by Tiffany McDaniel
Published by St. Martin's Press
Finished 9/30/16
If someone has gone through hell, does that make him the devil?
It's 1984 in the small town of Breathed, Ohio, where "The bright bright stars could not save the dark dark sky." Sal comes to town after Autopsy Bliss places an ad inviting the devil to show himself in Breathed. Sal appears, as nothing but a young black boy wanting some ice cream, a kid wise beyond his years who emits heat and sweat like a furnace, during that hot, sweltering summer. Sal says he is indeed the devil and is answering the newspaper ad.
Slowly his story and that of the Bliss family who takes him in are peeled back; and if bad luck and tragedy don't follow Sal, they seem to envelope many others who conclude that Sal is to blame for it all.
The writing was marvelous (a genuine marvel) and unusual, as was Mark Bramhall's narration (that man is everywhere!). The phraseology and the story left me breathless in so many ways: sighing at the beauty the words formed, gasping at the twists, and the ending was a real punch in the gut--it knocked the wind out of me. I really wonder if this has anything to do with how the author arrived at the fictional town's name of Breathed. I have no more to say, just read it. This book and this author will go far, in my opinion.
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