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A review by ange2003
The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
1.0
The writing style is correct and easy to read. However, the characters are all incredibly unlikable, to the point I found it unbearable to read. The portrayal of gay people is also extremely stereotypical and honestly offensive : the main gay character cannot go a scene without his gayness being pointed out and ends up killing himself because of his sexuality, and the other one is a sexual predator who's HIV positive and wants to sleep with male virgins to cure himself. That's not good representation, no matter the author's intentions. She also seemed to have wanted to tackle every social problem in the same book, and showed real understanding for none of them.
Finally, what made me drop my rating from two stars to one was the final twist : what the fuck ? We're just going to mention Elohim being a cannibalistic serial killer on the literal last page ? Like sure it was vaguely foreshadowed before but come on... The narration just glossing over it made me think I wasn't reading this right. One moment we're engaged in one of these annoying endless metaphors, and the next we're talking about him keeping the severed body parts of the kidnapped black boys in his fridge ? It's incredibly weird.
Finally, what made me drop my rating from two stars to one was the final twist : what the fuck ? We're just going to mention Elohim being a cannibalistic serial killer on the literal last page ? Like sure it was vaguely foreshadowed before but come on... The narration just glossing over it made me think I wasn't reading this right. One moment we're engaged in one of these annoying endless metaphors, and the next we're talking about him keeping the severed body parts of the kidnapped black boys in his fridge ? It's incredibly weird.