Shine Shine Shine is a portrait of a marriage that may or may not be crumbling.  Maxon and Sunny have known each other since they were 7 and 6 years old, respectively, and Maxon has loved Sunny all that time.  Sunny loves Maxon too, fiercely.  But beyond their love, their marriage is based on their status as outsiders.  Maxon is an autistic genius; Sunny has a rare condition in which she was born completely bald.  Maxon and Sunny were “different together” and that other-ness bound them… until the day when Maxon decided it was time to have a baby and Sunny decided that she couldn’t be anyone’s mother without hair.  Now their son, Bubber, is in grade school.  Sunny has an expensive set of wigs, and they’ve moved to an exclusive neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia, where nobody knows the secret of Sunny’s bald head.  Sunny tries desperately to fit in with the neighborhood, forcing normality on Maxon and Bubber.

Then everything changes.  Maxon goes to space on a NASA mission to establish a robot colony on the moon.  While he’s gone, Sunny is juggling her autistic son, her second pregnancy, and her dying mother.  Things come to a head (literally) when Sunny and Bubber are in a car accident and Sunny’s blonde wig flies out the window in full view of the entire neighborhood.  With her secret out, Sunny begins to re-examine her life choices.  But then Maxon’s rocket suffers an accident and jeopardizes the lives of the crew.  Is Sunny’s awakening too late to save her marriage – and will her husband come home at all?

Shine Shine Shine was an incredibly creative book.  I suppose it’s to be expected that when you have two protagonists who are so very different and “other,” the book itself is going to be different.  I loved it.  I loved the flashbacks and insights into Sunny and Maxon’s relationship, the discoveries Sunny makes about herself and her neighbors, and Maxon’s musings on life through a series of mathematical formulas.  Shine Shine Shine is an intense book, not for the faint of heart.  But it’s a rewarding book – a book that lets the reader into the minds and hearts of two unique characters, lets you watch Sunny and Maxon’s love grow, lets you root for Sunny to get her head on straight and Maxon to get his rocket fixed.  It’s not an easy read, but it’s one that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

Get the book!  Shine Shine Shine, by Lydia Netzer (Not an affiliate link)

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