jerrylwei's review
3.0
An eclectic but uneven short story collection. The opening story, BFF, has Ferrante-esque echoes, an elegiac story of a friendship that fell apart.
eileen_critchley's review
3.0
I wanted to love this book. Some of the writing was great, but most of the essays were just too long and became tedious to read. I grew up near where these essays take place, and that part of it was interesting to me. Honestly I might not have finished it if it weren't for that. I enjoyed parts of almost all of these essays, but most of them became rather dry after a while. "BFF" and "Rabbit" were my favorites. I also enjoyed "Sunshine State", "Going Diamond" and "The Mayor of Williams Park" but did feel those could have been cut in half. I am not a big fan of footnotes in general, found them distracting, and didn't read most of them ( they generally referenced a conversation).
chrisralonso's review
4.0
I wrote a review of this book for the Miami Rail. You can read it here for free: http://miamirail.org/spring-2017/the-dark-behind-the-sun-sarah-gerards-sunshine-state/
katepowellshine's review
5.0
I particularly enjoyed Gerard's more personal stories, although they were all enjoyable.