Genre: Historical mystery/sci-fi

Release date: August 11, 2026

Goodreads rating: 3.5

My rating: 3.78

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This is my first Téa Obreht novel and Sunrise is certainly unlike anything I've read before. The style and story are quite unique and distinctive… they have a strange, fever-dream quality that kept me captivated (but kept me wondering too).

The novel moves between three timelines.

In 2024, Nina's plane crashes in the Wyoming mountains, leaving her stranded until she discovers the mysterious, seemingly abandoned town of Sunrise.

In 2003, Coll is preparing for the town's annual historical reenactment when questions about Sunrise's past threaten everything he thought he knew.

And in 1902, gunslinger and town founder Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise and becomes involved in the search for a missing boy.

Eventually, the connections between these stories begin to emerge, but I’ll admit that I'm not sure I fully understood all of them. Sunrise is one of those books I feel I need to read twice to really appreciate everything Obreht is doing. But yet, I was completely captivated. The atmosphere, the mystery, and the sense that something mysterious was always lurking just beneath the surface kept me turning the pages.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for granting me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

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