The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS MATERIAL UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18.
Release Date: July 17, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
320 Pages
A debut unlike any other, Shine, Shine, Shine is a shocking, searing, breathless love story, a gripping portrait of modern family, and a stunning exploration of love, death and what it means to be human
Sunny Mann has masterminded a life for herself and her family in a quiet Virginia town. Her house and her friends are picture-perfect. Even her genius husband, Maxon, has been trained to pass for normal. But when a fender bender on an average day sends her coiffed blonde wig sailing out the window, her secret is exposed. Not only is she bald, Sunny is nothing like the Stepford wife she’s trying to be. As her facade begins to unravel, we discover the singular world of Sunny, an everywoman searching for the perfect life, and Maxon, an astronaut on his way to colonize the moon.
Theirs is a wondrous, strange relationship formed of dark secrets, decades-old murders and the urgent desire for connection. As children, the bald, temperamental Sunny and the neglected savant Maxon found an unlikely friendship no one else could understand. She taught him to feel—helped him translate his intelligence for numbers into a language of emotion. He saw her spirit where others saw only a freak. As they grew into adults, their profound understanding blossomed into love and marriage.
But with motherhood comes a craving for normalcy that begins to strangle Sunny’s marriage and family. As Sunny and Maxon are on the brink of destruction, at each other’s throats with blame and fear of how they’ve lost their way, Maxon departs for the moon, where he’s charged with programming the robots that will build the fledgling colony. Just as the car accident jars Sunny out of her wig and into an awareness of what she really needs, an accident involving Maxon’s rocket threatens everything they’ve built, revealing the things they’ve kept hidden. And nothing will ever be the same.
WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS MATERIAL UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18.
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Review:
Shine, Shine, Shine is the strangest book that I've ever read. Not in a bad way, not at all, but I don't think I'll ever be able to rate it. It's so out of the norm that I can't rate it by the standards of my usual usual rating system.
To be honest, the cover is what drew me into this book. It's gorgeous, a bit immature for the plot and writing style, but gorgeous nonetheless. I saw it on Netgalley and didn't read about the book or even check the genre, I just saw the cover and immediately requested the book. I'll learn my lesson about judging books by their covers one day, but in this case, my instinct was spot-on.
Shine, Shine, Shine was not what I was expecting. I couldn't decide if, by the summary, it would be about aliens or it would be contemporary. Even though Maxon, one of the main characters, acted like an alien and Sunny, the other main character, looked like an alien, this was definitely a contemporary novel.
I loved Maxon. He is awkward and definitely not social creature, but he loves Sunny with all of his heart. That fact grows clearer as the book progresses. Even though he's not with her in person, as he is in space, Sunny and their children are what he thinks of most. I had trouble reading from Sunny's perspective sometimes. She isn't the easiest character to like. She's self-centered, sometimes cruel, emotionally stunted, but her intentions were honest and relatable. So while I didn't always like her, I rooted for her and Maxon to get the happily-ever-after that they deserved.
The secondary characters were interesting. There weren't many that played a big role in the story, but the ones that were closest to Sunny - her mother and two best friends, helped her learn lessons about being who you are and not who you think you should be. I was surprised to gain a lesson myself from this story, but I did. This is a great book for people who need help being themselves. I think the main thing to take from this book is that everyone has crazy within them so no one should be afraid to be themselves because those who care about them will continue to do so even if they are odd.
The end… I didn't like the end. I am a very cliche ending person. I love to know what happens to the characters. That means I'm not a fan of open-ended endings. There isn't anything wrong with them, but I need to know that the characters I've come to care about get their happily-ever-afters. So while the way the book leaves off left me wanting, I think it fits the novel better than the ending I wished for.
Shine, Shine, Shine was captivating. The writing was absolutely phenomenal. I am not ashamed to say I was brought to tears more than once by the prose and plot that the author weaves. I put this book down once and that was to sleep. Besides sleeping, I couldn't put the book down long enough to do something else. All of the elements of this book made it perfect. I think many adults will enjoy this. I think that this is a book that people will love or hate. It's not the easiest book to connect with, but if you give it a chance, I think many adults will like it.
I received and e-copy of this novel from the publisher through Netgalley for my honest opinion and review.
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