Author: Selene Castrovilla
Genre: contemporary, young adult, romance, abuse, realistic fiction
Published: November 6, 2014
Publisher: Last Syllable Books
In MELT by Selene Castrovilla, sixteen-year-old “good girl” Dorothy just blew into the small town of Highland Park, where the social headquarters is Munchkinland (Dunkin’ Donuts). Smart, perceptive and sensitive, she’s bored by her cliquey classmates. Then, she meets Joey, a “bad boy” who tells no one about the catastrophic domestic violence he witnesses at home. Joey numbs himself with a combination of drugs and alcohol, terrified of letting his secrets out or anyone else in. But everything changes when he meets Dorothy. For the first time, she makes him feel. Can their love survive peer pressure, Joey’s reputation, and his devastating family secret?
MELT is written in dual first person, with Joey's words scattered on the page to reflect his broken state, and Dorothy’s orderly thoughts acting as the voice of reason – until something so shattering happens that she, too, may lose her grip. Set against the metaphorical backdrop of The Wizard of Oz (not a retelling), MELT is based on true events. A brutal love story, MELT is both a chilling tale of abuse and a timeless romance. It will hit you like a punch in the face, and seep into your soul.
* * *
He rakes the card from the top, slips it from its envelope. It has a quote from Emerson: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”
* * *
Insta-love, mature young adult story, abuse and trauma wrapped up in a lovely writing.
I read MELT because I wanted to read something off my comfort zone (or something that’s read for plain wasting time and enjoyment). MELT is YA. And I read YA. MELT is romance. And I read romance. But MELT involves abuse and violence. And I’ve never read anything about abuse and violence.
MELT opened with a very horrible scene – a very unlikely scene. Something I only see in news or telenovelas. It was a horrible scene but it made me want more. I read MELT with great caution because of that opening chapter – cruelty as a normal routine of their life. Then Dorothy and Joey met… oh how wonderful they met… it was insta-love… love at first sight… but it’s something I tolerated. I’m not exactly sure why but I took their romance easily. But it feels that even though the moment they saw each other, they had this idea about the other and know that they should not be together. But they acted. They tried.
I’d say that the romance between the two of them is rare and lovely. While most of the books I’ve read that involves romance includes the kind of relationship that talks about loving each other despite their ugly pasts and shiz like that, MELT just holds something beyond that. Joey doesn’t just have some traumatic, sad story to tell. He’s like a guy beyond repair. He keeps his life from Dorothy. But you see Dorothy gives off this kind of trust that I can’t even believe. While I feel that their relationship is beyond belief, I do think that things like this happen – pure acceptance despite ALWAYS being in darkness.
One of the things I also love about MELT is that it shows how people DO change for that one person. This was developed slowly but surely throughout the story. Infamous Joey became a guy that’s worthy of Dorothy. I LOVE how he takes care of her as if she’s so fragile (well in some ways she is). He wants to stop doing this for her; he wants to do this for her, etc. I like how everything he does is for her.
I also like how Castrovilla write this. I LOVE MELT’s narration. It reminded me of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. Just the first book, by the way, because the first book’s style writing didn’t stick until the end. Joey’s and Dorothy’s voices are very distinguishable from each other. The way their point of views were written in an overlapping manner – you’ll read what goes through both Joey’s and Dorothy’s head in some scenes.
The climax was a real page turner. I read MELT on a two to three chapters basis every time I can get hold of it but once things started getting bigger, I just HAVE to devour it all in. The scenes were saddening. Horrible. Traumatic for the characters. I read on. I wanted to know what will happen to both Joey and Dorothy. I wanted to know what will happen to their relationship. And it’s at this moment I realized that I actually care about these two.
The ending was great. It’s in some ways a happy ending but part of it is open. Like there could be more after that last moment, those last paragraphs of the book. It was truly unforgettable. I’m quite sure that I won’t be forgetting Joey and Dorothy for a great deal of time.
* * *
What I Like: (1) the romance between Joey and Dorothy, (2) the development on Joey, (3) the picturesque scenes, (4) the ending, (5) the writing
What I Didn't Like: (1) how I didn’t reach to the point of crying?? (expectations failed I guess. But I don’t think it’s such a bad thing… I literally just can’t think of something I didn’t like about this)
~this book was provided in exchange for an honest review~
ABOUT SELENE CASTROVILLA
website | facebook | twitter | pinterest | google+
Selene Castrovilla is an award-winning teen and children’s author who believes that through all trends, humanity remains at the core of literature. She is the author of Saved By the Music and The Girl Next Door, teen novels originally published by WestSide Books and now available digitally through ASD Publishing. Her third children’s book with Calkins Creek Books, Revolutionary Friends, was released in April. She is also a contributing author to UncommonYA. Selene holds an MFA in creative writing from New School University and a BA in English from New York University. She lives on Long Island with her two sons. Visit her website www.SeleneCastrovilla.com for book excerpts and more information!
follow links:
