The Hard Truth About Sunshine by Sawyer Bennett

Narration by Lance Greenfield

What a unique book. Think of The Hard Truth About Sunshine as the “Breakfast Club” (as in the 1980s teenage movie hit) but instead of a bunch of high school students from different social circles being the members, we have four characters, two female and two male, that are in group therapy together. Each of the four main characters in this book is part of a therapy group that meets with a counselor to try and work out the different reasons for needing the therapy. One woman (Jillian) is losing her eyesight due to a rare condition (and also has heart problems). One young man (Connor) is terminally ill and has only about six months to live. Another woman (Barb) is suicidal due to the sexual abuse she endured as a young teen at the hands of a family member. And the last character (Christopher), whose POV the story is told in, is a veteran who lost a leg, several fingers, and a friend at war when an IED exploded under a Humvee he was driving. What is so engaging about this story is that though each one of these people has different reasons for being depressed, they don’t all react and view life the same. Instead, how each one copes with their own adversity is an interesting experiment in how the human can manifest itself so differently, and their interactions with one another prove that these differing points of view have a way of influencing others (both positively and negatively).

Christopher didn’t go to war for the typical reasons. It wasn’t about serving his country or a sense of patriotism, but more his way to escape the coal mines that were the only real source of employment in his small town. Therefore, he never really envisioned potentially giving up his life or being disabled at war. Moreover, his fiancée leaves him after the accident, being unable to cope with his injuries and leading to an overwhelming amount of anger on Christopher’s part. This volcano of emotions eventually leads to a downward spiral where Christopher assaults a man and the judge rules that he either must complete six weeks of group therapy or go to jail. Christopher, of course, picks group therapy but despises being there (his internal sarcastic monologues early on in the book about each of the other characters is quite telling). However, when Jillian proposes to the group therapy’s leader an alternative that involves taking the therapy group on a cross-country road trip as an alternative to Christopher having to complete the remaining weeks of his group therapy, Christopher jumps at the chance to get rid of these “losers” earlier than the sentenced six weeks and even volunteers to drive the group on their excursion.

What ensues is episode after episode of Connor’s, and to a lesser extent the other characters’, bucket lists (things like egging a house, skydiving, seeing the sunset on the other side of the country). As each episode transpires, the gang becomes closer and closer to one another, gaining a better understanding of how each one of their disparate personalities are coping with their own adversities. Of most interest to romance lovers is Jillian, who seems eternally happy. She is a person that sees everything as the “glass half full”. Christopher is the most intrigued by Jillian. He just can’t understand how she could always be as happy as “sunshine” – nonetheless, her optimism is infectious and as the trip moves on, you see Christopher’s character slowly becoming more optimistic and slowly falling in love with Jillian – a love that Jillian returns.

However, the truth about Jillian is not as easy as it initially seems, and when additional things are revealed, not to mention a new adversity which plagues the group, Jillian’s optimistic view of life and her positive effect on the group will be challenged. Will this trip end up helping or hurting the group and what effect will it have on each individual member? And moreover, could there possibly be a HEA for Christopher and Jillian?

Lance Greenfield did a fantastic job of narrating The Hard Truth About Sunshine. Because the story is told through Christopher’s point of view, having a male narrator with a deep, authoritative voice worked perfectly to bring Christopher’s initially hard edged view of life to the surface. Mr. Greenfield was able to appropriately modify his delivery and voice for Christopher as the story developed, including softening Christopher’s voice a bit as his outlook on life begins to be influenced by Jillian.

Mr. Greenfield also was able to slightly heighten the pitch of his voice to convincingly portray Jillian, Barb and the therapy counselor’s voices. In fact, he created personality-appropriate voices for each one, with the counselor sounding like an older woman, Barb sounding like the sarcastic, edgy personality that Ms. Bennett penned and Jillian having a sweet, brighter disposition. I always find that it’s harder for male narrators to portray female characters, so Mr. Greenfield’s ability to do so with three very different characters in addition to two main male characters and a number of other secondary characters impressed me.

All in all, I think this book would have been an “A” rating for me but for an event that happens at the end of the book. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, so I’ll stay quiet as to the exact circumstances, but suffice it to say that I had trouble reconciling the optimistic message of this book with this one event that I think could have been written differently. And, for those of you that are wondering, this book does have a HEA, so rest assured this is a true romance (though I will say that the romance overall is perhaps less central than the general happiness with life theme). Nonetheless, this is such a unique and emotional, thought-provoking story that I am definitely happy I listened to it, and even knowing that this one event is in the book, I still highly recommend it.

BJ