Kate Karyus Quinn has blown me away with each book that she writes. Another Little Piece was the first one, and WOW. Then there was (Don't You) Forget About Me, and I was pretty well and truly in love. Her books will always be on my must read list, so Down with the Shine was a no-brainer. It is a weird one, to be sure, and just another reason that K.K.Q is a favorite author of mine! 
 Lennie is tired of living under the shadow of grief, and feeling like she should be the one that died instead of her best friend. After all, everyone already hates her. All they see when they look at her is her dad, Leonard Cash, America's Most Wanted refugee. And the person who murdered her best friend was after her because of her father. But just this one night, Lennie wants to be a part of the crowd; she wants to mean something. So, after drugging her uncles to put them to sleep, she steals a few jars of their infamous moonshine, and crashes the party of the year. But Lennie doesn't realize what her uncles little moonshine saying really is. And after a night of granting crazy and outlandish wishes, she realizes that their is so much more to the moonshine business. Now there is a house full of teenagers that have changed in crazy ways, and a her dead best friend's brother who hates her guts, wants nothing more than to hold her hand. Now Lennie and Smith and her uncles are in a race to figure out how to fix Lennie's disastrous evening, before anyone else dies. And one last thing, her best friend is back from the dead... 
 Down with the Shine was a wholly unique, crazy and wild story. We have a boy whose touch turns everything into Cheetos, a house full of people who can't get out, a boy with actual balls of steel! And we also have a sick and crazy dad who is willing to try anything to kidnap his only daughter. Throw in a bff zombie, and some romance (a rather sweet one), and you pretty much have a smorgasbord of a story. The characters are all wildly individual, a lot of them flat out crazy and the plot itself is strange and weird and wonderful. The further you delve into the story, the crazier everything gets. Even the more serious undertones have a lighter tone so that the book never truly gets dark. Kate Karyus Quinn is definitely the master of weird! I can't help but wonder if she made a moonshine wish to be able to write awesome kooky stories that capture peoples hearts anyway?!