Sunshine

by Robin McKinley
Sunshine  
published November 30th 2004 by Jove
binding Paperback
isbn 0515138819   (isbn13: 9780515138818)
pages 416
description 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 en...more
date added
12-09-06



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2009)



Mary-Beth
Mary-Beth rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
01/26/08

bookshelves: fantasy, fiction, romance, sciencefiction
I like Constantine and the other vampires for their inhumanity, which is not an easy thing to write. Although Constantine is slightly more human than the other mad vamps, he's still emotionless, alien and interesting for those traits.

I like the post-apocalyptic world the author created. I like the demons and the 'bad spots' and the charms and other magics, but what I like best is that they exist in a world that largely goes on as normal. The world does that no matter how bizarre things becom...more
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  1 comments

Jarrah
Jarrah rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
12/18/07

bookshelves: author-robinmckinley, broadgenre-adultspeculative, cliche-demons, cliche-spells, cliche-vampires, cliche-weres, country-america, genre-urbanfantasy, setting-alternatereality, setting-postapocalypse
Read in November, 2007
Adult vampire urban fantasy. Sunshine lives in an alternate post-apocalyptic world in which Others - vampires, weres, demons and angels - are accepted and everywhere. We don't see any angels, mind you. This one's all about the horror. Sunshine herself lives an ordinary life working in her step dad's cafe, until she does something stupid and gets herself captured by the 'darkest' of the Others: vampires. Seriously messed up psychopathic supervillains. Sunshine finds out a few things about herself...more
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  2 comments

Elizabeth
Elizabeth rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/17/08

bookshelves: 2003, fantasy, favorite-writers
There are certain things I will do for Robin McKinley that I would not consider for any other author. I pretend the first fifty pages of The Blue Sword are only five pages; I choose to be amused by her increasingly poor grammar (a sacrifice made in order to convey amusing asides in ellipses); I went with her when she retold the Beauty and the Beast story, both the first and second time she did it; and I read Spindle's End twice, because I thought that I simply hadn't paid enough at...more
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  2 comments

Silvercharmer
Silvercharmer rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
08/08/07

bookshelves: scifi-fantasy, vampires
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: Vampire fans and those who aren't sure about the whole vampire thing
Despite my affinity for the fantastically supernatural, this is actually my first vampire book. I've just never been that interested in them. My indifference is such that I'm only just now plowing through the many seasons of Buffy. But when both walkawayslowly and Neil Gaiman highly recommended it, I figured, sure? Why not? And I was justly rewarded.

The strength of this book really comes from the narrator. It’s first person, an approach that can yield good things or unspeakably horrible t...more
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Miss_otis
Miss_otis rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
10/29/07

bookshelves: would-buy
Truth be told, I’m sick to death of vampire stories. There’s so rarely anything original or new in the genre, and I’m really just not a fan of the Sexy, Mysterious, Dangerous Creature of the Night thing anymore.

However, I do love Robin McKinley, she’s the only reason I picked this book up, and I’m glad I did. Turns out this book isn’t “about vampires” in the way you might think; Sunshine’s world is either ours in an unspecified future, or an alternate versions of ours in w...more
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Monk
Monk rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
10/25/07

bookshelves: darkfantasy
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for: Modern Fantasy Lovers
Ok, Sunshine wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't a great book.

Meet Rae 'Sunshine' Seddon; twentysomething, a baker at a local coffee house, possessor of the feed-people gene, whiner. Also, she's the daughter of Onyx Blaise, one of the most powerful sorcerers the world ever knew before the Voodoo Wars. Not that she ever really thinks about it all that much - she wants to be her mother's daughter, no matter what her grandmother tried to teach her about magic.

Rae lives in a world permeated wit...more
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Julie
Julie rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
04/04/08

Read in March, 2008
This novel seemed like a great combination: vampires, baking, and Robin McKinley. However, the result was rather spotty and, at times, rather tedious – not a feature one really wants, especially during climactic vampire battle scenes. (Though, to be fair, I always prefer the lead-up to the battles, but a badly-narrated fight is anticlimactic.)

The action begins as our heroine is kidnapped by vampires and chained up next to a captive vampire. Strangely enough, he doesn’t eat her, and ...more
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Rosie
Rosie rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
01/07/08

Read in January, 2006
recommended to Rosie by: found it in a library
recommends it for: Buffy Fans, McKinley fans, fans of vampire lore
I'm a big fan of Robin McKinley, and this was maybe the fifth book I read of hers. I found it much more adult than some of my other favorites (The Hero and the Crown, Spindle's End) but still laced with the same touches of magic, beautiful descriptions, and fully-believable if not-of-this world characters.

The main character is Rae Seddon, nicknamed Sunshine, who comes from a mysterious lineage of magically gifted people. She lives in a post-war world where vampires and demons are real thr...more
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Moontail
Moontail rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
07/09/07

bookshelves: readandloved
Read in July, 2007
recommends it for: Young Adult and Adult
From BookList:
Rae Seddon, nicknamed Sunshine, lives a quiet life working at her stepfather's bakery. One night, she goes out to the lake for some peace and quiet. Big mistake. She is set upon by vampires, who take her to an old mansion. They chain her to the wall and leave her with another vampire, who is also chained. But the vampire, Constantine, doesn't try to eat her. Instead, he implores her to tell him stories to keep them both sane. Realizing she will have to save herself, Sunshi...more
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Alana
Alana rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
07/31/07

bookshelves: fantasy, to-read, vampire
"The insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are."

Ten years after the end of the Voodoo Wars between the vampires and the humans Raven Blaise, called Sunshine, heads out to the lake to escape from the stress of her job and her family. She is captured by a group of vampires and presented as a test and a meal to another captive. Barely managing to escape by calling on the powers inherited from her powerful sorceror father, Sunshine tries to return to her normal way of ...more
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Jon
01/05/08

Read in January, 2008
I haven't read any Robin McKinley for years and Sunshine made me wonder why. It was a good vampire story. McKinley's world was a lot of fun, sometimes disturbing and sometimes just odd, but always a nice place to be.

I've wondered about the relationship between Sunshine and Constantine; trying to see what it is that I like about it. Perhaps it's just that I'm a sucker for such relationships, or maybe it was that I didn't find ...more
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Jennifer
Jennifer rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/18/08

Read in June, 2008
I really enjoyed this. I never knew Robin McKinley had written a vampire book... I found it familiar as her work, but also had some new elements.

I liked:
- The main character, Sunshine, who was a typical McKinley heroine - unsure of her heritage, coming into some kind of singular magical power.
- The lingo. That was "hot flash"... stuff is "Odin", "Thor".. "Kali g*ddam!"... how expressive and unique. Love it!
- The magic. It took me awhile to figur...more
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Amber
Amber rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/07/08

Read in January, 2004
Sunshine leads an ordinary life, baking pastries in the wee early morning hours of her stepfather's coffee shop. That is, until she is hypnotized by vampires, and chained to the wall of a dark, long deserted mansion with another vampire, Con. Yes, it does seem like she is a goner, but this one doesn't actually want to suck her dry. He is rebelling against their captors, so Sunshine gets to live. And when she finds a way to escape, she returns his compassion and releases Con. This act is unpreced...more
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nicebutnubbly
nicebutnubbly rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
06/05/07

I'm not much of one for a vampire novel, and so I bought this solely on the strength of the author, whose YA fiction and adaptations of myth and fable I have so thoroughly enjoyed in the past. And I must say, she made vampires more interesting to me than anyone else has managed to do, by constructing an elaborate but casually referenced alternate reality that included them and focusing her story around a pragmatic pastry chef and a local restaurant. The story had all the McKinley hallmarks: Youn...more
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Sev
Sev rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
07/26/07

Read in January, 2006
recommends it for: those looking for strong heroines, witty writing, great worldbuilding
OK, Sunshine is one of my favourite books of all time. Here's a book that turns cliches on its head: it's a vampire story, but it breaks all the vampire-y cliches. There's a strong heroine who is also kind of a whiney scaredy-cat and works in a bakery.

First of all, I love McKinley's writing style. She could write anything and I would love it, just for the way that she strings words and sentences together. It's witty, almost unbelievably funny - especially on a second read-through, you ...more
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Angie
Angie rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
07/11/08

Read in July, 2008
recommended to Angie by: Book store employee
This was one of those hard books to rate. I wish it was possible to give it 3 & 1/2 stars. I really liked the main character/narrator (Sunshine). One of the things I enjoyed most was the way she spoke. It was as if she was telling me, face to face, her story. I liked all her "ahs" and "ohs" and "likes". She didn't always have an answer and seldom had a witty remark at hand. I liked that she was a baker for a living. It was nothing fancy, nothing dangerous. Many ...more
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Amy
Amy rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/01/08

bookshelves: fantasy
I've been fond of Ms. McKinley since I was a young-un, so I remember being pretty excited when this book hit the shelves - a McKinley adult fantasy tale! With a vamp too! And it is kinda cool - McKinley sketches out a world post-"Voodoo-Wars" - where humans fought against vampires, weres, etc. Human sorcerers helped defeat the dark beasties, or at least keep them at bay, but they're still out there. Meanwhile, Sunshine bakes all kinds of treats at the local cafe - until, that is, she g...more
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Leslie
Leslie rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
01/21/08

Read in January, 2008
recommends it for: fans of Robin McKinley, vampires, or the novel Vurt
I loved the Hero and the Crown and the Blue Sword. This novel has much in common with those books, but Sunshine's world, a place like ours populated with supernatural others, is more abstract. Maybe it's because I've been reading too much Harry Potter, but a few of McKinley's sentences and ideas are a bit unclear. Like those novels, this book stars a heroine (Sunshine) who is in the dark about her special talents. The book lost a little momentum because it was a hard to care about what was happe...more
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Kristina
Kristina rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
08/06/07

bookshelves: my_library, vampires
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: Any vampire-fan
I decided to get this book after stumbling over several threads on The Twilight Lexicon-forums (www.twilightlexicon.com) where one avid fan of the author kept recommending it. And I did indeed like it.

I'm not a fan of loose ends; I always like to know exactly what will happen later. Did this and that person get together? Was nightmares gone, relationships re-estsablished, troubles with the cops sorted out -- that sort of stuff. Sad...more
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Rachel
Rachel rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
10/31/07

Read in October, 2007
My friend lent me this book, and I liked it for a while. Vampires and baking... I liked the coffee shop, and I was intrigued by the woman's first encounter with the vampire, Constantine.

But the author seems to care so little for the relationships between the people that it bothered me. We hear over and over how tempestuous the relationship between Sunshine and her mom is, but I don't think we ever see them talk in scene, let alone argue. Then there is the whole business of dating a cook an...more
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