Sunshine

With all the focus and excitement over vampires lately in movies, on television, and in literature I felt that I had to share my one favorite vampire novel. I cannot recall when it was that I first read Sunshine. I do however, remember the excitement and interest of that first reading. It is one of those novels which is hard to classify. Strictly speaking it is a vampire tale, yet so unlike most of the modern vampire fiction. It’s a love story, in a way, but to call it that gives the potential reader false expectations.

Sunshine by Robin Mckinley is set with the premise that all manner of supernatural beings exist, vampires werecreatures of all sorts, demon blood, faerie and various forms and degrees of sorcery. Humankind is of course well aware of each of these Others. There is even the Special Others Forces, designed to monitor, license and whatnot the more harmless and benign forms of Other and to police and protect humanity from the more dangerous forms - namely vampires.

Sunshine, the title character is a young woman, so down to earth and plugged into her day to day life that she is in a lot of ways the last person you would expect to be caught up in Other conflict. Working alongside her family (and extensive adopted family) in the coffee house, restaurant and bakery her life is full of very human and mundane drama that is surprisingly both fascinating and charming. She has conflicts with her mother - purely from polar opposite personalities - worries about a younger slightly delinquent brother, car troubles, and way too many early mornings in the bakery. Just needing space to think and breathe one evening she takes a drive out to the lake where:

“I sat on the sagging porch, swinging my legs and feeling the troubles of the day draining out of me like water. The lake was beautiful: almost flat calm, the gentlest lapping against the shore, and silver with moonlight. I’d had many good times here: first with my parents, when they were still happy together, and later on with my gran. As I sat there I began to feel that if I sat there long enough I could get to the bottom of what was making me so cranky lately, find out if it was anything worse than poor quality flour and a somewhat errant little brother.
I never heard them coming. Of course you don’t, when they’re vampires.”

Sunshine soon finds herself the victim and captives of a gang of flunkie vampires, and is, quite appropriately, completely terrified. Because, you see in this world vampires are monsters, pure and simple. Sure they can glamour and charm, but the only purpose to it is to take your blood, your life. As Sunshine herself puts it, while teenage girls may fantasize about having gorgeous vampires fall deeply in lust with them they soon get over such fantasies because ultimately the vampire is going to eat you and then what good does it do to be a sexual goddess when you are dead. I found this take on vampire sexuality quite exciting and refreshing after the overabundance of Anne Rice style sexy vampire stories that have become a part of modern vampire lore. It took me back to Dracula, this reminder that vampires are monsters. Plain and simple. But I digress.

Sunshine finds herself captive, chained to the wall in a room with another prisoner - a vampire. Chained to the wall but still within his reach. It seems that poor Sunshine has become an unfortunate victim in a feud between two equally powerful Mater Vampires; Con her fellow prisoner, and Bo the mastermind of their mutual captivity. Together Sunshine and Con form an uneasy alliance, and through the use of surprising and extraordinary powers manage to escape. But for Sunshine, while she tries to go back to her everyday life, this is just where things get started.
Mckinley’s prose is full of rich contrasts between the ordinary and the exciting and dramatic. One of the most charming and interesting things about this book is the voice of the character. Told in first person narrative Sunshine is incredibly witty, down to earth and engaging. The author uses the character’s voice in interesting ways, and every moment of exposition is entertaining. A big part of this is in Sunshine’s descriptions of the supernatural, she is so obviously trying to cling to her normalcy that she seems to refuse to even discus Other-related things in any official sounding or normalizing language.

The fun and unique characters, the wonderful storytelling, and the exciting plot all combine to make this one of my absolute favorite novels of all time. I would encourage anyone who loves a good vampire story to pick this up. And even if you don’t like vampire stories I would encourage you to pick this up, it just may be - as it was for me - all the things that you don’t like in a typical vampire story, it does it right.