truthfully poignant i feel like i’m leaving family when i finish her stories.
they are STORIES, there’s a whole world inside this book, hundreds of people and places and feelings that were so REAL and fleshed out. i honestly had no idea where this book was going but i loved every page and chapter more than the last. not sure i’ve ever felt such love and fondness for a fictional story character before Grand & im sure i’ll think about his character long after finishing this book.
just such beautiful, rich, quality writing with twists and turns, characters with souls, reflection, red herrings and dead ends. i already want to read again IM SERIOUS

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kayleighcanread's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

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divafern's review against another edition

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Absolutely maudlin. Without going too far into it, it tries to do too much. The writing is interesting in some places and yet liberally peppered with laughably bad metaphors and tired stereotypes. Just see the list of content warnings to get a feel for the book.

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epiphylium's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my favourite non-fiction novel that I have ever read. Tiffany's writing style is absolutely stunning, a mixture of prose, poetry, and metaphors that I just adore. There was no unnecessary words, everything felt like it was there for a reason and I've revisited this story a few times now, and I feel the same if not stronger about her talent every time.

The premise of the novel, to put briefly, is it is one of the hottest summers to ever be recorded in this town and Fielding's father, invites the devil to come. When his invitation is accepted, the devil comes to town not with horns and a tail, but in the body of a 13 year old black boy.

Some of my favourite things about the book includes the way it was set up. It is narrated by an older Fielding who is reflecting on parts of his life post 1984, which helps propel the story of that summer forward, leading up to everything that happens. You can tell that something has happened, as Fielding is so broken and guilt ridden that you can tell he has experienced a lot of traumatic events, but we don't know what they are until we progress through the novel.

This isn't a long novel, only a little over 300 pages, but the author covers so many important issues: racism, homophobia (during the AIDS outbreak in the 1980s), child abuse (incl rape, but mentioned briefly), religion, mob mentality, agoraphobia. Although set 4 decades ago now, these issues are still so prevalent today and it's something we should all care about and actively try and use our privilege to advocate for.

I can understand that because of the heavy themes in this novel that it is not for everyone, and like a previous reviewer, oczerniecka has said "It is hard for me to express how I could love a book that is depicting the most heinous aspects of human nature. This story moved me and showed me all the different sides of the issues that are brought up in the story. The characters affected by the events of the summer are complicated, and you cannot say if they are good or bad. Because when you choose to brand someone as bad, you are throwing off all the good about the person. And the same go with marking someone as good, you may not see the evil that is within the person. Read this deeply moving and sad story; this may shatter you and make you weep, and sometimes books should do just that."

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