Robin McKinley hasn't written many books, but the books she has written have been good. She won the Newbery Medal for her The Hero and The Crown. I believe that I like her The Outlaws of Sherwood best. It is a re-telling of the story of Robin Hood and his band. It has been years since I read it, but I remember it as having lots of nitty-gritty detail on life in Sherwood Forest, and some memorable characters, and not just the ones in all the stories of Robin Hood.
I wasn't expecting Sunshine (New York: Berkley, 2003). I don't want to give away too much (although the book doesn't have a complicated plot) but let's put it this way -- Sunshine, the protagonist, spends a lot of the book dealing with vampires, and one vampire in particular. I guess I would categorize Sunshine as a book about a woman having a transforming experience. (She does not become a vampire herself -- that's not what I mean.) I wasn't expecting this emphasis on evil spirits (or persons) from McKinley. The closest I can remember in her writing is that there is a dark spirit of a dead dragon in the series including The Hero and the Crown.
McKinley, again, is great with details, and makes up a lot of them, concerning magic and a world threatened by vampires, also about baking (Sunshine bakes for an eatery.) I enjoyed the book, but I don't expect to read any more books about vampires for quite a while, and I didn't know I was going to when I started this one.
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