Book Review: A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

A Long, Long Sleep

Anna Sheeden

342 Pages

Published August 9th, 2011

It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep. But this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone -- and her future full of peril.

Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose -- hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire -- is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes -- or be left without any future at all.

A Long, Long Sleep is about a girl named Rose who pretty much spent her life going to hell and back, over and over and over again. Her overbearing parents repeatedly put her into a coma-like state through a process called stasis, in which she lost huge chunks of her life. She watched a childhood friend grow from years younger than her to being older than her.

If that wasn't bad enough, imagine this poor girl waking up after a stasis session that lasted over 60 years. She is woken by a boy named Bren, one whom she is instantly drawn to for unknown reasons. Her friends and family are all long gone, perished during a period of time she slept through, dubly named "the dark times". She must find out how to survive in this new society, all while avoiding everyday troubles like everyone thinking she's a freak.. and much darker issues like a human-like thing that has been programmed to murder her.

Obviously, Rose doesn't deal with this too well at first, constantly thinking of her past life and of Xavier, her childhood friend turned lover. It saddened me that she couldn't see all the abuse her parents had put her through, how she thought sleeping away years of her life at a time so they could go off and vacation was good. She honestly thought that this was normal, loving behavior from her parents.. and that really sucked for her.

Other than that flaw, she was a pretty decent character. She had wit and charm that kept me smiling, and I loved how we got to know about her love of anything artistic. Her unique abilities are what made me life her, and I loved how she was kind to everyone, even the strange alien-type boy Ottto.

Otto.. he was probably my favorite character, ever. Period. He was SO different that some people may have found him creepy, or unrelatable, but I really connected with him since he was the outcast. I felt his pain, though I know there has to be more to his story. I felt like he and Rose would have been good together.. was I the only one that thought that?!

I hope that someday there will be a sequel, since there were some loose strings that I felt could have been tied up. I won't give it away but... there are some pretty big things left open. A Long, Long sleep was full of mysteries that shocked even me once they were finally solved. Definitely a 2013 favorite!