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Shine Shine Shine
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.
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.
309 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
238 people are currently reading
10867 people want to read
About the author
Lydia Netzer
4 books297 followersLydia Netzer lives in Virginia with her two children and husband.
Her first novel, Shine Shine Shine, was published by St. Martin's Press. It was an IndieNext Pick, a SIBA Okra Pick, a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, Amazon's Spotlight Book in Best Books of July 2012, a People's Pick in People Magazine, and a NYT Notable Book.
Her second novel, How to Tell Toledo From the Night Sky, was published by St. Martin's Press in July 2014, and Entertainment Weekly called it a "lovely summer valentine."
You can follow her on Substack and Facebook or visit her web site for more info.
Her first novel, Shine Shine Shine, was published by St. Martin's Press. It was an IndieNext Pick, a SIBA Okra Pick, a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, Amazon's Spotlight Book in Best Books of July 2012, a People's Pick in People Magazine, and a NYT Notable Book.
Her second novel, How to Tell Toledo From the Night Sky, was published by St. Martin's Press in July 2014, and Entertainment Weekly called it a "lovely summer valentine."
You can follow her on Substack and Facebook or visit her web site for more info.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,532 reviews
July 31, 2012
Robots in Space: A Love Story
“Shine Shine Shine” deftly explores the dichotomy between fulfilling your own destiny vs. living to please others. It also explores the nature of illness. What constitutes individuality vs. the pressure of conformity and the need to be part of the group? When does uniqueness spill into mental illness?
As I read I kept trying to define the tone of this book. Quirky? Somewhat but the tone is beyond that. Whimsical? Yes it is that but not in a childlike way. Fanciful? A little but the action feels grounded in reality, at least emotional honesty. In the end I have to conclude there is no exact word that will precisely define “Shine”; it’s too unique. Netzer writes in a genre all her own. There are times that the book threatens to spill syrup but she always skirts that stickiness. There isn’t a misstep anywhere. She’s not hitting you over the head with beliefs, she’s exploring with you as an equal. She affirms that everyone has something that makes them feel odd, sets them apart. Some of these traits are superficial, some more profound. We can either change are differences if possible or we can embrace them and attempt to use them to our advantage. Netzer’s characters grow into themselves. Their love and regard for one another strengthens. Almost best of all nothing feels inevitable in “Shine”. The reader is always left guessing where we’re heading. Netzer’s is one of the freshest voices of 2012 in my opinion. We’re not robots. Uniqueness is grand. I want to stay on her spaceship.
“Shine Shine Shine” deftly explores the dichotomy between fulfilling your own destiny vs. living to please others. It also explores the nature of illness. What constitutes individuality vs. the pressure of conformity and the need to be part of the group? When does uniqueness spill into mental illness?
As I read I kept trying to define the tone of this book. Quirky? Somewhat but the tone is beyond that. Whimsical? Yes it is that but not in a childlike way. Fanciful? A little but the action feels grounded in reality, at least emotional honesty. In the end I have to conclude there is no exact word that will precisely define “Shine”; it’s too unique. Netzer writes in a genre all her own. There are times that the book threatens to spill syrup but she always skirts that stickiness. There isn’t a misstep anywhere. She’s not hitting you over the head with beliefs, she’s exploring with you as an equal. She affirms that everyone has something that makes them feel odd, sets them apart. Some of these traits are superficial, some more profound. We can either change are differences if possible or we can embrace them and attempt to use them to our advantage. Netzer’s characters grow into themselves. Their love and regard for one another strengthens. Almost best of all nothing feels inevitable in “Shine”. The reader is always left guessing where we’re heading. Netzer’s is one of the freshest voices of 2012 in my opinion. We’re not robots. Uniqueness is grand. I want to stay on her spaceship.
September 6, 2012
Well, I must be showing my age. I just don't see this as a 4-5 star book. Since I finished it, I gave it 2 stars. But it was close. It is full of the most quirky, not to say damaged, characters I have ever read. No one in the book - mother(s), fathers, daughters, sons, babies, neighbors, you name it are just average people. It is one thing to read a book with a few characters that stand out as unique and captivating. But for every single person to be their own soap opera?? Come on. The baldness - OK, I thought that was an interesting hook - something everyone could relate to, but didn't have to endure. Beware spoilers ahead. But Sunny isn't just bald, she is strange. Her mother is dying in a hospital and after she pulls the plug, can't bring herself to get out of the car and go see her. Her son is autistic - and of course he isn't responding to standard treatment - that would be too simple. Her husband is a brilliant-millionaire-astronaut ( SURE !! ) who has something like aspergers. He only relates to Sunny, unless Sunny gives him social clues so he can survive in their upscale neighborhood. Several murders happen ( in the past ). Every chapter is full of one bizarre stunt after another. And to just top it all off, when she goes into labor, instead of calling a taxi ( I assume she owned a cell phone ) she waddles to a neighbor's house ( he is nuts of course ) and then waddles back to deliver the baby on the floor of her own house. Have you had enough yet? Because there is a lot more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2012
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.
December 9, 2012
Netzer has a strange clipped style which lures you into assuming it's very precise and terse, yet the more I read the more disappointing it is: it actually hardly ever hits the mark, always just a bit off till you're not really sure what she's saying. Her imagery is similarly often more weird than clear; more often than not you're not at all sure what that imagery is supposed to mean. To my mind there is enough ambiguity in the world without the author adding to it .
More importantly,I can stomach the love of 2 outcast oddballs, even identify,but when all this gets mixed up with the utterly offbeat Burmese story it becomes too subjective and irrelevant to the average reader. On top, when we find out who gave the father away to the Communists it makes no sense; there is no explanation for it so why insert it at all?
The author has a very annoying habit of constantly stopping the story to go back with memories, which actually end up making the bulk of the book. Oft times I just skipped these in order to proceed with the story. And sometimes there are gross mistakes, such as in one of those lengthy reminiscence Sunny is riding her pony as a child and the breeze flutters through her hair, when it was made amply clear she did not have a single hair and did not wear a wig until she became pregnant at adulthood. I also assume she took great liberty in her descriptions of NASA and its missions, as for instance doesn't make sense they wouldn't take into account a meteor hit-perhaps the author wouldn't ,but top world scientists you would assume would. Also it's putative that the moon is uninhabitable so what's this nutty idea of creating a colony of robots there?I also didn't care for Bubber suddenly appearing in Maxon's imagination on the moon and telling him what to do.Then there is the terrible exaggeration of what Sunny finds underneath the shiny facade of Les Weathers; everyone has dark secrets underneath the smooth veneer but these are mainly less than kind thoughts and feelings; she didn't have to go to such extremes of a trashed house of a successful TV anchor-simply not believable.
More importantly,I can stomach the love of 2 outcast oddballs, even identify,but when all this gets mixed up with the utterly offbeat Burmese story it becomes too subjective and irrelevant to the average reader. On top, when we find out who gave the father away to the Communists it makes no sense; there is no explanation for it so why insert it at all?
The author has a very annoying habit of constantly stopping the story to go back with memories, which actually end up making the bulk of the book. Oft times I just skipped these in order to proceed with the story. And sometimes there are gross mistakes, such as in one of those lengthy reminiscence Sunny is riding her pony as a child and the breeze flutters through her hair, when it was made amply clear she did not have a single hair and did not wear a wig until she became pregnant at adulthood. I also assume she took great liberty in her descriptions of NASA and its missions, as for instance doesn't make sense they wouldn't take into account a meteor hit-perhaps the author wouldn't ,but top world scientists you would assume would. Also it's putative that the moon is uninhabitable so what's this nutty idea of creating a colony of robots there?I also didn't care for Bubber suddenly appearing in Maxon's imagination on the moon and telling him what to do.Then there is the terrible exaggeration of what Sunny finds underneath the shiny facade of Les Weathers; everyone has dark secrets underneath the smooth veneer but these are mainly less than kind thoughts and feelings; she didn't have to go to such extremes of a trashed house of a successful TV anchor-simply not believable.
June 15, 2012
I wasn't sure about this in the beginning, but I ended up really enjoying this book.
Born totally hairless in Burma, Sunny spends her married life in wigs, false eyelashes, and eyebrows. Her husband, Maxon, a genius working for NASA with few natural social skills, is the only person in Sunny's life besides her mother, Emma, and son, Bubber, who know. Through a series of flashbacks, we see how Sunny lost her father, fled Burma to come to Pennsylvania, grew up, and fell in love.
Now pregnant for the second time, Sunny finds herself dealing with a lot while Maxon is in outer space: her dying mother, her secret exposed, Bubber's issues, and Maxon's accident in space.
The plot sounds a little far-fetched and almost un-relatable, but the story is really interesting.
My only real complaint is that Netzer did such a good job leading up to the end, I felt like the ending should have been more. More what? I'm not sure. But it wraps up so quickly, I'm not sure that the ending does the book total justice.
Born totally hairless in Burma, Sunny spends her married life in wigs, false eyelashes, and eyebrows. Her husband, Maxon, a genius working for NASA with few natural social skills, is the only person in Sunny's life besides her mother, Emma, and son, Bubber, who know. Through a series of flashbacks, we see how Sunny lost her father, fled Burma to come to Pennsylvania, grew up, and fell in love.
Now pregnant for the second time, Sunny finds herself dealing with a lot while Maxon is in outer space: her dying mother, her secret exposed, Bubber's issues, and Maxon's accident in space.
The plot sounds a little far-fetched and almost un-relatable, but the story is really interesting.
My only real complaint is that Netzer did such a good job leading up to the end, I felt like the ending should have been more. More what? I'm not sure. But it wraps up so quickly, I'm not sure that the ending does the book total justice.
July 11, 2012
This is such a strange book. It's incredibly ambitious, one that has been well-reviewed and one that I didn't connect with at all.
I love the idea behind it, the way that everyone is trying their best to be normal, even though they all have their very obvious impediments against normalcy. Maxon and Bubber are both autistic (although Maxon wasn't diagnosed) and Sunny is bald. From the moment Sunny and Maxon decided to have a baby, Sunny begins a huge campaign for normalcy. She starts wearing a wig, she teaches Maxon how to interact with people (or, more accurately, continues to teach him) and even makes sure that they have the right house and the right car.
But I didn't connect with any of the characters and even when there were plot twists or danger, I didn't quite care about any of it.
Again, though, everyone else seems to love this book, so it's highly possible the fault is mine.
I love the idea behind it, the way that everyone is trying their best to be normal, even though they all have their very obvious impediments against normalcy. Maxon and Bubber are both autistic (although Maxon wasn't diagnosed) and Sunny is bald. From the moment Sunny and Maxon decided to have a baby, Sunny begins a huge campaign for normalcy. She starts wearing a wig, she teaches Maxon how to interact with people (or, more accurately, continues to teach him) and even makes sure that they have the right house and the right car.
But I didn't connect with any of the characters and even when there were plot twists or danger, I didn't quite care about any of it.
Again, though, everyone else seems to love this book, so it's highly possible the fault is mine.
September 8, 2015
She felt she had been living under clouds, underwater, hearing at low volume, seeing at a distance. Without the wig, what she saw was all very awful. Yes, the whole world. There just wasn't any point in pretending that it was fine.
Probably more of a 3.5 star rating, but because of it being different than anything else I've ever read, I'm upping it to a full 4 stars. Shine, Shine, Shine is weird - so weird that I almost gave up on it at the 20% mark, but I persisted, and I'm so happy I did. It took me a while to feel empathy for Sunny, but I immediately fell in love with Maxon. When last did you read a book that made you wonder things like: If everyone on earth was on the aspergers spectrum would the world be a better place? This is not a light read. Even though it's odd and quirky, it sometimes makes you feel uncomfortable as you see bits of yourself in some of the characters. The independants review probably sums it up best: This is a novel about the strangeness of being human.
If you are comfortable reading something out of the normal genres, I highly recommend this. I will be reading more of her novels.
The Story: Sunny Mann has masterminded a perfect life for herself and her family in a quiet Virginia town. Even her genius husband, Maxon, an astronaut on his way to the moon, has been trained to pass for normal. But when a fender bender sends her blonde wig flying, her secret is exposed. Not only is she bald, but she's nothing like the Stepford wife she appears to be. As her façade begins to unravel, we discover the singular world of Sunny and Maxon, two outcasts who found unlikely love in one another. Theirs is a wondrous, strange relationship formed of dark secrets, long-forgotten murders and the urgent desire for connection.
August 25, 2012
A beautiful story of love, loss, space, the mind, childhood, marriage, birth, and the American dream. A pre-utopia that ends on a beautiful note, thrusting us all at once far into the future. Is it all in the mind or is it what really happens? Lydia Netzer is too good a writer to let us know. Instead, the whole thing hovers like a constellation. Gorgeous. All of it.
July 3, 2019
You've probably heard by now that the main characters, Sunny, Maxon and their son, Bubber, are eccentric, in the sense of being smart and weird simultaneously. But this story is more about the normal part of eccentricity, how people with unusual backgrounds or super-charged minds are nevertheless beautifully and painfully human. Sunny, Maxon and Bubber are not larger than life; their emotions and desires are the same size as those of the rest of us.
And yet their story is a special one, made special by the particularity of Netzer's observations and by the way the story runs back and forth through time, gathering our sympathy and affection with each pass. Netzler's prose is not poetic. It is commanding. She can do what she wants with words and sentences, and I was delighted to be pulled along.
At its heart, this is a love story. Not about finding great love and tending it, but about holding love at the center of everything, where it belongs. Sunny and Maxon's love for each other is a gravitational force, indomitable, and as real as the Earth itself. It's a beautiful thing.
And yet their story is a special one, made special by the particularity of Netzer's observations and by the way the story runs back and forth through time, gathering our sympathy and affection with each pass. Netzler's prose is not poetic. It is commanding. She can do what she wants with words and sentences, and I was delighted to be pulled along.
At its heart, this is a love story. Not about finding great love and tending it, but about holding love at the center of everything, where it belongs. Sunny and Maxon's love for each other is a gravitational force, indomitable, and as real as the Earth itself. It's a beautiful thing.
May 6, 2016
3 ½ stars
This was an odd little book, an ambitious little book and for the most part the author pulled it off.
I loved the idea behind the story. The way that everyone tries to benormal perfect even though they all have secrets they hide, but secrets that make them human, not flawed.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Sunny, the perfect suburban housewife, not a hair out of place nor a speck of dust in her house. She was not always the picture of perfection, in fact she was born as bald as an egg and had quite an eccentric upbringing, the love of her life Maxon is somewhere on the Asperger’s spectrum and the life they led as children were nowhere near most people’s idea of normal. Yet as soon as she found out she was pregnant with her first child she had this burning compulsion to be the perfect mother. She starts wearing a wig and starts looking at Maxon’s eccentricities as irritations.
I really liked the way how Maxon expresses his love for his wife and his reactions to the world in mathematical equations. How Sunny constantly tutored him on what normal response is to situations/people and how she felt almost protective of him when they were children.
There were a few minor flaws in the telling which prevented me from giving this a full 4 stars but overall the whole story had a very refreshingly different feel to it and I will definitely read more from this author.
I almost didn’t read this to the end. I put down the book at the 20% mark and read 2 other books only to come back and force myself to continue as this was a book club recommendation. So if you are not grabbed immediately just persist it gets better.
This was an odd little book, an ambitious little book and for the most part the author pulled it off.
I loved the idea behind the story. The way that everyone tries to be
The story is told from the viewpoint of Sunny, the perfect suburban housewife, not a hair out of place nor a speck of dust in her house. She was not always the picture of perfection, in fact she was born as bald as an egg and had quite an eccentric upbringing, the love of her life Maxon is somewhere on the Asperger’s spectrum and the life they led as children were nowhere near most people’s idea of normal. Yet as soon as she found out she was pregnant with her first child she had this burning compulsion to be the perfect mother. She starts wearing a wig and starts looking at Maxon’s eccentricities as irritations.
I really liked the way how Maxon expresses his love for his wife and his reactions to the world in mathematical equations. How Sunny constantly tutored him on what normal response is to situations/people and how she felt almost protective of him when they were children.
There were a few minor flaws in the telling which prevented me from giving this a full 4 stars but overall the whole story had a very refreshingly different feel to it and I will definitely read more from this author.
I almost didn’t read this to the end. I put down the book at the 20% mark and read 2 other books only to come back and force myself to continue as this was a book club recommendation. So if you are not grabbed immediately just persist it gets better.
March 26, 2016
3 stars - It was good.
So what do you get when you combine a girl that has hypotrichosis (no hair growth) in love with a boy that is a savant with Asperger's? Well, you get a very strange and original novel.
I can't even begin to give you a synopsis for or describe this novel as it is about everything all at once. At times I was very engaged and saw glimmers of brilliance, but other times it felt too repetitive and in need of an aggressive editing or simply over the top with the bizarreness. A mixed bag, but a good one to choose if you want an unique plot that you have not read before.
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Favorite Quote: There are three things that robots cannot do," wrote Maxon. Then beneath that on the page he wrote three dots, indented. Beside the first dot he wrote "Show preference without reason (LOVE)" and then "Doubt rational decisions (REGRET)" and finally "Trust data from a previously unreliable source (FORGIVE).
First Sentence: Deep in darkness, there was a tiny light.
So what do you get when you combine a girl that has hypotrichosis (no hair growth) in love with a boy that is a savant with Asperger's? Well, you get a very strange and original novel.
I can't even begin to give you a synopsis for or describe this novel as it is about everything all at once. At times I was very engaged and saw glimmers of brilliance, but other times it felt too repetitive and in need of an aggressive editing or simply over the top with the bizarreness. A mixed bag, but a good one to choose if you want an unique plot that you have not read before.
-------------------------------------------
Favorite Quote: There are three things that robots cannot do," wrote Maxon. Then beneath that on the page he wrote three dots, indented. Beside the first dot he wrote "Show preference without reason (LOVE)" and then "Doubt rational decisions (REGRET)" and finally "Trust data from a previously unreliable source (FORGIVE).
First Sentence: Deep in darkness, there was a tiny light.
March 12, 2013
What a great surprise. The first 50 pages in I really wasn't feeling this book. I was confused to why there were robots in it and why everything was in the 3rd person. 150 pages in I was hooked and didn't want to put it down. This book is a love story, a bizarre, twisted love story about how to love others but most importantly yourself. While that may sound ridiculously cheesy in execution it really wasn't.
The mechanical husband Maxom is going to the moon with robots to help prepare for human colonization, he's leaving his pregnant bald wife Sunny at home with their autistic son Bubber. Nothing is going according to plan. Sunny is trying to fit in with her wigs and being the perfect mother. Maxon is unable to express his feelings and lives by science and Sunny as the only things in his life that make sense. Without giving away spoilers this is the story of their past and future. And I want more! I want to know what happens next, I'm invested in this relationship and want to know what goes on next.
Fave Quote-
“There are three things that robots cannot do," wrote Maxon. Then beneath that on the page he wrote three dots, indented. Beside the first dot he wrote "Show preference without reason (LOVE)" and then "Doubt rational decisions (REGRET)" and finally "Trust data from a previously unreliable source (FORGIVE).”
The mechanical husband Maxom is going to the moon with robots to help prepare for human colonization, he's leaving his pregnant bald wife Sunny at home with their autistic son Bubber. Nothing is going according to plan. Sunny is trying to fit in with her wigs and being the perfect mother. Maxon is unable to express his feelings and lives by science and Sunny as the only things in his life that make sense. Without giving away spoilers this is the story of their past and future. And I want more! I want to know what happens next, I'm invested in this relationship and want to know what goes on next.
Fave Quote-
“There are three things that robots cannot do," wrote Maxon. Then beneath that on the page he wrote three dots, indented. Beside the first dot he wrote "Show preference without reason (LOVE)" and then "Doubt rational decisions (REGRET)" and finally "Trust data from a previously unreliable source (FORGIVE).”
March 25, 2013
Shine Shine Shine is not a book that can be easily tucked into a neat category. In fact, when my husband asked, "What's it about?", I told him that my description would fall short and also sound slightly crazy. But that is exactly what makes this book remarkable, and unforgettable.
It is a story of marriage, of motherhood, of self-image and selfishness, but also a tale of humor, family and loss. I'm not even going to bother to write the plot synopsis, other to say again that it fails mere works to write into a neat little box. So why should you read this book then, you ask? Well, because you won't have read anything like it before, and once you are past the first page, you won't want to stop until you have gotten to the very end. And as one who is a stickler for a "good" ending, you will not be disappointed. If you are looking for an absorbing story, beautifully told and something that speaks to your mind and heart, then look no further than this book. I simply cannot say enough good things about it.
It is a story of marriage, of motherhood, of self-image and selfishness, but also a tale of humor, family and loss. I'm not even going to bother to write the plot synopsis, other to say again that it fails mere works to write into a neat little box. So why should you read this book then, you ask? Well, because you won't have read anything like it before, and once you are past the first page, you won't want to stop until you have gotten to the very end. And as one who is a stickler for a "good" ending, you will not be disappointed. If you are looking for an absorbing story, beautifully told and something that speaks to your mind and heart, then look no further than this book. I simply cannot say enough good things about it.
November 16, 2014
I just can't go on. I'm quitting. I'm sorry, but this is a festering turd of a book. Don't get me wrong, I love to read-- I was an English major in college, so I can appreciate books I don't necessarily like. Not this one, though. I just don't understand all the glowing reviews for this novel. All of the characters are weird, so much so that I don't give a damn what happens to any of them. The plot is weird and many of the things that happen either don't make sense or aren't realistic. The writing style is weird; it's halting and try-hard, which is probably meant to highlight the characters' various mental issues, but it doesn't make me want to keep reading. This book is weird. Not quirky; that would imply that it's fun or interesting in some way.
Basically, if I could tear the pages out of this book and use it for toilet paper, I would, but even my bum deserves better treatment.
Basically, if I could tear the pages out of this book and use it for toilet paper, I would, but even my bum deserves better treatment.
August 3, 2012
Book Info: Genre: Literary Science Fiction Reading Level: Adult
Disclosure: I received a free eBook galley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: 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.
My Thoughts: The initial synopsis I read of this book at NetGalley lured me into accepting it; the longer synopsis I read above caused me to rethink my decision, but an agreement is an agreement, so I set out to give this book a read. And all I can way is, wow, I’m so glad I did!
Right away I was surprised at how engaging the book was; I was immediately pulled into it, into the beautifully flowing writing, into the lives of these not-so-normal people. I really can’t imagine what it would be like to be completely hairless, although I do know that the eyelashes, at least, serve an evolutionary purpose to help protect the eyes. I would have like to have seen a bit of a nod to that in the book, but there does not seem to be any sort of repercussion for Sunny’s condition, other than the defiance of societal norms (and, as it turns out, for most people, after the initial shock, it’s really not a big deal).
I enjoyed the character development – Sunny and Maxon have very interesting pasts, and flashbacks to their past are interspersed among the story. The secondary characters are also interesting – the television personality in their neighborhood (Les Weathers, I think), the other suburban housewives, the astronauts – all carefully individuated and created to you can get a feel for them fairly quickly.
Things get a bit rough at points, and the ending left me in tears – but good tears, happy tears, tears of joy, so don’t let that stop you. The overall plot is left unwrapped, although there are “visions” that I guess are supposed to show the future, so things are not left unfinished – just not completely for certain, if that makes sense. Anyway, this is a beautiful book, wonderfully well-written, and one I can highly recommend to almost anyone. Check it out.
Disclosure: I received a free eBook galley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: 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.
My Thoughts: The initial synopsis I read of this book at NetGalley lured me into accepting it; the longer synopsis I read above caused me to rethink my decision, but an agreement is an agreement, so I set out to give this book a read. And all I can way is, wow, I’m so glad I did!
Right away I was surprised at how engaging the book was; I was immediately pulled into it, into the beautifully flowing writing, into the lives of these not-so-normal people. I really can’t imagine what it would be like to be completely hairless, although I do know that the eyelashes, at least, serve an evolutionary purpose to help protect the eyes. I would have like to have seen a bit of a nod to that in the book, but there does not seem to be any sort of repercussion for Sunny’s condition, other than the defiance of societal norms (and, as it turns out, for most people, after the initial shock, it’s really not a big deal).
I enjoyed the character development – Sunny and Maxon have very interesting pasts, and flashbacks to their past are interspersed among the story. The secondary characters are also interesting – the television personality in their neighborhood (Les Weathers, I think), the other suburban housewives, the astronauts – all carefully individuated and created to you can get a feel for them fairly quickly.
Things get a bit rough at points, and the ending left me in tears – but good tears, happy tears, tears of joy, so don’t let that stop you. The overall plot is left unwrapped, although there are “visions” that I guess are supposed to show the future, so things are not left unfinished – just not completely for certain, if that makes sense. Anyway, this is a beautiful book, wonderfully well-written, and one I can highly recommend to almost anyone. Check it out.
September 25, 2012
I got this book from the library because Joshilyn Jackson (author of “A Grown Up Kind of Pretty”) recommended it highly on her website. After hearing so many good things about it, I really wanted to like this book. In the end, I thought it was ok, but I’m glad I borrowed a copy instead of shelling out my money for the hardback version.
The main character of the book is Sunny. At the start of the story, Sunny is pregnant with her second child, and her big secret is that she was born with a condition that made her completely hairless – she is bald, but she also has no eyelashes, eyebrows, or hair anywhere else on her body. When Sunny had her first baby, she began wearing wigs, because she decided she could not be bald and be a mother. Wearing the wig became part of her “Mom” persona, but Sunny realizes that the Mom wearing a wig is not who she really is. Sunny spends the rest of the novel trying to figure out if she can be her true self, Mom, and Maxon’s wife all at the same time.
Maxon, Sunny’s husband, either has autism or Asperger’s (it’s never stated clearly) and he is a mathematical and engineering genius. NASA has chosen him to go on a mission to the moon. I liked Maxon’s character, and I thought Netzer’s way of describing his thinking in code (If Teacher = Nagging, then Head = Nodding. Loop until Teacher = Quiet) was interesting. Maxon is on the rocket for the mission for the entire story – we only see him interact with Sunny through flashbacks.
The main theme that Netzer emphasized throughout the story is that no one is really “normal.” We all have our secrets. The problem I had with this message isn’t that I don’t agree with her; the problem was that the secrets Sunny finds out about other people (her mother, Maxon’s parents, a neighbor) were so bizarre that I just didn’t buy it. I know that lots of people live with extraordinary circumstances, but I don’t believe that everyone I know is sitting on a bombshell like these characters were. Another issue I had was how this book jumped around in time. In flashbacks, the characters are newly-weds, toddlers, new parents, high school kids, etc. I’ve read books where authors used this technique to gradually bring you into an awesome conclusion. In this book, it felt disjointed and clunky, and half the time I wasn’t sure what Netzer was trying to tell me or prepare me for. Maybe I’ll reread this in a few years and see something in it that I didn’t this time around, but for now, this book was not my favorite.
The main character of the book is Sunny. At the start of the story, Sunny is pregnant with her second child, and her big secret is that she was born with a condition that made her completely hairless – she is bald, but she also has no eyelashes, eyebrows, or hair anywhere else on her body. When Sunny had her first baby, she began wearing wigs, because she decided she could not be bald and be a mother. Wearing the wig became part of her “Mom” persona, but Sunny realizes that the Mom wearing a wig is not who she really is. Sunny spends the rest of the novel trying to figure out if she can be her true self, Mom, and Maxon’s wife all at the same time.
Maxon, Sunny’s husband, either has autism or Asperger’s (it’s never stated clearly) and he is a mathematical and engineering genius. NASA has chosen him to go on a mission to the moon. I liked Maxon’s character, and I thought Netzer’s way of describing his thinking in code (If Teacher = Nagging, then Head = Nodding. Loop until Teacher = Quiet) was interesting. Maxon is on the rocket for the mission for the entire story – we only see him interact with Sunny through flashbacks.
The main theme that Netzer emphasized throughout the story is that no one is really “normal.” We all have our secrets. The problem I had with this message isn’t that I don’t agree with her; the problem was that the secrets Sunny finds out about other people (her mother, Maxon’s parents, a neighbor) were so bizarre that I just didn’t buy it. I know that lots of people live with extraordinary circumstances, but I don’t believe that everyone I know is sitting on a bombshell like these characters were. Another issue I had was how this book jumped around in time. In flashbacks, the characters are newly-weds, toddlers, new parents, high school kids, etc. I’ve read books where authors used this technique to gradually bring you into an awesome conclusion. In this book, it felt disjointed and clunky, and half the time I wasn’t sure what Netzer was trying to tell me or prepare me for. Maybe I’ll reread this in a few years and see something in it that I didn’t this time around, but for now, this book was not my favorite.
August 17, 2012
I am a fast reader the way other people are fast eaters: if it’s good, I read it as fast as possible. Thankfully, I found myself slowing down and savoring Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer. I not only didn’t want to finish it, I wanted to hold it in my mouth for as long as I could – every word, every sentence. And when I was finished, I felt full. Satisfied.
Shine Shine Shine is the story of a husband and wife, Maxon and Sunny, who are both notably ‘different’; Sunny because she is (and always has been) completely hairless, and Maxon because he likely has some form of Asperger’s. They have modified themselves as best they can for each other and the world at large in order to fit in. The story explores what happens after Maxon leaves on a rocket to colonize the moon with robots that he has invented, while Sunny remains on earth with their four-year-old son and another baby on the way.
This is Lydia Netzer’s first novel, and she totally commits to it. She nails the tone, the characters, the pace, and the story. She doesn’t shy away from the awkward or unusual. Besides space exploration and baldness, the book is littered with unexpected moments that are as bizarre as life itself. What might seem like a manipulated plot twist in the hands of a less gifted author just become another oddity in the small, odd little world she has created in Shine Shine Shine. The story is told in a series of reveals, each one a little jewel set in a beautifully written box. I especially loved the moments when the book seemed to veer off in a completely new direction, forcing me to let go of any sort of cause-and-effect expectations and just let the story happen. Reading Shine Shine Shine is a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the top of the box to guide you. It takes a lot of trust in an author to go along with this type of writing, but Netzer never falters, and the portrait of Maxon and Sunny that is revealed by the end of the work is exquisite. By then, Netzer’s characters are no longer flawed and different, they are intensely and perfectly human. But be careful - while you are busy falling in love with Maxon and Sunny, you might also inadvertently fall in love with your own inner geek.
So pull up a seat at Netzer’s table and savor this fine novel. You won’t go away hungry. Bon appetite!
Shine Shine Shine is the story of a husband and wife, Maxon and Sunny, who are both notably ‘different’; Sunny because she is (and always has been) completely hairless, and Maxon because he likely has some form of Asperger’s. They have modified themselves as best they can for each other and the world at large in order to fit in. The story explores what happens after Maxon leaves on a rocket to colonize the moon with robots that he has invented, while Sunny remains on earth with their four-year-old son and another baby on the way.
This is Lydia Netzer’s first novel, and she totally commits to it. She nails the tone, the characters, the pace, and the story. She doesn’t shy away from the awkward or unusual. Besides space exploration and baldness, the book is littered with unexpected moments that are as bizarre as life itself. What might seem like a manipulated plot twist in the hands of a less gifted author just become another oddity in the small, odd little world she has created in Shine Shine Shine. The story is told in a series of reveals, each one a little jewel set in a beautifully written box. I especially loved the moments when the book seemed to veer off in a completely new direction, forcing me to let go of any sort of cause-and-effect expectations and just let the story happen. Reading Shine Shine Shine is a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the top of the box to guide you. It takes a lot of trust in an author to go along with this type of writing, but Netzer never falters, and the portrait of Maxon and Sunny that is revealed by the end of the work is exquisite. By then, Netzer’s characters are no longer flawed and different, they are intensely and perfectly human. But be careful - while you are busy falling in love with Maxon and Sunny, you might also inadvertently fall in love with your own inner geek.
So pull up a seat at Netzer’s table and savor this fine novel. You won’t go away hungry. Bon appetite!
October 9, 2012
I’m not sure, but I think serendipitous forces were at work as I read Lydia Netzer’s debut. It’s no secret that robots play a huge role in this novel – and it just so happened that as I was wrapping up SHINE SHINE SHINE, I also was wrapping up the last story in a freelance writing project that involved an interview with an engineer who … yes … is researching human-robot teaming.
Which leads me to one of the most outstanding things about this book: the mathematical metaphors. Netzer convinces the reader that the world is, indeed, made up of a series of electrical properties, propelled by science, numbers, vectors. [Examples of the perfect fusion of math and words: "He had a bulky torso, heavy on top like a trapezoid, with big arms" or "Every house was a perfect rectangle. It was an exercise in mathematics." or "The city was a love letter to planar geometry."] Everything can be explained by science – except, of course, one thing led by the heart. The book even includes hand-drawn equations and formulas from the husband, Maxon (a great personal touch).
DON’T STOP READING MY REVIEW IF YOU HATE MATH/SCIENCE …. I love words more than numbers as well, but the layer of science laid upon this book is completely engrossing and enriching. The science, the math, the focus on Maxon’s robot research with NASA, the son Bubber’s struggles with Austism – they all serve as metaphors for the mechanical lives lived by so many in today’s society. I would even say the book is an examination of the increasingly homogenized communities we see in the U.S., wrought with materialism and one-upmanship, cookie-cutter facades and lack of character.
But the final message – from the bald protagonist, Sunny – is ultimately one about truth: about embracing individuality, ‘owning’ our differences and ‘being’ present. It’s a love story, a tribute to the trials and rewards of motherhood, and a glimpse into the future. It’s the story of Sunny - born during an eclipse - a hairless 'oddity', and her adult life spinning out of orbit while her husband’s moon mission mimics the same path.
Which leads me to one of the most outstanding things about this book: the mathematical metaphors. Netzer convinces the reader that the world is, indeed, made up of a series of electrical properties, propelled by science, numbers, vectors. [Examples of the perfect fusion of math and words: "He had a bulky torso, heavy on top like a trapezoid, with big arms" or "Every house was a perfect rectangle. It was an exercise in mathematics." or "The city was a love letter to planar geometry."] Everything can be explained by science – except, of course, one thing led by the heart. The book even includes hand-drawn equations and formulas from the husband, Maxon (a great personal touch).
DON’T STOP READING MY REVIEW IF YOU HATE MATH/SCIENCE …. I love words more than numbers as well, but the layer of science laid upon this book is completely engrossing and enriching. The science, the math, the focus on Maxon’s robot research with NASA, the son Bubber’s struggles with Austism – they all serve as metaphors for the mechanical lives lived by so many in today’s society. I would even say the book is an examination of the increasingly homogenized communities we see in the U.S., wrought with materialism and one-upmanship, cookie-cutter facades and lack of character.
But the final message – from the bald protagonist, Sunny – is ultimately one about truth: about embracing individuality, ‘owning’ our differences and ‘being’ present. It’s a love story, a tribute to the trials and rewards of motherhood, and a glimpse into the future. It’s the story of Sunny - born during an eclipse - a hairless 'oddity', and her adult life spinning out of orbit while her husband’s moon mission mimics the same path.
July 8, 2012
Won a copy from Shelf Awareness on NetGalley.
Cannot decide between 3 and 4 stars. 3.5
Such a creative and unique storyline. Different than anything else I've ever read.
I kept asking myself, as I was reading...is this romance? sci-fi? general fiction?
It was a little taste of each.
I admired Sunny's strength.
Coming out with her baldness, after the accident,
doing her best for Bubby, her son, who is autistic,
her dying mother,
being very pregnant and
having her husband's rocket have an accident while in space.
I have some great quotes I would like to add, after the book is published.
Cannot decide between 3 and 4 stars. 3.5
Such a creative and unique storyline. Different than anything else I've ever read.
I kept asking myself, as I was reading...is this romance? sci-fi? general fiction?
It was a little taste of each.
I admired Sunny's strength.
Coming out with her baldness, after the accident,
doing her best for Bubby, her son, who is autistic,
her dying mother,
being very pregnant and
having her husband's rocket have an accident while in space.
I have some great quotes I would like to add, after the book is published.
August 2, 2012
Shine, Shine, Shine started off good... got really good... had me tweeting the author to ask if Maxom lives GREAT! Loved the whole book! The ending was a little weird for me... I wanted less of the neighbors and more of the husband. But I'm ultimately happy to have discovered Lydia Netzer (Thanks to Joshlyn Jackson)! I can't wait to see what Ms Netzer comes up with next!
July 30, 2012
SHINE SHINE SHINE is the kind of love story that can get under the skin of even an ultra-cynic like myself.
Sunny is the ultimate suburban housewife, well-coifed, drives a mini-van, consoles her friends, leads neighborhood craft shows, and always makes sure that her autistic son is wearing his helmet and gets his medicine on time. Her genius husband Maxon makes the $18,000 dollar rug in the dining room a possibility, even if his job is destined to take him out of their sphere - literally.
Sunny's perfect life begins to unravel when Maxon's spaceship to the moon malfunctions and her minivan is T-boned by a fellow suburbanite. In the melee, Sunny's wig flies off. Sunny has never had hair in her life, even her eyebrows are pasted on. She's spent the last decade pretending to be a perfect person she isn't, and it's driven a wedge between herself and her husband, as she's begun to resent exactly what makes him a genius in the first place - his own autism.
Sunny leaves the wig behind, skips her son's meds that evening and hopes for one last chance to tell the man she loves that she's sorry.
SHINE SHINE SHINE is narrated by Sunny and Maxon, their two voices blending to encompass their childhood together, their unique differences that brought them to each other, and the present that has altered their relationship. It's a stunning debut that questions who we really are under our veneer, and whether that person might be the better option of the two.
Sunny is the ultimate suburban housewife, well-coifed, drives a mini-van, consoles her friends, leads neighborhood craft shows, and always makes sure that her autistic son is wearing his helmet and gets his medicine on time. Her genius husband Maxon makes the $18,000 dollar rug in the dining room a possibility, even if his job is destined to take him out of their sphere - literally.
Sunny's perfect life begins to unravel when Maxon's spaceship to the moon malfunctions and her minivan is T-boned by a fellow suburbanite. In the melee, Sunny's wig flies off. Sunny has never had hair in her life, even her eyebrows are pasted on. She's spent the last decade pretending to be a perfect person she isn't, and it's driven a wedge between herself and her husband, as she's begun to resent exactly what makes him a genius in the first place - his own autism.
Sunny leaves the wig behind, skips her son's meds that evening and hopes for one last chance to tell the man she loves that she's sorry.
SHINE SHINE SHINE is narrated by Sunny and Maxon, their two voices blending to encompass their childhood together, their unique differences that brought them to each other, and the present that has altered their relationship. It's a stunning debut that questions who we really are under our veneer, and whether that person might be the better option of the two.
July 25, 2012
This is one of the most original novels I have read in a very long time and with the amount that I read that is really saying something. Strange but brilliant, this novel and Sunny just grabbed me and didn't let go. Trying to be perfect and fit in is her goal when she becomes a mother for the first time, her son Bubber is autistic, and her family is so very different. Loved all the angles, the writing and the details of the backgrounds that formed each of these characters. They are all so very flawed but each is endearing in a different way, each struggling to grasp something just out of reach. This is a novel one has to actually read because it is extremely difficult to accurately describe all the variances in this novel. Wonderfully interesting debut novel, can't wait to see what this author comes up with next.
ARC from NetGalley
ARC from NetGalley
July 4, 2012
Sunny is your typical suburban housewife: perfect home, perfect neighbors, toddler Bubber with a new baby girl on the way... But the cracks in that "perfect" world Sunny has constructed for herself quickly make themselves apparent in Shine Shine Shine, from Bubber's autism (and Sunny's internal struggle with whether his medicine and treatments are actually helping him) to Maxon, Sunny's brilliant but incredibly odd husband, to Sunny's own secrets that she's so desperate to hide from all of her friends and neighbors, to Sunny's dying mother. While Maxon hurtles through space, intent on placing his brilliantly constructed AI robots on the moon to help create the first moon colony, encountering his own trials and revelations on the journey, Sunny begins to let light shine through the cracks in her life, accepting and even embracing the imperfections. Sunny and Maxon's parallel present-day journeys are interspersed with recollections of their love story that started in their childhood.
Lydia Netzer, the author, recently described Shine Shine Shine in a single 140-character tweet as "Perfect mothers are not perfect. Strange husbands are not the problem. Robots keep you alive without asking if you want to live. Sex. Death." I'd say that's about as apt a description as I could ever come up with. It's one of the most unique books I've ever read, and I fell in love with it almost instantly.
Lydia Netzer, the author, recently described Shine Shine Shine in a single 140-character tweet as "Perfect mothers are not perfect. Strange husbands are not the problem. Robots keep you alive without asking if you want to live. Sex. Death." I'd say that's about as apt a description as I could ever come up with. It's one of the most unique books I've ever read, and I fell in love with it almost instantly.
July 28, 2013
I am not sure what to make of this novel. While the author has some interesting ideas and the story is quite unique, I found it to be a tad odd (in the unique way) and there was also a lot of unnecessary rambling and unnecessary descriptions (a bit too much in some cases) which made me drop my rating of this novel. The uniqueness of it is what kept me drawn to finishing the entire book. Written in 3rd person, it's the story of Sunny, a bald woman who is married to Maxon, a robotical type man (everything is equation and even though it's never clearly stated, I got the sense that he is either high functioning autistic or has aspergers). Maxon is a NASA scientist and whom went into space on a mission to the moon. Sunny wants nothing more than to be normal. They have an autistic son, Bubber and Sunny is pregnant with their second child throughout the entire story. Sunny gets into a car accident (which exposes her baldness) on the way home from visiting her dying mother in the hospital and Maxon's rocket is hit by an asteroid and they lose communication with NASA all at the same time. The flying off of Sunny's wig makes her wake up and realize that she's been living like a robot for years, like her husband had planned out.
It would recommend this book to the right audience, but it's not for everyone, so I would selectively recommend it.
It would recommend this book to the right audience, but it's not for everyone, so I would selectively recommend it.
August 1, 2012
I received an early review copy of SHINE SHINE SHINE from NetGalley, though I've since purchased the book. Weeks after turning the last page, I'm still thinking about the characters and situations in this remarkable debut from Lydia Netzer. I wondered how I would eventually feel about Sunny and Maxon as they began telling their stories in their oddly detached voices, but by the end of the book, I found myself genuinely emotional and desperate to know whether they would be okay, as individuals and as a family. Netzer's style takes the reader all the way to the edge of over-the-top, then draws you gently back to yes. And one of my favorite lines, near the beginning of the book, exemplifies the quirky, but spot-on social commentary the author makes again and again in SHINE SHINE SHINE:
"Norway," echoed the one in the lime green cardigan. She rolled her eyes. "What a joke." She had a hooked nose and small eyes, but from her blowout and makeup, her trim figure and expensive shoes, people still knew she was attractive.
I am not sure this book is for everyone; I'm not sure every reader will "get" the message and grasp the genius storytelling behind SHINE SHINE SHINE, but I honestly can't wait to see what's next from Lydia Netzer.
"Norway," echoed the one in the lime green cardigan. She rolled her eyes. "What a joke." She had a hooked nose and small eyes, but from her blowout and makeup, her trim figure and expensive shoes, people still knew she was attractive.
I am not sure this book is for everyone; I'm not sure every reader will "get" the message and grasp the genius storytelling behind SHINE SHINE SHINE, but I honestly can't wait to see what's next from Lydia Netzer.
January 6, 2016
Quirky. Funky fantastical. Don't read Shine, Shine, Shine if you are looking for a cozy, predictable woman's novel, with recognizable characters and lives you can literally identify with or you will be confused, irritated and disappointed. This novel is a love story about the essence of connection. The story is a kind of modern fairy tale, with its odd main characters Sunny and Maxon emerging from complicated childhoods into unique adults. Their love story has the intensity of a Brönte novel, the romance of of perfect souls finding one another. There are genetic anomalies, a moon landing, autism, societal expectations, fairy tale coincidence... Shine, Shine, Shine is a remarkable combination of the ethereal, the bizarre, the gorgeously nuanced, the wacky and lovingly meaningful. This is a special book.
May 29, 2012
What a GREAT READ! The characters are unique, the writing is fantastic, and the story is beautiful. I laughed, I cried, I related (I mean, we all have those moments where we just want to FIT IN!). I loved the structure of the story, the author kept it moving forward, but also went back to fill in the gaps. Not only that, I would wonder about a piece of Maxon and Sunny's story and the next segment would answer the question beautifully. I just loved it!
And for some reason, I keep thinking of The Time Traveler's Wife. They're very vaguely similar, but I enjoyed this one far more...mainly because I wasn't lost in anyone's time travels.
And for some reason, I keep thinking of The Time Traveler's Wife. They're very vaguely similar, but I enjoyed this one far more...mainly because I wasn't lost in anyone's time travels.
August 27, 2012
If you are like me, you tend to raise an eyebrow when every review of a book mentions code words like "offbeat" or "quirky". In this case, I'm glad I chose to ignore my inner snobby reader person and just pick it up and read it. The offbeat characters are offbeat only on the surface. Deeper down, they are real and finely drawn. Poignant story. Lovely. Read it.
February 4, 2016
Shine Shine Shine is one of the most unique novels I have ever read. It touches upon marital love, parental death, maternal insufficiencies, and uses each theme to unveil the intricacies of the suburban landscape. I look forward to reading more of Netzer's work.
April 21, 2025
So you know when you read a book, and that book feels like the it was written just for you… Yeah that just happened! It wasn't so much that the characters reflected my life. No, more like the book was tailored, fashioned just for me. Now I miss the characters so much. I miss Sunny.
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