The teaser definitely grabbed my attention and I love the logline, “A Road Movie With Teeth.”

It’s directed by Jim Mickle; co-written by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle; and stars Connor Paolo, Nick Damici, Kelly McGillis and Danielle Harris.

Here’s the teaser:

Here’s the synopsis:

In Jim Mickle’s new film, Stake Land, a young boy (Paolo) is about to learn how cruel the world can become. Martin was a normal teenager before the country collapsed in an empty pit of disaster, and a vampire epidemic swept across the nation’s abandoned towns and cities. It’s up to Mister (Damici), a death dealing, rogue vampire hunter, to get Martin to safety. Armed with a trunk full of wooden stakes and a desperate will to stay alive, Mister and Martin make their way through locked down towns, recruiting fellow travelers along the way. A devout nun (McGillis) joins the small team of survivors. She faces a crisis of faith during the vampire bloodshed, ultimately taking up arms to do battle with her newly formed family unit.

As with his hit, MULBERRY STREET, Jim Mickle creates a dark and terrifying world, although this time it is fully stocked with the most evil vampires in recent film history. STAKE LAND is a gritty, post-apocalyptic road movie with teeth!

What are your thoughts on Stake Land?

WEB RESOURCES

Official site | Scareflix site | IMDb | Bloody-Disgusting

2 1/2 stars out of 5

Robin McKinley’s name came up during my hunt for fairy tale retellings. I actually wanted to read Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of the Beauty and the Beast, but the day I went to the library, there wasn’t a copy available at the library. So I went with Sunshine because it was available, the cover boasted a review from Neil Gaiman that it was “pretty much perfect,” and the story sounded interesting.

Below is the blurb from the inside jacket on the hardcover edition:

From acclaimed author Robin McKinley–a mesmerizing novel of supernatural desire…

Sunshine

“Her feet are already bleeding–if you like feet…”

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it’s unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn’t been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don’t, when they’re vampires.

They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion–within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.

She knows that he is a vampire. She knows that she’s to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, as dawn breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day…

Sounds good, right? I love supernatural. I dig vampires. And I adore a strong female character who rescues a male. Unfortunately, the story did not deliver on what the blurb promised.

In my opinion, the biggest downfall of the story is the first person narrative from only one character the entire novel. The inner monologue, mostly about Sunshine’s life, was extremely boring and gave me little reward for reading it. I can’t even tell you how many times I had to read about cinnamon rolls and other baked goods because that is what Sunshine does for a living–she is a baker in her parent’s shop. There are pages and pages of Sunshine just rambling on, i.e. thinking, about absolutely nothing that I needed to know. Again, see the above reference to “cinnamon rolls.” For this reason, the story moved at slower than a snail’s pace. Strike one.

I’m all about a character starting out weak and whiny, not really seeing their own true potential, but only if eventually that character accepts or rejects their abilities. Sunshine seems to be pulled against her will the entire story, never making a conscious decision on her own to either embrace her new life or fight to get her old one back. She comes across as a “victim” type with little to no self-esteem and I can’t connect with weak. When the entire story is written in the “I” voice, the reader has to be able to connect with that character. Even on the last two pages Sunshine is still not taking any responsibility for her life and she is not being an active participant in making choices for herself, e.g. “I didn’t make up my mind” (page 388) and “This was now my life” and “Get used to it, Sunshine” (page 389). Strike two.

There is an excessive amount of “info dump.” The plot of this book is a strong one but it is lost in pages and pages of exposition that could’ve been delivered in a much more effective manner. The action is buried in all of the narration and there is barely any dialogue at all. The dialogue succeeds in the scenes between Sunshine and Constantine, Sunshine and Yolande, and Sunshine and her grandmother. But other than that, it’s questionable to say the least. The main vampire in the story, Constantine, is in only a handful of scenes, and for all the narration and exposition, I hardly get to know him at all. How am I supposed to fear for Constantine’s safety when I don’t know him well enough to care whether he survives? Strike three.

Overall, I think this book would’ve been great had there been some serious editing. However, in its current published form, it only reached “fair” status. The strong elements, especially the worldbuilding, just weren’t strong enough to overcome the problems I listed above, at least for me anyway. I would welcome a sequel because I’d like to see Sunshine become the strong woman I know she can be and I’d like to see where she and Constantine go off to at the end of this book.

Again, I could really see a great story, if I squinted hard enough, but it was buried in a bunch of stuff that kept me from being able to enjoy it.

Have you read a book by Robin McKinley?

Based on what I thought of Sunshine, do you think I should read Beauty?

WEB RESOURCES:

Purchase Sunshine from: Amazon.

Fans of Robin McKinley: visit her web site and blog.

[According to McKinley's blog, there will not be a sequel to Sunshine.]

You may have noticed my weekly “Quote of the Week” posts have dwindled to non-existence over the past 30 days. Even my book reviews have been neglected. “Why?” you might ask. Welp, not one reason in particular really. My work schedule has been hectic with a lot of “Now!” projects on my plate. Then my personal life took an unexpected turn and then another unexpected turn and yet another one so that I’m full circle back to where I started.

Finally, I’m on my first real vacation in FOUR years! June 26th through July 5th. No “work” for 10 whole days. It’s effin awesome I tell ya. Work is so overrated. I set a goal for myself–while making my way-too-ambitious ‘to do on vacation’ list–to get the weekly quotes ready to go through August 1st, update my current WIP word count, which amazingly has gone up 1,000 words over the past two months (yay!), and to get the six book reviews I have scribbled down on paper into Flying Monkeys. All very do-able as long as I stay *gulp* focused.

So I do apologize for my AWOL-like behavior of late, but I promise, I’m still here. I’m still reading every day, sometimes two books a day. I’m still watching way too many movies for everyone else’s good as they’re subjected to my randomly spewing one-liners at them, which I find hilarious, but them, not so much. (Apparently, not enough people have watched Role Models to fully grasp the humor of hearing me tell my daughter, “I will hit a child,” without feeling like they should call in Children’s Services. I get a kick out of it though. On second thought, maybe I should stop quoting that line to strangers’ ill-mannered kids? That could be taking it a tad too far. Something to mull over later I s’pose.)

And, of course, I’m still writing. As a matter of fact, I’ve been bombarded by my muse lately. I see and hear so many stories that I can barely make note of them before I’m getting another burst of inspiration. I have so many unanswered questions that I’m dying to answer in my stories. It can be a little overwhelming sometimes. I love it!

My biggest goal continues to be implementing and maintaining a writing routine that fits into my already overfilled schedule. I read Holly’s “Write A Book With Me” post over on her blog today. Very interesting and I’m going to try it. Many of her techniques and strategies are working for me, why not try one more.

On that note, I am going to sign off for sleepy time.

Do you ever wonder how much more we could accomplish if we didn’t have to spend time on such trivial tasks as waste elimination and sleep?

Just something to ponder when you’re bored.

Toodles y’all!