The Summer That Melted Everything
4.5 An Angel Among Us Stars I don’t know where to start my review other by saying that I am so happy that I jumped out of my comfort zone to read Ms. McDaniel’s book and I was not disappointed. This book really touched a place inside within me to reflect on all the negative, horrid, senseless acts that this world is so accustom to. The half-truths that are spoken, the wrongs that some might believe are right. The darkness that shines in the light, the good that is the bad, and everything that is vice versa.
The Bliss family receives a visitor from the Devil that Autopsy Bliss decided to invite by putting out an invitation that was put out in the newspaper and when the Devil comes, but when the town people of Breathed see the devil they are confused that he is not what everyone precedes him to be. The tales about how his characteristics are described are farther from the truth when the first meet Sal. Along the way events occur in the town, the summer heat is beyond a scorcher, and people are looking for a reason to point fingers at the direction to the new visitor. Sal teaches lessons and gives the true meaning behind the situations that occur, but the evil that lurks in the shadows are in plain sight.
The devil Sal (as he goes by) teaches Fielding about the sins that people commit how some acts and behavior are not punishable as the way God has deemed. Fielding narrates his story about the summer of 1984 through past and present. We see the suffering that the people went through when lies were fed and their minds were poisoned by the ignorance of one man and how his hatred led to the demise of so many. The love of family is tested. The fight to make a right is broken. The way of thinking is tested. But in the end they finally see that the accused was nothing more than an innocent and that the wicked poisoned the town and their people. Changing the lives of those scared of the unknown and letting the fear consume them. Through their suffering we see our own faults while reading. The experience I lived while reading each word had me remembering experiences of hatred, racism, prejudice
and the human behavior. I felt sadness from the words that were being spoken through the pages. How the senseless act of one person could harm so many, even after knowing the pains they once suffered. How the lives of others are not so perfect as they seem from the outside, even the one’s closest to us are suffering their own pain and we never realize who they truly are. And at the end of it all we see that everything is not what it seems.
I recommend and urge people to give this book a chance. It's beautifully written. With its dark contemplative words and its heart haunting story, it builds from real life situations, it brings a refreshing light to the book no matter its content and sadness.
‼‼ARC graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.‼‼
