History Literature / Sunshine

* LostPropertyLiveDrop: Rae makes a show of "returning" the pocketknife she "borrowed" from the [[HumanDisguise undercover vampire]] Constantine - actually a ProtectiveCharm she made to let him survive in sunlight. Impressively, she sells the act to TheMenInBlack who are interviewing them.

* HybridsAreACrapshoot: People with both human sorcery and [[HumanDemonHybrid demonic ancestry]] have at least a 90% chance of going violently, irredeemably insane, and might manifest powerful WrongContextMagic on top. Families with strong magical bloodlines tend to inbreed in order to avoid having a child with an unknown demonic partblood. [[spoiler:Rae is afraid that this might be the case with her.]]

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: ''Everyone'' except Sunshine knows about her family heritage. While technically she does know her father was a "big deal", it's been a very long time and she doesn't want to remember most of it.

* NeverWasThisUniverse: Simply very similar. Among other things, America appears to be called Libertalia and England is Albion. The American War of Independence is referred to as the Liberty Wars.

* TomTheDarkLord: Rae has to laugh when she learns that the malevolent master vampire terrorizing her is named Bauregard.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Favorite dish; Sunshine's specialty is "cinnamon rolls as big as your head."

* UnreliableExpositor: Some of Sunshine's {{Expospeak}} is later revealed to be mistaken; see e.g. WizardsLiveLonger below. Sometimes she even contradicts herself without external help, e.g. first she says that by handling magic without a license she committed the kind of crime that SOF really hates, but a bit later she tells us that the licensing thing was piffle (she may simply have meant ''in comparison'' to undeclared demonic heritage). Several times she also [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] the fact that not everything she thought she knew is turning out to be true. ("Where did sorcerers get their tattoos? Maybe I didn't know anything anymore.")

* OneDropRule: Anyone known to have non-human ancestry might as well give up on trying to get into certain jobs, and can face a fair amount of social prejudice as well. SOF is especially strict about hiring only pure humans, though the part-bloods in the organization made sure to work loopholes into the tests.

** The SOF guys, Pat and Jesse. Though they are the magic fuzz and no one trusts SOF, Sunshine likes them because they're a NiceGuy pair and love her baking. They investigate Sunshine's disappearance, clean her up at the headquarters when she makes a vampire explode all over her-- using a table-knife instead of a stake-- and reassure her she's not in trouble for hiding the truth from them since she obviously went through a traumatic experience when she vanished. When she tells them vampires kidnapped her, they both look like they want to find some vampires to hunt on her behalf. Pat and Jesse want to recruit her part-time due to her gifts, but respect her wishes to think about it and help out once in a while. They can see she needs time to process everything, including the fact that she's a powerful magic-user but wants to keep baking and making cinnamon rolls rather than roll up her sleeves and go into battle. When she gets rid of a giant vampire gang leader, they suspect what Con may be but don't press him when realizing there's no proof. It's hinted they may recruit her in the future but will gently poke rather than enforce it, and protect her from the goddess of pain.

* SpikedBlood: There's an InUniverse urban legend that vampires won't touch people who are too badly intoxicated. Rae doesn't believe it and suspects that some vampires actually enjoy the extra kick.

* WeakenedByTheLight: All vampires have this to some degree. It seems to be a kind of accumulated karmic backlash from the acts of evil they have inflicted: Constantine (the closest thing to a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire we know of) can handle anything but direct sunlight, while Beauregard (who is unusually horrible even for a vampire) can never go outside or even ''speak words'' related to sunlight.

The novel begins with a ten-page {{Infodump}} about the title character's life as a coffeeshop baker, followed by five pages of {{Expospeak}} about her world's [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]]. After that, the book moves on with the plot: she wakes up in the forest, surrounded by vampires, who take her off to a large lake house where they have a rival vampire, Constantine, chained to the wall. Sunshine is being provided as his dinner, as part of an attempt to torture/corrupt his FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire tendencies out of him before killing him.

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 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...

* AngerBornOfWorry: Rae and her mother have some heated arguments after she escapes the vampires -- or, from her mother's perspective, after she disappears for three days; turns up bedraggled, injured, with no car; and refuses to talk about what happened. This is also when her mother starts giving her excessive amounts of {{Protective Charm}}s.

** Being partially demonic is more of a curse than a gift due to FantasticRacism. Sunshine mentions how a star athlete she knew lost all of his scholarships and trophies after he found out he had demonic heritage. Also, the SOF is more likely to forcibly recruit you because it's "rotten" with partblood demons. On top of ''that'', demonic blood combined with magical talent is not a recipe for life-long mental stability.

* ElementalPowers: Magic-users are described as usually having a particular elemental affinity which gives them resistance to things that element opposes or neutralizes. The most common ones are (of course) fire, air, water, and earth, but metal and wood are also known possibilities. The title character's is, appropriately, sunlight, which is an unusual affinity falling somewhere between air and fire and "something else". It makes her unusually repellent and destructive against vampires, who have affinity for darkness (somewhere between earth and blood -- i.e. water -- and "something else").
* EmotionEater: Dabbled with; vampires can draw sustenance from tears in place of blood, although it is weaker.

* EnemyMine: Sunshine initially views her rescue of Con as this and freaks out about helping a species that is AlwaysChaoticEvil, at least in the media. Later on she develops a genuine bond with him.

* FantasticRacism: Humans with demon ancestors (partbloods) tend to have a lot of trouble getting and holding jobs or promotions. The same holds for weres; the drug to prevent the change is ''technically'' illegal but people use it anyway, because taking sick days around full moons too often can ruin your career.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Most vampires form gangs and torture humans in order to taste the fear in their blood when they finally get around to eating them. Constantine may be creepy, and has experimented with the nastier ways of being a vampire in the past, but we never see him hurt a human, and he has a several opportunities. This behavior means Constantine is both unusually powerful and independent, since he has no problems moving around (other vampires his age have become so corrupted over the years that they can't come outside ''at all'', even during the darkest nights, because the faint light from the stars is enough to harm them. They rely on their gangs to get things done). Sunshine's never heard of any others like Con, though, so they're either very rare or very secretive. Con states that one of the reasons Bo wants him dead is because if the friendly neighborhood school of vampirism catches on, it will deprive the master vampires of much of their power--if newbie suckers learn they don't ''have'' to spend their unlives as sadistic thugs working for OrcusOnHisThrone, they won't.

* LightIsGood: Or at least used by the protagonist to destroy an unquestionably evil vampire. Notably, a vampire's aversion to light seems to be directly proportionate to the amount of evil they've inflicted. Also invoked by Yolande, who [[spoiler: noticed immediately when her tenant got a vampire gentleman caller, being a master wardcrafter]], but waited for Sunshine to explain because she couldn't believe evil of someone with sun magic. (Although she adds that she would have worked up to believing it ''fast'' if there were more than one vampire involved.)

* MyBelovedSmother: Sunshine's mother comes off as this, wanting her daughter to move back home. Her excuse is that when they left Onyx, Sunshine quickly became ill in the terrible apartment they had because there was no access to sunlight, and it's implied her mom is scared of the Blaises tracking down her daughter. Sunshine mentions arguing with her mother frequently because she needs her independence.

* PowerTattoo: Tattooed [[ProtectiveCharm wards]] are directly linked to the bearer's life force, which makes them much more stable than disposable wards but is also a vulnerability that an enemy can exploit to deadly effect. Sorcerers often wear [[BlackCloak dramatic hooded cloaks]] specifically to hide the details of their tattoos.
* TheQuietOne: When Constantine says things, he's definite about them. Otherwise he'd rather say nothing. You get "Yes," and "No," and not much else unless he's really excited. He also has a tendency toward BrutalHonesty; Sunshine wonders if she could teach him to say "Perhaps," or the comforting words humans say when they're worried.

** Charlie Seddon as the owner of Charlie's and Sunshine's stepdad. He's able to calm her down when she's in a bad mood and fends off the press. However, she can't tell him about Con.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Sunshine becomes one after she and Con escape from Bo. It only gets worse as she skewers a vampire with a table knife, and by the end she's convinced that [[spoiler: killing Bo has tainted her]].

* UncannyValley: InUniverse, vampires are described as human-shaped but ''wrong'' in an inherently threatening way, though they can suppress it well enough to pass for human when they want. Then there's the matter of their unnatural movements, their slightly inhuman voices, and their persistent smell of fresh blood.

* VampireAreRich: Despite their existence being illegal, vampires are estimated to control at least a fifth of the global economy. Constantine inherited a sumptuous home and a huge trove of priceless artifacts from his master and has added to his collection, though an existence outside mortal society gives him little use for his wealth.

* AfterActionPatchUp: After they escape together, Constantine treats Rae's injuries and helps her eat and drink a bit.

* UndeathlyPallor: Vampires have grey skin that Rae repeatedly likens to mushrooms -- ''spoiled'' mushrooms, when Constantine is in bad condition.

* WeakenedByTheLight: All vampires have this to some degree. It seems to be a kind of accumulated karmic backlash from the acts of evil they have inflicted: Constantine (who is the closest thing to a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire we ever see or hear of) can tolerate moonlight and starlight, while Beauregard (who is unusually horrible even for a vampire) can't even ''speak words'' related to sunlight.

* WoundThatWillNotHeal: Sunshine gets one. It takes BloodMagic to heal it.

* AdultFear:
** Sunshine's mother had to get through leaving her husband and cutting ties to his family without any resources of her own, plus a sick child. By the time the story begins they've settled into as stable a life as the setting allows, but the marks the experience left shows clearly in how her mother objected to Sunshine getting her own apartment.
** Your daughter goes missing for three days. Then she shows up with a deep cut on her chest, bedraggled, and with no car. She also can't tell you what happened. No wonder Sunshine's mother is freaking out. Charlie handles it better, but Sunshine knows he was also worried.

* MyBelovedSmother: Sunshine's mother comes off as this, wanting her daughter to move back home. Sunshine mentions arguing with her mother frequently.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Most vampires form gangs and torture humans in order to taste the fear in their blood when they finally get around to eating them. Constantine may be creepy, and has experimented with the nastier ways of being a vampire in the past, but we never see him hurt a human, and he has a several opportunities. This behavior means Constantine is both unusually powerful and independent, since he has no problems moving around (other vampires his age have become so corrupted over the years that they can't come outside ''at all'', even during the darkest nights, because the faint light from the stars is enough to harm them. They rely on their gangs to get things done). Sunshine's never heard of any others like Con, though, so they're either very rare or very secretive.

* MustBeInvited: Here's an interesting little wrinkle to the traditional rules about entering dwellings, where are also in play: a vampire can't do much to a human that the human doesn't ''want'' them to do, other than kill them. Not even drain them after killing them. Unfortunately, vampires have such powerful mental domination abilities that they can indeed convince a human they want to be drained of blood. (Sunshine muses a little on if the restriction applies to [[PowerPerversionPotential other forms of invitation]]. It turns out it does, but vampires don't bother having sex with humans.)

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampires are much less human in ''Sunshine'' than in most works and not at all integrated into human society (despite it being reinforced that all of them were human once; that might even be the problem), and they get progressively less human as they age. This process apparently is much slower for FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires than for the other kind: Constantine can deal with twilight and moonlight, and most vampires his age can't.

* AfterActionPatchUp: Constantine patches up Sunshine after the escape.

* BadassFamily: The Blaises are implied to be one.

* ChefOfIron: Sunshine.

* EldritchAbomination: Vampires in this world are very, ''very'' alien. Oddly enough, demons seem to be comparatively mundane.

* FilmTheHand: Sunshine does this to avoid being filmed by an overly zealous reporter. At the time, she didn't know whether vampires would be watching the broadcast, and she was still desperately [[RefusalOfTheCall trying to make things go back to normal]].

* MadeOfIron: Vampires are vulnerable to sunlight, but the only other known way to destroy one is to stake it through the heart. This is harder in this universe than in some others, because vampires are extremely fast and have fully-functional rib cages and breastbones protecting the heart. You get one shot, and if you miss, you die. Also? The stake ''has got to be'' wood or wrought iron, preferably wood from an apple tree with mistletoe growing on it; try with anything else, and you won't even get that one shot.

* ThePowerOfTheSun: Sunshine's powers.

* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: They do things like trying to spot vampires, for instance. What would they do if they actually found one?

* ElementalPowers: Magic-users are described as usually having a particular elemental affinity which gives them resistance to things that element opposes or neutralizes. The most common ones are (of course) fire, air, water, and earth, but metal and wood are also known possibilities. The title character's is, appropriately, sunlight, which is an unusual affinity falling somewhere between air and fire and "something else". It makes her unusually repellent and destructive against vampires, who have affinity for darkness.

** Sunshine's mother had to get through leaving her husband and cutting ties to his family without any resources of her own, plus a sick child. By the time the story begins they've settled into as stable a life as the setting allows, but the marks the experience left show clearly in how her mother objected to Sunshine getting her own apartment.

* AntiHero: Constantine. He's a vampire, with all that implies, but he doesn't do anything particularly evil in the book; other, much nastier vampires are out to destroy him implicitly because he's unusually nice. He's still off-putting, reticent, prideful, extremely violent (in a pinch and against other vampires), all but says he's drained people's blood in the past, and takes quite a while to become comfortable with Sunshine -- almost as long as it takes for her to become comfortable with him.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Charlie Seddon as the owner of Charlie's and Sunshine's stepdad. He's able to calm her down when she's in a bad mood and fends off the press. However, she can't tell him about Con.

* NoEnding: While [[spoiler:Sunshine destroys Bo and covers for Con with SOF]], there is still the question of where their friendship ends and a magical bond begins. There's a hint that her grandmother is alive, and that the war is still ongoing. 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 [[NoRomanticResolution 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 sequel.
** [[WordOfGod McKinley]] herself has quite a bit to say on this, especially on her blog posts [[http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2008/12/02/there-is-no-sequel-to-sunshine here]] and [[http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2009/05/13/entitlement here]].

* 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 [[NoRomanticResolution 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 sequel.

* YourCheatingHeart: Sunshine has a boyfriend the entire book. Still doesn't keep her from [[spoiler: having some pretty intense moments, including something that could only count as foreplay, with Con. It doesn't go anywhere definite; though Sunshine makes it clear that she's attracted to him, Con is resistant for reasons that, as usual, he isn't interested in explaining, aside from feeling inducing "intensity" to an already-fraught relationship would be a bad idea.]]

* AdultFear: Sunshine's mother had to get through leaving her husband and cutting ties to his family without any resources of her own, plus a sick child. By the time the story begins they've settled into as stable a life as the setting allows, but the marks the experience left show clearly in how her mother objected to Sunshine getting her own apartment.

* WickedStepmother: Completely averted. Sunshine loves her stepdad Charlie, and even took his last name. He gave her mom a job, and her a place in the kitchen when she was old enough to handle responsibility. Sunshine has more issues with her biological mother, while Charlie serves as a buffer between them.

* BadDreams: After the kidnapping.

* AFriendInNeed: Many.

* AYearAndADay: How long her mother kept her warded from her father's family

* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: They do things like trying to spot vampires, for instance. What would they do if they actually found one?
----

* FantasticRacism: Humans with demon ancestors (partbloods) tend to have a lot of trouble getting and holding jobs or promotions.

* LightIsGood: Or at least used by the protagonist to destroy an unquestionably evil vampire. Also invoked by Yolande, who [[spoiler: noticed immediately when her tenant got a vampire gentleman caller, being a master wardcrafter]], but waited for Sunshine to explain because she couldn't believe evil of someone with sun magic. (Although she adds that she would have worked up to believing it real fast if there were more than one vampire involved,)
** Notably, a vampire's aversion to light seems to be directly proportionate to the amount of evil they've inflicted.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Favorite dish; Sunshine's speciality is "cinnamon rolls as big as your head."

* WeakenedByTheLight: All vampires have this to some degree. It seems to be a kind of accumulated karmic backlash from the acts of evil they have inflicted: Constantine (who is the closest thing to a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire we ever see or hear of) can tolerate moonlight and starlight, while Beuregard (who is unusually horrid even for a vampire) can't even ''speak words'' related to sunlight.

* WizardsLiveLonger: Sunshine has always thought of this trope as wish fulfilment. She learns from a retired professional magic handler that while most ordinary magic handlers won't notice much difference, those who are powerful and steep themselves in magic can live to be very old indeed. This is not a cheerful thought, given that TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is predicted within the next century. If she continues doing what she does but doesn't do it well enough, she might live to see it.

* WrongGenreSavvy: While Sunshine reads a ''lot'' of gory, goth-y vampire literature, her reading material shows vampires as AlwaysChaoticEvil, which means that Bo is more or less what she expects (only worse), but she's totally unprepared for Con--the FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire trope simply doesn't exist in her world.

* FamilyThemeNaming: All the Blaises are named after black things (Onyx, Raven, etc).