Saturday, February 28, 2009

Sunshine


Rae, nicknamed Sunshine by her stepfather, is the baker at her family's coffeehouse. She's happy getting up at 4 am to make cinnamon rolls for the breakfast rush, and dealing with people and food all day. But one evening she needed somewhere she could be alone for a little while, and there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years.
She never thought of vampires.
Until they found her.
from robinmckinley.com

Nathan says 4 stars...
Do you like vampires? Are you tired of Twilight? Well then, Sunshine may be for you. Robin McKinley is an absolute genius. Any book of hers is sure to be full of an energy that most books don't possess. This was an interesting turn for McKinley though. This is by far her most adult novel, and a few scene are somewhat graphic for younger audiences. Sunshine is a well-formed and intensely personal character. As the audience, we feel her responses deeply. Con, the vampire she befriends is an enigmatic vampire (slightly redundant, I know) who shatters Rae's ideas about Others. The universe of Sunshine is detailed and contains the intricacies readers of The Blue Sword and maybe even the Harry Potter series can connect with. My one qualm with the book is the writing style. McKinley adopts a staccato and reader-based style of prose that is radically different from most of her previous work. At points I had to re-read some of her quips to understand her direction. Now, that could be my own idiocy, but it seemed more deeply rooted than that. The plot is very nice and a refreshing change from the, dare I say, cliché vampire novels, though personally I would have enjoyed a little more denouement. I know, I know, it's about letting the reader imagine what happens next, but I like seeing how the author envisions her character's story ending. I guess in one blurb, this book is good, but still not the McKinley I fell head-over-heels for.

2 comments:

Amy said...

beauty is still her best book, in my opinion...
great review;)
-amy

BN Book Blog said...

Thanks Amy! I really loved The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. The characters in those books are really captivating. Thanks for commenting.

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