Sunshine

By: Robin McKinley

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.

They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion -within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.

She knows that he is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, as dawn breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day.

©2003 Robin McKinley (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A gripping, funny, page-turning, pretty much perfect work of magical literature." (Neil Gaiman, New York Times best-selling author of Anansi Boys)
"McKinley knows very well - and makes her [audience] believe - that 'the insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are.'" ( Publishers Weekly Starred Review)

I adore it

This is a vampire novel unlike any other. You will fall in love and crave cinnamon rolls constantly.

A good vampire novel

So far so good as a vampire fantasy genre;) Not yet finished yet but wanted to document that it is a good book to pick up for every one else:)

Please relent and write Sunshine II!

What made the experience of listening to Sunshine the most enjoyable?

Yes, of course the story was suspenseful. Yes, you are kept on the edge of your seat. But, this is Robin McKinley! As always, Robin McKinley allows the character to evolve and create the story for us. So personal, so evocative. Such visualization as to be poetry for the inner eye. Her characters seem to tap into archtypes that reverberate in our own personal worlds.

You care about her characters. They become more real then flesh and blood. As you close the book you realize that the people that walk through these pages have become life long friends and you are invested in their dreams and future. Each character is so real that you want a whole book (or series of books) about each person.

You will read this and say,

Who was your favorite character and why?

Sunshine, with her coming of age story, evolution and journey to self-discovery was the favorite character.

What about Laural Merlington’s performance did you like?

Laurel wasn't over dramatic, and didn't trivialize the events in the story. She had a fairly good comedic timing.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was very hard to leave the car which is my audio book playground.

Any additional comments?

Please, Robin, give us more Sunshine and tell us more of her story and the story of the others in her life.

Typical

Would you be willing to try another book from Robin McKinley? Why or why not?

I normally love Robin McKinley books and yes I will try others, but I wish she would stick to regular fantasy with knights and dragons and not do vampire stories. It seemed to be just another teen vampire book and that is getting borrrrring.

Any additional comments?

Perhaps I would have liked it better with a different narrator. I doubt I would have purchased the book at all had I seen who was narrating.

I loved it!!!

I’ve read this over and over again and it never gets old! The characters are awesome. I love the storyline and all the jokes in the book make me laugh every time. It’s been several years since I first found this book and it’s still one of my top favs. The audiobook was exactly what I imagined it would be. I 100% recommend this book if you need a good laugh!

One of my favorite books!

I LOVE this book. I've listened to it twice this year. I wish there was a sequel, but the story is still amazing.

One of my favorite stories of all time

This book, like Mary Poppins, is practically perfect in every way. It has been a favorite read of mine since the first time I read it in 2004, and I've reread at least a dozen times since. These are vampires that feel real in a world that feels entirely fleshed out, although we see only peeks. like so many other people have said, this book is begging for a sequel (or series!) but I am not getting my hopes up.

I feel like it should have been hard to get Sunshine wrong since there is literally 0 specific physical descriptions of her in the book.The narrator was (or sounded) older than I would have chosen for a story whose narrator is around 25. However, I don't agree with some other reviews as far as her performance: her intonations and sass delivered and matched how Sunshine's voice sounded in my head. The men's voices were a bit odd as the narrator didn't really have the range, but cadence and delivery made it possible to distinguish between male characters in the few scenes that featured more than one, so I can't fault her for that.

Overall, if you're in the market for a modern vampire story that's a bit grittier and more real than Twilight (which was not bad but definitely romanticized the idea of creatures who literally have to serially murder humans to survive) give this a listen. It's so good.

Another Good One

I'm a big fan of McKinley's writing, and this story was no exception. Different than what I'm used to with her stories, she seamlessly blended a magical world with a modern, mundane one. Unfortunately, she does leave a loose end or two that I wish she would have developed further; hopefully she will write a sequel of some sort, in the same world with at least some of the same characters if she wanted to leave Sunshine and Constantine's ending as is (which would be fine with me). Although I enjoyed Merlington's performance, she struggles to make the male characters sound different, so it's hard to tell who's talking sometimes. Still a great audio experience, definitely recommend.

unexpectedly fun

took a shot in the dark and in glad that I did . narration was fun, the story was good...the sexual description of one scene was a bit ...shall we say detailed. otherwise this was a wonderful accidental find for me. it's great

just ok wanted to like it more

story was a bit confusing I want to like it more than I did. I definitely won't relisten to this one.