Sunny

A Novel

By: Colin O'Sullivan

Narrated by: Siho Ellsmore

NOW A MAJOR STREAMING SERIES

A riveting technological thriller following a woman whose life is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash and she is left alone with an unnerving home robot, only to get caught up in an AI-related conspiracy.

In near-future Japan, Susie Sakamoto is mourning the loss of her husband and son to a plane crash. Alone in her big modern house, which feels like more of a prison, Susie spends her days drinking heavily and taking her anger out at the only “sentient” thing left in her life: Sunny, the annoying home robot her husband designed. Susie despises Sunny, and sometimes even gets a sinking feeling that Sunny is out to hurt her.

To escape her paranoia and depression, Susie frequents the seedy, drug-fueled bars of the city, where she hears rumors of The Dark Manual, a set of guidelines that allow you to reprogram your robot for nefarious purposes. In the hopes of finding a way to turn off Sunny for good, Susie begins to search for the manual, only to learn it’s too late: the machines are becoming more sentient and dangerous. Thrust into the center of a dark, corporate war, Susie realizes there’s someone behind the code, pulling the strings. And they want her dead.

With a darkly humorous yet propulsive and lyrical voice, O’Sullivan presents us with an unsettling look at a future that feels all too real. Gripping and thought-provoking, Sunny is a haunting character study of an anxious woman teetering in an anxious time.

©2023 Colin O'Sullivan (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Dark Manual waste of time

I very much enjoyed the voice that read the book. The only horrible part was this books first four hours felt like eternity. repetitious, over exaggeration, etc. have been watching the Sonny TV series. It's Nothing like the book, Sonny, the female robot never addresses Suzie as "Miss Suzie". Her husband wouldn't have programmed a customized homebot for Suzie that way. From the few flashbacks I've seen Masa in, he's quite informal. The book didn't ring true, such as the flocks of hidden Owls, other birds watching, knowing everything is a ridiculous notion. It's more of a "Mystery" genre other than a "Thriller", as listed. it's as much a "Porn"

Slow start and monotone voice actor.

Bought this book due to loving the series on Apple TV. Once I found out it was originally a book, I picked it up and really looked forward to reading it. As others have said, the book seems to meander all over the place and seemed to mainly stick to a narrative of Susie being self-deprecating and depressed. At first I understood this as she lost her son and husband in a plane crash but it just goes on and on and suddenly spins into a conspiracy and something larger than her family.

I didn't want to give up on it but I stopped reading 32% in. I might try again in the future, but as an avid reader with a queue of books to read, I moved on to more enlightening, entertaining or informative books.