History Literature / Sunshine

''Sunshine'' is a novel by [=~Robin McKinley~=]. It tells the story of a young woman who works in her stepfather's coffeehouse as a baker. The novel is set in a [[CrapsackWorld rather unpleasant]] [[NeverWasThisUniverse alternate reality]] about ten years after the Voodoo Wars. These wars left the world in rather a mess--"bad spots", effectively magical toxic waste spills, get mentioned several times.

The rest of the book is concerned with fallout from her kidnapping (including a WoundThatWillNotHeal Without Vampiric BloodMagic, the intense interest of the [[OccultDetective Special Other Forces]], and [[FakingAmnesia partially-faked PTSD]]), and also with the fact that the gang of vampires who kidnapped her is run by a master vampire, Beauregard, who [[{{Understatement}} does not take their escape well]]. Fortunately for Sunshine, Constantine comes back and helps her deal with the problems, and being a mage with an affinity for sunshine does make it easier to kill the bad vampires, as well as save the good ones...

* NoEnding: The book ends with several secondary threads LeftHanging ([[DisappearedDad the disappearance of the Blaises]], Mel's DarkAndTroubledPast, the goddess of pain, Sunshine and Constantine's [[MaybeEverAfter romance]], etc.), but the main plot points (the threat of Beauregard and Sunshine's struggle to accept magic as a part of herself) are more or less resolved. It's actually a great ending, but there's plenty of material for a [[DevelopmentHell sequel]].

''Sunshine'' is a novel by Britain-based author [=~Robin McKinley~=]. It tells the story of a young woman who works in her stepfather's coffeehouse as a baker. The novel is set in a [[CrapsackWorld rather unpleasant]] [[NeverWasThisUniverse alternate reality]] about ten years after the Voodoo Wars. These wars left the world in rather a mess--"bad spots", effectively magical toxic waste spills, get mentioned several times.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Mostly in that they're outnumbered by the were-chickens, were-rats, and were-skunks, and in that drugs exist to suppress the Change. (They're illegal, but they exist.)

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: More than a few, but one I really like is when Sunshine's landlady reveals who she is and what she knows, and her support for Sunshine. Also a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

** Note that it's not the blood that's the problem [[spoiler: she had already killed dozens of vampires with her bare hands already]], rather it was the sense of corruption and evil that came with it.

** Be a mage whose affinity is for sunlight, in which case the rib cage/breastbone is somehow less of a problem, and the "stake" can be a table knife, a jacknife, or [[spoiler: ''bare hands'']].

* NoEnding: The book ends with several secondary threads LeftHanging ([[DisappearedDad the disappearance of the Blaises]], Mel's DarkAndTroubledPast, the goddess of pain, Sunshine's [[MaybeEverAfter romance]], etc.), but the main plot points (the threat Beauregard and Sunshine's struggle to accept magic as a part of herself) are more or less resolved. It's actually a great ending, but there's plenty of material for a [[DevelopmentHell sequel]].

* NoEnding: The book ends with several secondary threads LeftHanging ([[DisappearedDad the disappearance of the Blaises]], Mel's DarkAndTroubledPast, the goddess of Pain, Sunshine's [[MaybeEverAfter romance]], etc), but the main plot points (the threat Beuregard and Sunshine's struggle to accept magic as a part of herself) are more or less resolved. It's actually a great ending, but there's plenty of material for a [[DevelopmentHell sequel]].

* NoEnding: The book ends with several secondary threads LeftHanging ([[DissappearedDad the disappearance of the Blaises]], Mel's DarkAndTroubledPast, the goddess of Pain, Sunshine's [[MaybeEverAfter romance]], etc), but the main plot points (the threat Beuregard and Sunshine's struggle to accept magic as a part of herself) are more or less resolved. It's actually a great ending, but there's plenty of material for a [[DevelopmentHell sequel]].

* NoEnding

** Stake them, through the heart, with a stake made of wood (or wrought iron, but wood works better and weighs less). This is harder in this universe than in [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer some others]], because vampires are extremely fast, and because they have fully-functional rib cages and breastbones protecting the heart. Also? The stake ''has got to be'' wood or iron, preferably wood from an apple tree with mistletoe growing on it. Try with anything else, and you're dead.

* BloodOnTheseHands

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: More than a few, but one I really like is when Sunshine's landlady reveals who she is and what she knows, and her support for Sunshine. Also a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: "The goddess of pain"

* IKnowYourTrueName: Vampires use name magic. Constantine laughs at the narrator for asking him his name, and later reveals it as a gesture of trust. Unlike most works, in Sunshine, the name is the name--or names--you use. The narrator is as vulnerable through her nickname "Sunshine" as through her legal name ("Rae Seddon") or her birth name ("Raven Blaise"). [[spoiler: Fortunately for Sunshine, she hasn't used "Raven" in years, and old and evil vampires cannot say words related to sunlight...]]

** Stake them, through the heart, with a stake made of wood (or wrought iron, but wood works better and weighs less). This is harder in this universe than in [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer some others]], because vampires are extremely fast, and because they have fully-functional rib cages and breastbones protecting the heart. Also? The stake ''has got to be'' wood, preferably from an apple tree with mistletoe growing on it. Try with anything else, and you're dead.

Unfortunately for the vampires, Sunshine's father was a sorcerer, and her grandmother taught her to use her heritage to transmute, which lets her make a key for her shackles. ''Really'' unfortunately for the vampires, Sunshine's world has [[ElementalPowers elemental magic]], and Sunshine's element is, well...[[MeaningfulName sunshine]]. This means that she can take Constantine with her when she escapes.

* FakingAmnesia: The eponymous character from ''Sunshine'' pretends she has PTSD that made her forget or block her memories after escaping from being held captive by vampires. Mostly she ''does'' have PTSD but she hadn't forgotten anything, she just didn't want to talk about it or explain A) why she saved a vampire and B) ''how'' she saved a vampire.

** Stake them, through the heart, with a stake made of wood (or wrought iron, but wood works better and weighs less). This is harder in this universe than in [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer some others]], because vampires are extremely fast, and because they have fully-functional rib cages and breastbones protecting the heart.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampires are much less human in ''Sunshine'' than in most works, and they get progressively less human as they age. This process apparently is much slower for FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires than for

The rest of the book is concerned with fallout from her kidnapping (including a WoundThatWillNotHeal Without Vampiric BloodMagic, the intense interest of the [[OccultDetective Special Other Forces]], and [[FakingAmnesia partially-faked PTSD]]), and also with the fact that the gang of vampires who kidnapped her is run by a master vampire, Beauregard, who [[Understatement does not take their escape well]]. Fortunately for Sunshine, Constantine comes back and helps her deal with the problems, and being a mage with an affinity for sunshine does make it easier to kill the bad vampires, as well as save the good ones...

Unfortunately for the vampires, Sunshine's father was a sorcerer, and her grandmother taught her to use her heritage to transmute, which lets her make a key for her shackles. ''Really'' unfortunately for the vampires, Sunshine's world has ElementalMagic, and Sunshine's element is, well...[[MeaningfulName sunshine]]. This means that she can take Constantine with her when she escapes.

* ElementalPowers: Magic-users are described as usually having a particular elemental affinity which gives them resistance to things that element opposes or neutralizes; the title character's is, appropriately, sunlight, which is an unusual affinity falling somewhere between air and fire.

* {{FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire}}s: Constantine may be creepy, and is implied to have experimented with the nastier ways of being a vampire, but

* ChefOfIron
* CrapsackWorld

* FakingAmnesia: The eponymous character from ''Sunshine'' pretends she has PTSD that made her forget or block her memories after escaping from being held captive by vampires. Mostly she ''does'' have PTSD but she hadn't forgotten anything, she just didn't want to talk about it or explain A) why she saved a vampire and B) ''how'' she saved a vampire. That is to say by using her magic that she hadn't used since childhood to make it so a certain vampire could walk under sunlight which everyone agrees is impossible.
* FilmTheHand
* IKnowYourTrueName
* LadyInRed

*
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Although we never see any full-blooded demons, we do see a few humans with demon ancestry who have things like extra teeth, horns, turn blue when they hold their breaths, and so on. The [[OccultDetective Special Other Forces]] have some impressive technology designed to ensure that they hire only pure-blooded humans.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent

* WizardsLiveLonger
* WoundThatWillNotHeal