Melt by Selene Castrovilla
Melt by Selene Castrovilla, graduate, the MFA in Creative Writing program at The New School.
Last Syllable Books, 2014
Set against the backdrop of The Wizard of Oz, this tale is both a chilling story of abuse and a timeless romance. Sixteen-year-old good girl Dorothy just blew into the small town of Highland Park—where the social headquarters is Munchkinland (Dunkin’ Donuts.) There, she meets Joey—a bad boy who tells no one about the catastrophic domestic violence he witnesses at home. Can these two lovers survive peer pressure, Joey’s reputation, and his alcoholism? And then there’s his family secret which is about to be unleashed. Joey’s words are scattered on the page—reflecting his broken state. Dorothy is the voice of reason—until something so shattering happens that she, too, may lose her grip. Can their love endure, or will it melt away? Drawing from true events, this brutal love story will hit like a punch in the face and is sure to reach into the soul of every reader.