Sunshine

McKinley, Robin. (2010). Sunshine. New York, NY: Berkley Books.

ISBN: 978-0142411100

Pages: 405

Genre: supernatural

Annotation: Sunshine must ally with a vampire for their mutual survival.

Summary: All Sunshine wanted when she drove out to the lake was a break from her routine. She did not want to be kidnapped by vampires in order to be another vampire’s meal. She did not want to think about her past, or make an alliance with the vampire she was imprisoned with. That is what she has to do, and overcome hundreds of years of hatred while doing it, or both of them will die.

Evaluation: very good read

The characters feel very real. Sunshine feels human. Her fears, doubts and determination made me emphasize with her. Constantine comes across as very, to use of a term from the book, other. He is not a super-powered human, but something from another branch of existence entirely. I appreciated that he is not portrayed as attractive. Sunshine, for instance, compares his skin to mushrooms. There are some sparks between them later, but that comes from circumstances and not him being handsome. The villain Beauregard is a vampire as well, but he feels very evil in a way Stoker could appreciate. Sunshine’s feelings of being unclean around him were gut-wrenchingly plausible to me.  The other characters, with their own secrets, are worth getting to know. The storyline was interesting. Sunshine has to figure out who trust while working against hundreds of years of well-earned hatred towards vampires and figuring out her own past. What keeps me from giving this book an excellent rating is that I think why Constantine is more than the typical evil vampire should have been explained more. He alludes to having made different choices than Beauregard, and I would have liked to have read more about that. We see differences in his actions, of course, but more about why and how those choices have made him strong would have been interesting. The pacing of the story is well done: I did not feel rushed or impatient. Sunshine provides a good view onto how her society works and its feelings on the Others. Her explanation of sense differences, like vampires only appearing to see but it being different from human sight, was very descriptive. This book is an excellent read for those who like vampires. It also works well for those who want to read a vampire book to see what the hype is about. It is also recommended for those who like strong heroines.

Additional note: To my mind, vampire books are various ends of extremes. On one end are books like Twilight which glorify vampires. On the other end are books like Stoker’s Dracula which portray vampires as evil. In between are books like the Sookie Stackhouse series and this book. Sookie is more Twilightish in my opinion because she thinks well of vampires before she meets Bill. Sunshine is more like Dracula in that humans are unofficially at war with vampires for good reason. Constantine is an exception which maybe could change things if more vampires were like him.

What else to read:

Other books by Robin McKinley.

Those Who Hunt the Night (James Asher series) by Barbara Hambly also does not focus on vampire romance but ethics.  

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris is another good choice for those beginning in the supernatural genre.

Carpe Jugulum (Discworld series book 23) by Terry Pratchett for those who, whether they like vampires or do not, want a more satirical look at them. Has strong heroines.