Sunshine | Robin McKinley | So much potential...

Sunshine | Robin McKinley | Not much Vampire in "Sunshine"

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Sunshine

	Sunshine Robin McKinley Berkley Books, 2003 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 313 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A new direction for an already successful fantasy author.

They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion-within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.

She knows that it is a vampire.

She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, when light breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day...

So much potential...

Such a poor execution!

McKinely's "Beauty" is one of my all time favorite fairytale re-tellings. When I figured out Sunshine was a modern retelling of the same tale, I snatched it up!

Oh, how I wanted to love this book. Con is a fresh take on the ubiquitous bad-boy vampire that many other author's have tried to hash out, and failed. Sunshine (Rae) is a bit annoying, but equally as flawed and compelling as Con. Together, they could have gone places.

Except that the author was way too busy setting the scene and forgot to tell the story. Because the book is narrated by Sunshine, the entire novel comes at you from her perspective. Which is just fine, except Sunshine liked to dawdle on the unimportant (so, so many parenthetical sentences, which I do not like), rather than tell the story at hand.

And because of this, the book suffered from flow and sequence. And the reader suffers a case of unanswered questions.

I truly hope that Ms. McKinley writes a sequel to this novel - I for one want to know why Constantine can go out in the moonlight...

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Not much Vampire in "Sunshine"

Vampires are all the rage lately, so I was looking forward to reading this book. I thought this book was mostly about vampires, but it's actually about a girl named Sunshine who is a baker and has occasional chance encounters with a vampire named Constantine. The vampire plot line takes a backseat to Rae "Sunshine" Seddons meandering explanations of her everyday dilly-dallies. I'll admit the first encounter is compelling and the author reels you in when she alludes that Sunshine may have other worldly traits. But that's only 25 pages of the book. McKinley spends too much time inside Sunshine's head as she explains her job, her relationship to her mom, and the SOF over and over and over again. It's confusing and ridiculous. I thought at least the ending would make up for all the useless dialogue I had to put with for 60% of the book, but it just fizzles and is anti climatic.
I read the other reviews and I've concluded that unless you really love sci-fiction, you'll find this book frustrating.

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Somewhat difficult to wade through, however....

I liked it.

The vampires are revolting. The violence is grisly and gruesome. The heroine is no Mary Sue.

To start out, Robin McKinley's book "Beauty" is my second favorite book in the world. I tried reading "Deerskin," but I only made it halfway (readers of that book can probably imagine why). Anyway, I found this book while randomly browsing the library shelves, and being Robin McKinley, I knew she'd do something interesting with vampires that would go against the current trend in literature.

I wasn't wrong.

However, while the plot itself is very interesting and strong, in my opinion, it IS difficult to wade through the various long expositions in the story. Twice, I almost reshelved the book during Part 1, but by the second time, my mind cried out "Noooo... you must reach the end!" (I think the end of Part 1 - Con's actions toward Sunshine and leaving the note behind for her - sold the book for me; I had no choice but to keep going)

While the first-person aspect of the narrative makes Sunshine more familiar to the reader, I think it may be this very aspect that causes the story to suffer. We see through HER eyes only, and her understanding and perception of the events is limited. Loose ends are loose because she does not have the answers to many of the mysteries around her. Not to mention, there are several long expositions on cinnamon rolls, Charlie's, and the like that slow the plot considerably. These, too, can be blamed on Sunshine, as it is her mind and voice through which the story is told (She's the Cinnamon Roll Queen and she loves it... there's going to be a lot of baking talk b/c that's what she thinks about).

Anyway, as far as the vampires go, this was great. They weren't sexy... they were Horrible, Disgusting, Evil creatures who look, smell, and sound Horrifying. It was clear that Con was quite unique in personality compared to the others... he was a lesser evil in a sense. It seemed he managed to hang on to his long gone humanity just enough to set him apart from the others, but you still have to wonder about a vampire who all the other vampires are frightened of. Not to mention, you never saw him do anything evil when he was with Sunshine... her perception of him being a lesser evil (or slightly more "safe") than the others may be completely wrong.

I will admit to wanting a sequel, to tie loose ends and to see which direction their "bonded" relationship would go (after all, that scene where Sunshine retrieves Con makes you wonder [in a "don't go there" manner] whether they go further into the Beauty & the Beast direction). One would think it would be impossible to go there (seriously, Con makes Beast look good, and you know Con WON'T change into a prince *shudders in revulsion*), but that one scene takes it closer to the realm of possibility.

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