Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Summer That Melted Everything

This book made me cry and was very heavy. Definitely check content warnings before reading, I was not fully prepared. The book seriously seemed to include just about every trigger/trauma that ever existed, which felt gratuitous at times. I did think it was well written and engaging, and I cared about Sal and the narrator and Grand. But

the ending was extremely sad, and I felt like there were a lot of unanswered questions about how Sal knew things. And the reveal at the end about his kidnapping felt a little bit rushed/out of the blue. Also, I felt like there wasn’t really much lead up to the narrator being queer,

and sometimes the jumps between his future/old self and the main timeline felt confusing. Most of the future timeline could’ve been left out in my opinion. But maybe that’s also partially because I read this book very quickly in preparation for a book club. Other reviewers make very valid points about

it feeling messed up that the conclusion of the book is essentially absolving the white perpetrators of the lynching and treating Sal as a “magical minority” trope instead of a little boy. Also it didn’t sit right with me that the narrator chose not to end his friend’s suffering but to be a “hero” killing the bad guy…

The relationship between Sal and Grand leading up to his suicide was heartbreaking and hit a bit close to home for me.

Content Warnings

aude's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.25

Content Warnings

larinda_booksandanxiety's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Wow. Beautifully written. I read a review of this book before I read it and it said, "devastatingly beautiful." This is an accurate description. The premise is basically, the devil was invited to town and came. Though the "devil" revealed himself, I'm unsure of who or what really was the devil. This book reads like poetry...tragic poetry. Very emotional.

Content Warnings

bowes's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book is wonderfully written and very engaging but I’m a more enervated person than when I went in. If you want to feel worse about the world read this book.

Content Warnings