McKinley's vampires are genuinely loathsome creatures that aside from being human-shaped, don't share a lot of similarities with humans. I was convinced Constantine was really was an alien creature who wasn't wild about having anything to do with a human. Not only that, he's ugly, smells funny and generally has a terror-inducing presence. He's definitely not the in-humanely handsome, charming, sexy, and powerful vampire figure that is currently in vogue. And although Sunshine and Con develop a "bond" it is more in the nature of an obligation where the two parties would be just as happy to have nothing to do with one another under better circumstances. Although it doesn't get explored in depth, Sunshine is legitimately concerned about the morality of choosing to let such an evil creature exist. Now Con is a bad guy who has chosen a different way of un-life than other vampires, but McKinley never really forces Sunshine to confront what that means. He's obviously less bad than the villain, but by how much? We don't know because Con never really does anything "evil" except to kill the doe. We don't know much about his history and that's a flaw on the author's part. Depending on how she explored it, his concrete actions would have framed a more compelling dilemma for our heroine than what her generalized understanding of the evil of the Others gave her. But on the whole, I thought her take on vampires was interesting enough that it boosted the book past some serious flaws.

I also liked the thought that went into Sunshine's element. A really nice, fresh twist that explores the opposites attract theory in the sense that she is the embodiment of daylight while vampires are the embodiment of darkness, and that by being so much of one she is drawn to the opposite element, much as one coin has two different but connected sides. At the same time, her association with the dark possibly `taints' her by incorporating vampiric elements like seeing in the dark and sense of direction to her arsenal. Whether the same is true for Con is left open, or perhaps hopefully to be explored in a sequel.

The biggest problems with this book were the narrative. Sunshine's first person voice was difficult to connect with. She too often came across as whiny and pathetic, making her hard to sympathize with. When the whole book rests on the singular voice, you want to make an effort to give someone the readers can relate to, though they don't have to be perfect. The other glaring problem with Sunshine's voice is that it was too often the vehicle for large exposition dumps. The information was necessary, but I think there were cleverer ways to do that didn't so obviously break up the flow of the plot. Also, the sentence structures and word choices McKinley uses as Sunshine were awkward to the ear, consistently throwing me out of the flow of the story. I especially was annoyed by the phony slang that felt forcibly inserted to help differentiate this world as futuristic. `Sheer" really bothered me until I decided that it was slang for kosher. The lack of dialogue between characters was equally problematic. I don't think there was an actual conversation at all between Sunshine and her mom for instance, and without conversation between Sunshine and the other characters, they never really got a chance to become fleshed-out. Mel was a prime example. He's this intriguing guy, little bit bad-boy but a cook and you know he's got something going on, but what? Heck, we don't even get to see inside Con's head. I just wish that there has been more to connect me to the other characters. I will say there were some funny comments and observations but on the whole, the structure of the writing was very disjointed. Perhaps that fact I felt compelled to struggle past those flaws should be attributed to the strength of the basic story.

When Sunshine tells Con the tale of Beauty and the Beast, I think McKinley is definitely alluding to Sunshine as being a modern re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast, inserting the vampire for the Beast. I was also reminded of two of my favorite books by her, The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, both structurally and in similar characters. This is definitely a book that with more polish and trim could have been a McKinley classic. As it stands I think this book is symptomatic of a writer's growing pains as she tries to explore some familiar themes in a new way. Sunshine is a strong story that ultimately fails in it's execution. I'd definitely read a sequel, one where hopefully McKinley's very well-deserved story, character building and writing skills can really shine.


I salivitated through this book!!   October 15, 2005
 58 out of 65 found this review helpful

It was with some trepidation that I opened the covers of this latest book by Robin McKinley. As the author of one of my favorite and formative books (Beauty), McKinley has not always provided the sort of reading experience I have been looking for. Deerskin was a particularly dark sojourn into the nasty depths of Brothers Grimm, and although the storytelling was masterful & memorable, it has not ranked as a favorite novel.

So a vampire tale by McKinley would be different, I knew.

The surprise came, when it's a fantastic kind of new!

With this book reviewers must endeavour please, not to give too much of the plot away. Half the suspense of reading the book is letting the story unfold and allowing the narrator to tell it in her own way & pace.

Sunshine works as a cook at a small cafe in a seedy and forgotten suburb after a magical holocaust has come across the world, reshaping the landscape of America as we know it.


She has an uneasy relationship with her mother, and finds herself having a closer acquaintance with a vampire than she had ever planned.

The gradual unveiling must not be clouded, thus I shall write no more, leaving it to you, the reader, to discover.

A story rich with ambiance, thick with texture taste and smell, menace hangs heavy in the air only to be washed away by the sharp sunlight and dizzying aroma of delicious cooking - all vividly imagined.

I salivitated through this book!

Without the hyperbole, McKinley proves again mastership of her craft, drawing readers on the adventure & into the world more solidly than ought to be possible.

Having read a library copy, I will now purchase the book as it's one I would love to keep - I had better make that two, because I know I won't be able to resist lending this fantastic book to friends!

Hoping there will be a sequel.

kotori 2005



Et In Novum Arcadia Ego   September 23, 2004
 33 out of 54 found this review helpful

It is rarely that I am troubled by how to review a book. But I find Robin McKinley's 'Sunshine' difficult to review because an otherwise decent book is marred by having an entirely derivative plot. The basic plot tells the story of Rae (Sunshine) Seddon, a 20-year-old woman who works in her family restaurant as a baker. She is for the most part a typical, shallow young lady of a semi-rural society with an occasional ability to work small transmutations. Then she is kidnapped by a group of vampires to work the end of another of their kind, and through sheer stubbornness, more than anything else, manages to escape with Con, the vampire in question. This creates a tie between the two that pits Sunshine's developing powers against her desires to be 'normal.'

If this sounds similar to Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books you would be right. For all that this plot is set not at the beginning of the vampires' entry into society by after a long and destructive war between 'suckers' and humans it returns time and again to the same issues and character development that Sookie experienced. Sunshine's rescue of Con puts her at odds with another master vampire and the core story is how this weepy, insecure woman struggles to keep herself an her vampire in one piece. All of this occurs against a social context full of 'Others' - creatures of fantasy and the occult. In this alternate world it is illegal to be a vampire. There is even a Special Other Force (SOF) to protect society from such predators. While life in the small city of New Arcadia is generally a soothing gentle existence, the times are changing. Suddenly drained corpses are appearing and the SOF suspects that Sunshine's suddenly blooming powers as a sorceress might help relieve the problem - and keep back the dark for one more day.

McKinley writes well, and Sunshine is no exception. Be prepared for a nearly endless amount of detailing though. Almost everything is explained to the point that there are moments when you might think that you are reading a textbook. I believe that this means that sequels are expected and that the pace will pick up now that the writer has laid the groundwork. There are certainly enough loose ends left at the end of the book. I hope that Con isn't relegated to the same background existence that Sookie's Bill has been assigned. Con, who is normally a mushroom shade of gray, lacking any real attractiveness, is a much more interesting a character than Bill. And the finely grained depiction of the folks at Charlie's Coffee Bar has its own charm.

For two reasons - the derivative plot and the obsessive amount of background information - I'm only giving this book three stars. But keep in mind that the potential is here for a very strong series if McKinley decides to carry out some of the possibilities that are only touched on in this initial volume. As such I think it is worth following.



Robin McKinley is an excellent world builder &storyteller   October 2, 2003
 20 out of 25 found this review helpful

Less than a decade ago, the human and vampire population went to war with the result that millions of humans died and the geo-political structure of the world changed. Rae "Sunshine" Seddon loves living a mundane life baking delicious confections for her family's cafe in New Arcadia.

She pretends that vampires only in exist in the pages of a book until she goes out one night to her grandmother's deserted cabin. When she wakes up, she is surrounded by a group of vampires. They take her to a deserted mansion where a vampire is manacled to the wall. The vampires chain her to a wall close to Con and offer her up to him as a meal. He refuses to take her blood and Sunshine draws upon the powers she inherited from her father to escape before the vampires come back. Sunshine has suppressed memories of working spells and transmuting for years. Suddenly she is thrust into an unheard of alliance with a vampire to defeat his species that had taken them prisoner.

The protagonist experiences one trauma after another as she comes to terms with her attraction to and trust of a vampire while learning to use the powers she has forgotten she possessed. Robin McKinley is an excellent world builder and innovative storyteller who insures her readers believe that vampires actually exist and control large parts of the world's geography and financial wealth. Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff will not want to miss the very special SUNSHINE.

Harriet Klausner


Better than Chocolate (and not really a vampire book)   October 31, 2003
 20 out of 20 found this review helpful

I should say from the start that I do believe Robin McKinley could rewrite the dictionary and it would be interesting, so I'm biased. I have good reason to be biased. McKinley's skills as a storyteller, as a writer, as a voice for her characters and her worlds is unparallelled.

Sunshine is not a book about vampires. They are there and they are central to the story, but the book is so much more than that. The best part of the book is that afore mentioned voice. I am not usually a fan of first person storytelling, but Sunshine is full of wry wit and a self-deprecatingly quirky combination of realism, independence, and fancy. I applaud the author for going in a new (if slightly Buffyesque) direction.

This book obviously isn't to everyone's taste, but the writing is still superb and I highly recommend it.

If it helps, my personal list of Robin McKinley favourites is: The Hero & the Crown, The Blue Sword, Deerskin, and now in 4th place -- Sunshine.