My Review
A Long, Long Sleep is a futuristic sci-fi take on Sleeping Beauty.
Rosalinda is a sixteen year old girl who is much older than sixteen. The book begins with Rosalinda being woken from her stasis tube by a kiss from Bren, a boy of the same age who finds the tube in the basement of the building he lives in. He wakes her up, and when he discovers who she is, he is very, very surprised. Rosalinda is the daughter of two very important people – the owners of UniCorp. Also, she has been in stasis for sixty-two years.
A lot has changed since she went into stasis, and most of the people that she loved are no longer alive. Her friends, her parents, her old boyfriend – all gone. She is truly alone in a big world where so many things have changed. As Rosalinda discovers the horrifying events that have occurred in the past while she was asleep (as well as some secrets in her own past), she tries to make peace with the present, as well as herself.
I loved a lot of things about this book. The whole idea for a Sleeping Beauty type story that is futuristic and full of science fiction elements made the entire book an amazing read for me. It was new, it was fun, and it was full of exciting elements that made the story quite entertaining and enjoyable. The idea of Rosalinda having to get used to an almost brand new world after being in stasis for such a long time was just an incredible journey, and you can tell the author put a lot of time into making it work.
At the beginning of this book, and for about a third of the way through it, I honestly didn’t know if I liked Rosalinda very much. She constantly put herself down, telling herself that she wasn’t smart enough or good enough, and she pretty much let everyone walk all over her. She fell in love almost as soon as she saw Bren for the first time, yet she claimed to be grieving for her old boyfriend, Xavier, from before she was put into stasis. But the reason why Rosalinda acts this way and has this type of mindset is so depressing. But it really makes the story and helps you understand her better.
Rosalinda’s friendship with Otto (one of UniCorp’s “experiments”) was one of my favorite aspects of the book. Otto is very different (for one, he can’t talk, but he can touch someone and understand their thoughts, as well as convey his own thoughts into their mind), and he and Rosalinda become very close (not a romantic relationship, but just as friends). He helps her understand her feelings and emotions better than anyone else. The two of them have a bond, since they are both quite “different.”
There is a lot of action in this book, as well. It has a lot of interesting aspects, and quite a deep and complex plot (a lot of things happen in this book) that really works to its advantage and tells an amazing story.
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.