Name: Sunshine
ISBN: 9780515138818

Robin McKinley

Sunshine

Rebecca C Wright

This is another really wonderful YA vampire book. Supposedly there is going to be another set in this world. I really hope so. McKinley has a very unique vampire world and her characters are fully formed and you really do want to know what happens next. It is a bit similar to the Morganville Vampire series but still different enough to be surprising. Get this book!

Kimber Severance 

I feel like she decided to randomly write her own take on a generic genre and just kinda wrote when it suited her fancy and didn't put any time or effort into making anything complicated or interesting about this book. It's basically our world, but the thugs in the ghetto are vampires, and she drags out a very short story plot, making the whole book feel rather monotonous at the end. Also, the ending sucked.

Amanda

Incredible world-building with detail usually reserved for novels intended for serialization. Gorgeous characters. This book is probably the best vampire novel I've ever read. The world created is so rich that felt fully immersed. I wish there were more books set in this universe
CINNAMON BUNS!

Janice Hopper

I am not the target audience for this book. I don't like vampire novels.

I got this book in a Humble Bundle. It's been years since I read something by Robin McKinley, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Things that were ok: 
McKinley's built a kinda interesting world, where there are Others (were-people, demons, part-blood demons, sorcerers, vampires, etc) and normal people. They all live in an uneasy balance, except for the vampires. Vampires are Bad News. In this world, vampires seem still to be humans that have been turned. But they get special strength, speed, and abilities to walk through supernatural paths. Or something like that.

The book is written in a slightly breathless, conversational style. I found that style getting old after a while. I ended up skimming quite a bit of it.

The protagonist has an affinity for sunshine (hence the title). At the beginning, I thought how tragic it would be if someone like that was turned into a vampire. But of course that doesn't happen. The sunshine is apparently protective of Sunshine (the protagonist), and That One Vampire tells her that he doesn't think he could turn her if he wanted to. 

And the whole being attracted to a vampire thing? No. I just can't go there. The protagonist spends much of the book talking about how horrible and dangerous vampires are. Apparently her society is in danger of being taken over by vampires within 100 years. But she finds That One Vampire. You know, the one who's DIFFERENT. O.o Please. I just can't even.

So, not for me. I skimmed large portions because I just wasn't interested. I did skim through to see how it ended.

Connor 

You know that part in the beginnings of Princess Bride when Westley's been taken by The Dread Pirate Roberts and Buttercup says she will never love again?

That's how I feel about vampire books after reading this one. Forget any of the others. THIS IS IT. IT CAN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS.

Celeste Richardson

This was Meh for me. I finished it, but I can't really say that I enjoyed it. The narrator was too much in her own head, even during scenes that should have been action-packed. As I said, meh.

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

Aleena Korell

The rose shadows said that they loved the sun, but that they also loved the dark, where their roots grew through the lightless mystery of the earth. The roses said: You do not have to choose. 

Sunshine is very internal. A slow burn, almost a stream of consciousness. I'd go as far as to say it's maybe half (if that-- maybe a third?) action/dialogue, and the rest is just our narrator's thoughts. 
Much of this latter part is technically an "infodump". Nearly all of it is sarcastic, dry observation. And I loved it.

Sunshine is such a fantastic character to read. Similar to (irony) Shadow Moon from Neil Gaiman's book American Gods. I said in my review for American Gods that the book felt less like a story and more like a fascinating character study for both Shadow as well as for the setting-- and I felt similarly here. Maybe Robin and Neil got together and decided to write character studies on the sun and the moon. At any rate, it was brilliantly done, all of the main players were. And the backdrop of a dystopian world in the aftermath of war and at risk from the terror of vampire attacks juxtaposed to Sunshine's daily life in the kitchen of a bakery was utter brilliance. 

The setting, though. The worldbuilding was incredible. I'm actually really torn up to hear there probably will not be another book set in this same world. Honestly, the open ending for Sunshine was nice-- it didn't bother me as much as ALL OF THE OTHER QUESTIONS that got asked and weren't answered. Those are sort of killing me. So, I'm going to need that sequel, Robin. Thx.

Sunshine

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