February 2024: World War III has begun. Military vehicles are seen disappearing into a mountainside. Desperate to find refuge from the nuclear storm, a group of civilians discover a secret government bio-dome. Greeted by a hail of bullets and told to turn back, the frantic refugees stand their ground and are eventually permitted entry. But the price of admission is high...
283 years later: Born a slave in the Pit, seventeen-year-old Sunny O'Donnell has reached a breaking point in her life. If trying to keep her father alive while still pleasing her demanding fiancé isn't stressful enough, now food and water rations are being reduced and workplace beatings are occurring more frequently. Although life in the Pit had never been easy, lately it was getting intolerable.
Then a chance meeting with Leisel Holt, daughter of the Dome's insane President, gives Sunny a spark of hope for the future of the Pit. In an effort to fan that spark into a flame, she agrees to pose as the bride at Leisel's wedding to Jack Kenner in order to save the bride from an assassination plot. But instead of saving Leisel, Sunny unknowingly plays into her political game and ends up marrying Jack Kenner herself. Now on the run as a traitor, Sunny escapes to the Pit with her new husband in tow only to find that her marriage has ignited a rebellion.
“Sunset Rising” is the first book of a series. It is the tale of how a love story can revive the human spirit to rise up and fight the bonds of oppression.
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After weeks of college stuff, I finally got the chance to write my thoughts of this amazing book! Sunset rising is a page-turner story that mixes war, revolution and love in all of their ways. First of all I really liked the cover the minute I saw it, and the title is just great with it. Why? Let me shared a fragment to explain:
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. But red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.”
Beautiful phrased to say that a red sunset means clear skies, while a red sunrise means a coming storm. And It’s a great analogy for the plot of book.
But the author doesn’t stop there. The story has a past time where everything as we know it is doomed to disappear all because World War III, a nuclear war. The government has built a secret bio dome to find refuge but the access is not offered to civilians. Nevertheless a group of them find their way in not sure if it was better to die than end as slaves in the pit.
Sunny, our eyes and ears in the story is a seventeen years old girl that was subject of the hard life in the pit. A fast description: slave work either as the servants up at the dome or workers on the mines, and others not so human ways of work. The writing style of the author gives the story a realistic and direct access to the reader to feel the emotions throughout the chapters. It’s amazing how you can almost taste the air in the pit or feel the heat from the laundry room.
But not everything is so dark, even though the pit is an inhuman confinement for people, you can see it has light in a lot of parts. This part I loved:
“I guess you have to born in the pit to find light where there isn’t any,” he observed.”
Love story. There is sort of a love triangle, but you really know is not going to last. We are introduced to the love interests in not the typical ways of most of YA books I’ve read. It’s not the right away swoon-description but and honest-to-the-story way.
“I wrapped my arms around my pillow to pull it tight under my head, but my pillow was hard and wouldn’t scrunch up. Then I realized that the sound of a beating heart was playing under my ear. The shock of what I was doing brought me fully awake.”
And maybe one can say that the love story kind of guides the plot but doesn’t define it. That, is one of my favorites things of this book because is not centered on a love decision but instead is so much more than that. And I’m not going to spoil you guys the entire book, so go get a copy!
Also, I really liked that the author gave the reader just enough clues on the plot to want to continue reading but not all as to know what was going to be on the next page. I found myself being surprised a lot, and also laughing, and I always heart fun parts.
Love the characters, the plot and the love story, just have to be patient -not my best at it- for the NEXT book in the series!
And THANKS to you S. M. McEachern to share this amazing book with me!
With this I finish talking so much and I INVITE all of you readers to go BUY this great dystopian book!
-Angelli
