0
0
Meet Daniella: an architecture student who’s surrounded by some pretty messed-up friends and family members, whom she suspects have been out in the Puerto Rican sun for too long. The sanest person she knows, aside from her cat, is her mother, who joins various causes and firmly believes in retail therapy.
Her boyfriend, Tony, is a narcissistic artist who refuses to wear shirts anywhere and paints horrifying images while on LSD trips. Her ex-husband, Ismael, has a weird fascination with exotic animals, a strange belief that his mother will come back from the dead to visit him, and a wife who collects torture devices and closely resembles Dracula’s bride. Disturbing secrets abound in that house.
Daniella’s best friend is a communist and an atheist who’s dating a priest, hoping to convert him. She also suspects that he’s the deranged criminal known as Zorro, who runs around the city at night tormenting women who wear mini-skirts.
Sunstruck delivers a humorous punch about the contradictions of life and the many personalities that surround us every day. This quirky little novel will fascinate you and keep you laughing as Daniella deals with all of the craziness around her while trying to remain sane herself.
Each character comes alive on the page, presenting a vivid image of who they are as individuals—and all of them are as batty as a fruitcake, which is what makes Sunstruck so incredibly funny. I couldn’t stop reading this novel until I’d finished it. I simply loved this cast of eccentric characters for their nuttiness.
At the same time, though, readers are also treated to a bit of a mystery—and a few thrills whenever the Zorro character shows up, slashing the letter Z into women’s behinds. Plus, the strange ex-husband and his scary wife add dark humor to the plot, which makes you wonder what on Earth is going on with them.
Sunstruck ends with a fabulous twist that’ll have you laughing even as you’re astonished by the outcome. If you read just one book this summer, make it Sunstruck! It’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time—my ribs are still hurting from the laughter.
