Search - Sunshine

I was astonished to see this book tagged with the keyword 'overhyped'. This book isn't given enough credit, as far as I'm concerned. McKinley creates a world where ghouls and monsters are just a part of every-day life, a world where Mythology is so integrated with real goings on that it is integrated into the characters' slang (I'm dorky enough that I find this really cool). It's beautifully descriptive, haunting, and above all--believable. Sunshine isn't perfect. She is a self professed coward. She doesn't know how to use her 'gifts', and fears their origins. Every day is a constant battle of conscience.
I'm on my third read right now, and I'm glad to say that I've picked up something new on each rereading. I'd suggest Sunshine to anyone tired of flat, stale heroes and villains, of overly romanticized vampires and flimsy (stupid) heroines.

The beginning reminds me a lot of Nancy Baker's Kiss of the Vampire where a young woman is abducted and jailed with a vampire. This time it's a young woman who makes her living cooking cinnamon rolls (yum, I think I could live with that job) in a family run coffee shoppe. She has a close group of friends and a likable boyfriend and seems very content with the way her life is going until she's abducted by vampires and chained up with only a hungry, dying vampire for a companion. The writing is different from McKinley's lyrical, breathtakingly beautiful style (Deerskin, Beauty). This book seems more modern both in slang and subject matter and so far I'm enjoying it very much, though I did stumble over some of the narrative at first.

As the story progresses, and our heroine "Sunshine" has plenty of time to reflect on her past, we learn she possessess some inherited magical power that increases when she's in full sunlight. In this world vampires and "Other" creatures are commonplace.

This is a good read but not my favorite by Robin McKinley.

I enjoyed this book. it is in the first person, I did have to actualy think about what I was reading as I read it. I have not had to do that in a while. This is not a romance in the strict sense, so much more is going on. anyway I liked it.

There are places in a world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and Sunshine just needed a spot where she could be alone with her thoughts. Vampires never entered her mind. Until they found her...