The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Sunstruck
Author: William Rayfet Hunter
Published: May 2025
Genre: Literary
Themes: Relationships, Family

One sentence summary: Messy families and relationships are centred in this novel, mixed in with class and race too.

One sentence review: A dazzling debut and one that you absolutely need to pick up this summer.

Review:

When our main character is invited to the glitz and glamour of life in French chateaus and high white society, they question more than the Blake family ever have. It’s sickly sweet and held together by white privilege and turning a blind eye to any upset. 

The cracks turn to ravines as they return to London and the family’s true nature oozes out in increasingly shocking ways. 

Honestly, what a debut. I was hooked on Sunstruck. 

Our main character is one that I just want to hug. The pain he’s put through to find some highs in his life and the revolutions he comes to towards the end.. it hurts to read. But he’s by no means delicate. He’s figuring himself out and what he needs from this world. What solidarity looks like and where he can find home. 

The writing was addictive. We have so much plot and clever details that it had me excited for each new chapter. But excited might not be the right word, this is a book filled with microagressions and drugs and deceit. It’s hard and cold but utterly brilliant.

It’s a dramatic and unapologetic story of race, status and messy relationships is one that so many are going to devour. I definitely recommend it. 

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here.

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And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 20/06/2025