Sunshine: A Novel

Product Information

Sunshine is a compelling, heart-warming graphic novel that tells the story of a young man helping at a camp for seriously ill kids. As the book unfolds, we learn about the history of the families. This connects the protagonist, Jarrett, to these children for life, and they stay in touch long after the camp is over.

The story told has it’s far share of drama, which is a lot!!! It would make a great TV soapie! Loved the friendships, the travelling aspects from state to state and Sunshine’s overseas stint in Japan - scary stuff! With echoes of Jacqueline Wilson's well-crafted storytelling, we the readers are treated to an story that's bursting with fun, friendship and family, kindness, wisdom and bravery. Having recently read 'The Octopus, Dadu and Me' by Lucy Ann Unwin, it was a treat to have again a focus on the special relationship between a girl and her Grandad. Grandad Bob is Sunshine's biggest supporter, and shares his experience to guide her through the ups and downs of friendships and school life. The bond between them, and indeed between all members of Sunshine's family, adds another layer of heart to a story already full of warmth. So what about shelves that call it YA? Why didn't I also do the same? Because she's apparently a quarter of a century old. Long out of HS and working happily in a bakery. That *might* be called a tiny tiny sliver of the new-adult market, but there's a LOT of dark stuff going on here with complicated emotions and reactions. It's definitely not simple and its often beautifully adult. :) The close relationship between Sunshine and her grandfather is one of the real strengths of this story. Her interactions with Grandpa Bobby allow in not only the positive messages that her grandfather gives this young girl, but also serve to enrich the multicultural aspects of the story telling in the book. To me, you choose to be either a stripper or a sex worker, and there’s no grey area. If you perform any kind of sexual act with a man for money, you’re no longer an exotic dancer because you have crossed that line."

Sunshine act as an agent providing a web search interface between you and various third party suppliers My favourite quote from Grandad says it all when it comes to knowing what you need in your life when choices cross your path.

Each day includes a scripture, author's personal story or notes, ways to get through this trial in life, and so much positivity & best of all it's relatable. Told in alternating POV’s between the four main characters, this cozy mystery struggles to gain its footing for a very long time. Character development is slow and immature. Sure, some key items are clearly being reserved for future volumes but there was barely enough information to manage relationships between the primaries and provide structure. My mind kept wandering and I even fell asleep a few times! As for the murder mystery, I have to say that had me completely stumped. I didn’t even have a list of suspects and had no idea where to even begin. That is not to say the reveal comes from nowhere but just that it was hidden well and made me think I missed hints somewhere along the line. As the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together, it was all very plausible. Nooo. Let's talk about how her biker boyfriend is nice and really good at not really being too talky or bothering her about stuff. I think it's worth just being aware as a librarian or teacher, that death from cancer is a storyline within the book. It is dealt with sensitively, however, for some children this may be a triggering issue.

About the Book and Author / Artist

Moira is a retired DCI, who moved from London to Florida to start enjoying an early retirement in a rather luxurious and, supposedly, incredibly safe community. But The Homestead is not the paradise it promises to be in the brochures. As Moira discovers when one morning she comes across the body of a woman floating in a pool. The local police force doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to investigate so Moira and three other residents of The Homestead, also former law enforcement, take matters into their own hands. I pretty much do the same succession of poses every time, each one a hint that another clothing item is about to come off. The talent is in the build-up. You want to leave the nudity to the last song, otherwise it gets really difficult and boring as you try to entertain them with something more than the main event: a view of vagina. The strippers favourite customers are Americans, nice polite men who spend money like water. Let me try to tell you about the kind of excitement a US Navy ship brings to a small city. The troops are everywhere you look: perfect specimens with flawless bodies and faces that rival those of Calvin Klein models. They have money to wipe their arses with. They are unfailingly polite and charming. They say things like, ‘May I have the honour of a hundred-dollar lap dance, ma’am?’ rather than the Australian mantra of ‘Show me ya gash for a twenty?’ Not that she would want to work in the US, as she says that The best thing about stage dances is that you get to keep all the tips, without paying any commission to the club. Stage dances add up: you can sometimes make a few hundred from them by the end of the night. Australia has it quite good in this sense, at least compared to the US; as I learned when I worked there, they follow a stupid tradition of tipping one dollar bill at a time. Reading this book, I can't be sure it's not fiction. Every chapter ends on a cliff-hanger as it were. The ending with the knight in shining armour called Orion is forseeable from very early on, although she doesn't actually date him until almost the end. Strangely I do know a psychiatrist in Australia who fits the physical description she gives called Orion! His parents used to live on the island on a boat. We go on Sunshine’s personal journey which weaves itself seamlessly as it shines the spotlight on the stripping profession. The book answers the questions a lot of people have - How much do these girls really make? Is it all glamour, drugs and alcohol? You might even be surprised to learn what’s illegal in Australia concerning the profession.

I liked Sunshine. Despite her ADD and obsession with baking (I hate cooking with a passion). She felt real. She was sometimes snarky, sometimes frustrating, sometimes puzzling but always interesting and complex and believable as a character. There is one particular swearword I wished the book hadn't used (it starts with C and rhymes with bunt... figure it out.) For me, Sunshine is like if Go Ask Alice was a good book. It's a novel based on the writing of a young woman who dies under extraordinary circumstances. The difference is that Sunshine takes on bone cancer rather than drugs, and it's actually based on a real person's life. At this point, the truthiness of Alice appears to be known to everyone except the book's publicity team. With Sunshine, we not only have proof of its general truth, we know the name of the woman--Jacquelyn Helton--whose story inspired the book. For some reason, Steph Broadribb decided to write 'Death In The Sunshine' in the third person present tense. I found this very distracting. I kept translating it in my head to third person past tense, which seems a more natural way of describing things. I've seen third person present tense used in short stories to increase a sense of immediacy and or intimacy but this story doesn't deliver either of those things. The story feels like it's being told at arm's length. Even though each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the main characters, you don't get inside their heads. It reads like a screenplay with added notes for the actors. I was really looking forward to this book/series about retired cops who find each other in a senior community in sunny Florida. It was funny that 3 of the 4 main characters were from the UK and all ended up at the same small place. That will probably figure into the storyline in following book(s). There are many British spellings used throughout the text, fyi. Under normal circumstances, I could read a book like this in 2 hours but not the case with “Death in Sunshine”

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