Author: S.M. McEachern
Page count: 325 pages, ebook.
Publishing date: November 2013
Publisher: Clownfish Publishing
My rating: 4.5/5 stars!
Blurb:
Desperate to find refuge from the nuclear storm, a group of civilians discover a secret government bio-dome. Greeted by a hail of bullets and told to turn back, the frantic refugees stand their ground. They are grudgingly permitted entry, but the price of admission is high. Two hundred and eighty-three years later…
Life as a slave in the Pit had never been easy, but for seventeen-year-old Sunny O’Donnell it was quickly falling apart. Her mother had been killed in the annual spring Cull, leaving her alone with a father who was no longer interested in living the short time he had left. Not that she blamed him for mourning. Her own heart was aching with overwhelming grief. But if they didn’t earn enough credits to keep their place inside the Pit, they would be kicked out into a world still teeming with radiation. That left her to earn the credits for both of them, and it didn’t help that her boyfriend, Reyes Crowe, was pressuring her to marry him and abandon her father.
Sunny didn’t think life could get any worse until a chance encounter with Leisel Holt, the president's daughter, and her fiancé, Jack Kenner, leaves her accused of treason. Slated for execution, she escapes with a man she considers an enemy and discovers she not only has to work with him to survive, but also to lead the revolution.
I read this book back in January, and I loved it. I've been wanting to review this title for a while now but have just now had the opportunity to do it. I will admit that I had my reservations when I started this book particularly because I'd heard nothing about it. My friends had not read this book. People on my Goodreads hadn't read it either. Finally, after browsing through reviews on its Goodreads page, I decided that I would give this a shot.
I'm glad I did because it was magnificent.
Oh, how I loved the world building in Sunset Rising! A good book must have a strong sense of world building. The reader must be able to understand the world and what's happening around the characters in the story otherwise there will be confusion. S.M. McEachern did a wonderful job on creating an intricate society, the rules, and the setting. This could have been difficult considering the setting of this story is focused completely on the bio-dome and there isn't many places for the characters to go. The reader is left in certain places. There isn't much wiggle room. In doing this, the author must have realized that this could mean things would get boring to the reader and quickly. However, she fought against that with such wonderful world building. Her ideas were woven together in an interesting web that all seemed to fit together. There were so many interesting tidbits about the bio-dome and the way things were run that I can't help but applaud the author.
I loved learning about the Pit. It was so awful, so terrible, that I had such pity for the people that had to live in that filth. When I can sympathize with characters that means that the author is doing a great job of portraying the hopelessness of the situation and being able to tug at my emotions. I can't imagine living in the Pit but this is all Sunny and the rest of the characters have ever known. They've never felt silk sheets or warm showers. They don't know what it's like to not have calluses on their hands.
They're slaves. The operation of the bio-dome depends on their work.
Sunny knows this. She's not stupid. She doesn't have the luxury of dreaming about fairy tale endings and going to parties in beautiful dresses. She has more important things to worry about like keeping her father alive after her mothers' death. Nothing in her life has ever been easy- even her relationship with Reyes, the boy who wants to marry her. But Sunny knows that she doesn't want that life. She doesn't have the time to think about marrying when the rest of her life is falling apart around her. Things can't get worse, right?
Wrong.
After a huge betrayal from Leisel Holt, Sunny and an unlikely ally must hide from the tyrannical president of the bio-dome. Fleeing deep into the Pit, Sunny and her accomplice must keep from being noticed. Being caught means certain death for both of them. But because of the events leading up to Leisel's betrayal, the rest of the people in the Pit are ready to fight back against the president and they need someone to lead it - Sunny.
CHARACTERS:
I love love love Sunny! She's everything that I wish for in a heroine: cunning, sassy, sarcastic, realistic, loyal, and brave. She's not whiny, bratty, or a giggling mess. While the Pit has practically taken away the souls of others, it has molded Sunny into a strong, fierce young woman. She doesn't take much crap from anyone. She knows black from white and, despite this, sometimes treads in the grays. She doesn't have time for petty crap. She's fighting for her life and the lives of the people she loves. She'll do anything and everything to keep them safe. That's what I love about her. Despite the horrors of the Pit, Sunny has managed to become a respectable person.
I love Jack Kenner, the mysterious fiance of Leisel and unusual ally of Sunny. He's calm, collected, and realistic. He's smart, charming, and quite handsome. Right from the bat, I wanted Sunny and Jack to become this dynamic duo. He's not the terrible person everyone thinks he is and I think he does a good job of showing everyone in the Pit that he isn't like the monsters he's lived with his entire life. He's worthy of being a main character, and I can't wait to see how he'll exceed my already high expectations in book two.
As for side characters, I enjoyed them all. I think they add a certain "spice" to the book that if it didn't have would make it bland. Of all of them, I think I liked Leisel the best. She's cruel, sadistic, and twisted. Even so, I think there's more to her than meets the eye. I don't think she's as cruel as everyone thinks she is. I have hope that she'll redeem herself in future chapters. I also enjoyed Sunny's father even though he wasn't in the book that much. I rather despised him at the beginning of the book for falling apart when he should have been taking care of Sunny but as the chapters went along I could see some qualities in him that I did like. At the end of the book I was happy that he was Sunny's father. He isn't perfect but he's doing the best he can considering all he's went through.
ROMANCE:
I think anyone with a brain knows that Sunny and Jack are going to have some kind of chemistry together. We also know that Reyes is going to cause some problems. It's also obvious that there's a love triangle. Before you run away screaming, the love triangle is not that bad! It's under-developed and I think there's a reason for that. Sunny already knows she doesn't want to marry Reyes. It's awkward between them. I get hot and steamy when Sunny and Jack are together... I think it's obvious, people.
The romance isn't the focus of this story. This is about hope and rebellion. This is about taking the fear inside you and turning it into something productive. This is about having faith in the people you love and trusting each other. THIS is what I got from Sunset Rising.
Oh, and I also got some awesome action scenes and a total cliffhanger of an ending. Total awesomeness.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
Read this. Read this or be an idiot. There is no in-between.
Until next time,
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