New Book Alert: The Girl Who Found The Sun by Matthew S. Cox; Unintentionally Difficult Science Fiction Book To Read These Days

New Book Alert: The Girl Who Found The Sun by Matthew S. Cox; Unintentionally Difficult Science Fiction Book To Read These Days

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: Matthew S. Cox's The Girl Who Found The Sun is a very difficult book to read right now.

It's hard to read about a futuristic world in which characters a trapped underground hiding from the environmental and sociopolitical disasters up above. It can make a Reader anxious to visualize the claustrophobia, the deprivation from even the simplest things, and the dependence on people who are just as frightened and uncertain as they are, especially when the Reader is living that life in reality.


That is the situation faced by Raven, one of a dwindling group of Earth's survivors in the Arc, an underground shelter. They hid to get away from an alien race called plutions who destroyed the planet, leaving noxious gases. Should anyone go outside, the toxic air could kill them. The community leader, Noah, rules with an iron fist. Unfortunately, a few members disappeared including Raven's father who often talked about the world up above.

Raven also has to make the difficult decision to face that world. As a tech, she is one of the people in charge with bringing oxygen into the Arc. Unfortunately, the air filtration system is breaking down. Raven has to go above to fix it. She has an even more pressing reason to do so when many of the community members become seriously ill, including Raven's daughter, Tinsley.

The underground world of the characters is bleak and terrifying, especially when you are living a life indoors and kept away from the outside world. In both cases in fiction and reality, the reasons are to keep the residents safe but it still makes them longing for the outside world. Of course in the fictional, The Girl Who Found The Sun, the situation is excaberated by the fact that many generations have lived underground to the point that the populace of the Arc is dwindling with only eight small children and very few couples that are genetically related. All of those things like blue skies, colorful birds and animals, different types of people and nations can only be found in books and stories. The Arc was meant to be only a temporary solution, but after several centuries have gone by, the characters stay underground because it's the only life that they know. They have become apathetic and agoraphobic living only for their immediate survival.

Raven would be the same way: working in the job in which she was assigned, giving birth and raising a daughter at a young age even though she does not get on with the child's father, and following the various rules without question. She would never go outside, except her father, Eli, had been in and out numerous times and has told her about the beautiful world that he had seen. Most people think that Eli was just telling stories or out of his mind, especially since he disappeared and never returned.


Raven is a courageous and independent thinker, thanks to her dad's freethinking ways. She had dreams of the outside world, but her encounter with that world to fix the air filtration system intensifies those desire to explore. For the first time, she is blinded by the sun, feels the grass underneath her toes, and breathes the clean air without the aid of an oxygen mask. She longs to explore more of the outside world, especially when she sees potential evidence that other people live on the outside.

Raven also reveals her kindness and devotion to the other Members of the community, particularly her daughter, Tinsley. She has no intention of leaving them behind. First, she lures out her colleague, Lark then Tinsley. Her plan is to lead out a small group at a time recognizing the strength in numbers. She reasons that if more people acknowledge that it really is safe out there, then Noah could be convinced to let the others out or at least let outside air come into the Arc.


Of the more brilliant choices that Cox makes with his work is how he writes Noah, the Arc leader. It would be tempting to make him the Big Bad, someone who has gone insane and drunk with power through the years and is willing to kill his people rather than see the outside or part of some giant conspiracy that knows the outside world is safe and will kill to prevent that secret to hold onto his little world. There are many times when the Reader expects the novel to go into that direction.

Thankfully, Cox subverts those expectations. Noah actually is a decent man who wants to do right by his community, but is in over his head. He became leader at a fairly young age and is somewhat overwhelmed by his responsibilities, especially when people around him become sick. He is driven by his own fears and ignorance of the outside world, unfortunately as leader that fear is also passed onto his people. However, he is not completely hard hearted and when times get desperate, Noah is willing to weigh different probable solutions and is ultimately willing to admit that he is wrong. Because of how well Cox writes them, Raven and Noah are the two best characters in the book.




Once the outside world is revealed, the writing becomes quite beautiful and almost wistful. There are beautiful moments such as when Raven encounters a flock of birds for the first time. The sun becomes blinding when they approach it, but the warmth is intoxicating. Raven and her crew also encounter dangers such as feral cats and humans gone mad by the outside hardship. One of the more harshest discoveries is when Raven learns that the Earth's destruction was not caused by alien forces called plutions, but from within by humanity itself.

As Raven and the others wander the rubble of the fallen cities and see the corpses of the people left behind, a lump fills the Reader's throat over the fallen world and how quickly this fiction could become a reality if we do not do our part to take care of the world.


That's what makes The Girl Who Found The Sun so haunting and difficult to read. This is a world that could be all too real and made even more real every day. It also makes one take pleasure in those little things like a walk through the grass, the feel of the sun, a walk down a city street, a trip to the store, and love it more.