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eggjen's review against another edition
3.0
This book was hard to get into at times but it was also fascinating and told a really interesting story. I think the author (or perhaps just her main character) bordered on repetitive often but then I think that might have just been her written way of expressing Sunny's obsession with maintaining normalcy or perfection. Overall, I did like it.
sabrinahughes's review against another edition
Stopped bc of a scene of animal abuse.
iceangel32's review against another edition
2.0
It was hard to get through this book. I just could not get into it and usually like books with autistic characters. It seemed like such a good story, husband in space..wife trying to make ends meet on earth. Sunny was such a strong woman, pregnant with an autistic son and mother dying. She was also dealing with her own issues. I like the underlining message that Sunny learns...everyone is dealing with something...covering it up so no one knows about it, she is not alone in hiding things about herself.
geekwayne's review against another edition
4.0
Reminiscent of the best of Anne Tyler and John Irving, 'Shine, Shine, Shine' is a brilliant debut novel. Quirky and strange throughout with situations that keep you off balance and wondering.
At the beginning of the Sunny would seem to be a typical housewife, her husband Maxon is an astronaut carrying robots to the moon, Bubber is their autistic son and Sunny's mother is dying of cancer. All would seem to be the normal course of things until an accident or two forces an abrupt change in the arc of things. At that point, each character chooses, or is forced, to give something up, but in the process becomes more fully who they actually are.
The story is told in a somewhat non-linear fashion, and it works very well to chronicle Sunny's relationship with her socially awkward husband, her relationship with her dying mother, and the choices that got her where she currently is.
Quirky and unusual, the book is filled with the struggle and whimsy of why we choose to love another and what it truly means to finally let go and be ourselves.
At the beginning of the Sunny would seem to be a typical housewife, her husband Maxon is an astronaut carrying robots to the moon, Bubber is their autistic son and Sunny's mother is dying of cancer. All would seem to be the normal course of things until an accident or two forces an abrupt change in the arc of things. At that point, each character chooses, or is forced, to give something up, but in the process becomes more fully who they actually are.
The story is told in a somewhat non-linear fashion, and it works very well to chronicle Sunny's relationship with her socially awkward husband, her relationship with her dying mother, and the choices that got her where she currently is.
Quirky and unusual, the book is filled with the struggle and whimsy of why we choose to love another and what it truly means to finally let go and be ourselves.
abbeyhar103's review against another edition
2.0
I read this because of the robot concept. To me, this book was a lot of different pieces that didn't fit that well together. And then once in a while the author would insert something that she thought was "quotable" but it didn't really go with the rest. Also it seemed almost offensive to autistic kids : the idea that, with enough love and patience, something with autism can cast away medicine; they just need good enough parents.
alisonlaw's review against another edition
5.0
This novel is reminiscent of one of my favorite books of all time, John Irving's World According to Garp. I fell in love with the flawed and vibrant characters of Sonny, Maxon, Emma and Bubber, whose everyday lives are tinged with heartache and whimsy. I read once that we are our most beautiful selves when we are most who we are. That is one of the big takeaways from this book for me. However, I think each person will discover something poignant and resonant in Shine Shine Shine.
sjruskin's review against another edition
4.0
This really not my typical type of book. The characters are weird and the setting is strange, but I really enjoyed it. It pulls you in with its uniqueness and makes you wonder about what going on and you find as you keep reading and learn a little more that you start to care. Just little by little. It is a great lesson of learn to be yourself and forget what others call "normal."
mcearl12's review against another edition
3.0
If I could, I'd give the first half a 2 and second half a 3.5 rating. Not a fan of the writing style, but it was an interesting premise. Can't say I would recommend it, though.
Having said that there were gems: 'As an orphan, you are alone. There is no one on the earth watching, when you say, "Look at me!" There is no one standing in the gap between you and oblivion, putting up her hands, and saying "Stop." '
Having said that there were gems: 'As an orphan, you are alone. There is no one on the earth watching, when you say, "Look at me!" There is no one standing in the gap between you and oblivion, putting up her hands, and saying "Stop." '
kanejim57's review against another edition
5.0
"This is the story of an astronaut who was lost in space, and the wife he left behind. Or this is the story of a brave man who survived the wreck of the first rocket sent into space with the intent to colonize the moon... This is the story of a bulge, a bud, the way the human race tried to subdivide, the bud it formed outside the universe, and what happened to that bud, and what happened to the Earth, too, the mother Earth, after the bud was burst." page 2
And with this introduction, Lydia Netzer introduces us to the unique and delightful Mann family, Maxon the genius husband astronaut, Sunny the slender and many sided and yet clearly focused wife, and Bubber their autistic child.
But Shine, Shine, Shine, to be published next month by St. Martin's press, is also about secrets, death, lying, image management, and morality. In a unique narrative style, which reminds me at times of Faulkner's stream of consciousness descriptions of his Yoknapatawpha County characters, Netzer, peels back the layers of Maxon and Sunny's souls, not just heart but soul, as she tells their story of life, death, re-birth through fleeing one country, death, life, re-birth and so on through this unique novel.
The characters are unique. Maxon is a genus but to this review was borderline mad. Sunny is wounded but is cold blooded and very measured. The support casting of characters, especially their mothers, add both a veneer of shallow suburban sophistication to a realistic and hard bitten realism that is forged in the Pennsylvania woods where Maxson and Sunny meet in childhood.
What I liked about this novel is that you never knew where the story was headed. As the narrative resides deep within the main character's subconscious thoughts and feelings which are revealed in scenes such as when Sunny goes into labor and we read her garbled and pain driven thoughts as she wrestles with this pregnancy while Maxon is in space. "In the pain and the inversion, with all her blood a hot bubble in her head, she finally knew. She was unfit, and she was bald... I'm sorry, said the body to the baby. "I'm bald. I've made terrible mistakes."
This was a refreshing, and surprising novel, that will leave you wondering what is going to happen next.
On my very unscientific scale, I rate this novel a "great" read!
Note: I received an advance readers copy of this book via Amazon Vine review program in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review.
And with this introduction, Lydia Netzer introduces us to the unique and delightful Mann family, Maxon the genius husband astronaut, Sunny the slender and many sided and yet clearly focused wife, and Bubber their autistic child.
But Shine, Shine, Shine, to be published next month by St. Martin's press, is also about secrets, death, lying, image management, and morality. In a unique narrative style, which reminds me at times of Faulkner's stream of consciousness descriptions of his Yoknapatawpha County characters, Netzer, peels back the layers of Maxon and Sunny's souls, not just heart but soul, as she tells their story of life, death, re-birth through fleeing one country, death, life, re-birth and so on through this unique novel.
The characters are unique. Maxon is a genus but to this review was borderline mad. Sunny is wounded but is cold blooded and very measured. The support casting of characters, especially their mothers, add both a veneer of shallow suburban sophistication to a realistic and hard bitten realism that is forged in the Pennsylvania woods where Maxson and Sunny meet in childhood.
What I liked about this novel is that you never knew where the story was headed. As the narrative resides deep within the main character's subconscious thoughts and feelings which are revealed in scenes such as when Sunny goes into labor and we read her garbled and pain driven thoughts as she wrestles with this pregnancy while Maxon is in space. "In the pain and the inversion, with all her blood a hot bubble in her head, she finally knew. She was unfit, and she was bald... I'm sorry, said the body to the baby. "I'm bald. I've made terrible mistakes."
This was a refreshing, and surprising novel, that will leave you wondering what is going to happen next.
On my very unscientific scale, I rate this novel a "great" read!
Note: I received an advance readers copy of this book via Amazon Vine review program in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review.
lriopel's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyable novel about what it means to be different, the reasons people invent for trying not to be different, and learning to love people (including oneself) for being exactly who they are. Not without seriousness and substance, but a fairly light and easy read. Recommend.