Sunshine by Robin McKinley Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Sunshine
Book Review: unimportant vampire fiction
Summary: 1 Stars
As many of my reviews show, I have a hankering for vampire books, romantic, horror or historical. So this book was a given on my "must and will read" list. I was happy with the beginning, a world where there are "others" vampires, weres, changelings, witches, and they all live together secretly or out in the open. There is a police force to monitor all of them; it reminded me of Kim Harrison's book "dead witch walking". The fact that this girl, who is a baker and makes "cinnamon rolls as big as your head" a bit of info that will freaking haunt you the whole book, like it matters what she bakes. Anyway, she gets kidnapped and chained to the wall, in a room with a vampire who is starving "Connie", the people who did this are also vampires with a mission to corrupt on orders from "Bo" the leader of their clan. We see that Rae or Sunshine has some transfiguring powers, and uses them to save Connie, against her better judgment "honor among thieves" as she puts it. That is where the story stops being interesting and becomes really monotonous, tedious, full of cinnamon roll references and dullard. I really wish that McKinley could have kept the fascination of the first couple of chapters throughout the whole book. Ah well you cannot win them all.Book Review: vamps with flair!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a very big reader of the vampire genre. Usually, it bores me, because everything is very stereotypical and annoying. However, I have long been a fan of Robin McKinley, so when I heard that this book was coming out, I was determined to at least give it a chance.
As for the plot: it was remarkably well-constructed for a vampire tale. Sunshine is a baker who also happens to be a magic-worker with abilities far beyond the norm. Her element is sunshine, and it allows her to do some things that shouldn't even be possible. None of her gift is unlocked, however, until she is taken to an abandoned mansion and chained to a wall, to be living bait for a dangerous vampire.
The vampire's name is Constantine, and what follows...well, suffice it to say that things aren't always as they seem. I've been hoping and praying that she will write a sequel, but she says she has no idea if she will or not. Oh, well. It is a wonderful book, but in my opinion, a sequel is begging to be written. Too many loose ends are left untied, and the end feels like the beginning of something bigger.
As for the problems: People, all I can say is that this book is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing. I loved it; others will think it's horrible. Personally, I didn't mind the 'info-dumps' or the endless descriptions of baking; actually, I liked them. They gave the story a sense of reality it wouldn't have had otherwise. But if you're not a patient person, don't read this book. Also, some people mentioned that Sunshine seemed whiny. I couldn't help but notice that the people who wrote this were the kind of people who read Anita Blake and ritually sacrifice animals at the full moon (kidding). But this is not exactly a vampire tale. It's really more about Sunshine than anyone else; Sunshine and her transformation from scared baker to someone who actually does something. It's a lot 'deeper' than most vampire books, and if you can't handle that, you're in the wrong place. To sum up what I'm trying to say and am failing utterly at, it's a Robin McKinley book. She writes fantasy, but she means business. Oh, and one more thing. The 'b-word' is used once or twice, and there is a certain explicit scene in the middle. This is not a children's book. It says, right on the cover, that this is a novel geared toward adults. Parents: please do not buy this for your ten-year-old. It will leave him or her with some questions you probably don't want to answer, and they won't get most of it, anyway.
All in all, a wonderful book. Well-written, interesting plot--if you like Robin McKinley, buy it!