Sunshine by Robin McKinley ~ 2003. This edition: Penguin Speak, 2010. Softcover. ISBN: 978-0-14-241110-0. 405 pages.
My rating: 8/10. Points lost because it tends to ramble; points added because the author unapologetically lets herself go on rambling! And because the vampires perish messily and satisfactorily in sunlight. My son and I, both McKinley aficionados, like to refer to this one as the “anti-Twilight” – no sparkling vampires here, though Sunshine’s heroine gets all silly about her undead crush occasionally, which we agreed was one of our our biggest objections to Twilight – Bella’s sheer stupidity regarding the worst choice ever for boyfriend material. (That, and the terrible writing. And the sparkling.) But, as usual, I digress.
Ah, Robin McKinley. Something of a comfort read author for me, ever since I first read the Damar stories, The Blue Sword(1982) and The Hero and the Crown(1985) quite a few years ago. I have lost track of the number of times I have now read these two books, and I’ve also read everything else she’s ever produced with varying degrees of enthusiasm, with the lone exception of her 2010 novel, Pegasus. I might be losing a bit of my enthusiasm for McKinley’s more recent stuff; her editors are letting her spread herself out a bit too much, the drawback to being such a huge bestseller-producer; too many times quantity becomes confused with quality, when what they really need to do is refine, cut, and tighten things up. (Someday I will share my opinions on J.K. Rowling and the later Harry Potter books…)
The internet abounds in reviews of all of McKinley’s works; Sunshine is no exception. If you want to see a various range of opinions, just check out the Goodreads page: Goodreads – Sunshine by Robin McKinley Over 2000 reviews! So I don’t think I need to add to this in any substantial way.
McKinley creates an interesting alternative world to Earth as we know it; she uses much of what we are already familiar with and tweaks it just enough to keep us paying attention – a technique she uses in all of her novels. Her heroine is a bit of a loner and a social misfit – no surprises here – and she also owes some unsuspected abilities to her ancestral bloodlines, which no one has seen fit to tell her about, leaving her to discover her powers for herself. Again, very much a McKinley trademark. The setting is almost dystopian, but people have adapted to the new, post-apocalyptic normal, and go about their business for the most part cheerfully and optimisically, which is something else I like about this tale.
The first time I read Sunshine I was totally engrossed – it was a “stay up till it’s finished” enterprise; this week’s reading was my third, and I am now seeing flaws and tweakable bits here and there, but all in all the story is holding its own.
A heads-up to those familiar with McKinley’s earlier “young adult” novels. Sunshine has lots of sex, some of it graphic. Probably best for the older teenage crowd, and of course McKinley’s legions of adult fans. Oh, and lots of blood. And chocolate! Kind of a weird book, in retrospect. But I’m still a fan.
The cover at the top is from the latest edition, obviously aimed at the teen girl market. I much prefer the original cover art, which I’ve included here as well.
Leaves & Pages 
i love this book
Me too! Have you read the Damar books? Totally different but excellent as well.
[…] to develop her style as the years go on, and to experiment with new ideas, some of which (ahem – Sunshine – absolutely loved that one, the anti-Twilight vampire novel) work out very well […]
[…] some of her later efforts, which suffer from over embellishment and goosey-loosey plot structure. (Sunshine, you’re the gorgeously vampirish exception. Shadows, I’m looking right at […]