Title: A Long, Long Sleep
Author: Anna Sheehan
Published: August 9th 2011 by Candlewick
 

I hope I’m not the only one who thought it is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I mean, a girl sleeping for a long time woken by a kiss, that’s sound Sleeping Beauty to me. But it mentioned the fairytale a few times so I guess I’m not really that small-minded.

No, seriously. I actually liked the book. I’m very picky with sci-fi books. It’s not my cup of tea frankly. That’s the reason why, despite the high ratings and rave reviews I couldn’t pick up Across the Universe. Love the cover but it’s screaming sci-fi to me. But this one, it wasn’t completely sci-fi thankfully, although as the entire story I’m not digging it that much. To be perfectly honest, I almost stop reading halfway through but as always I hope for the best, that there’s going to be some redeeming plot twist in there that will make my reading worthwhile. Glad this book did deliver that. I was really, really surprised when I found out about that “particular” twist. I didn’t expect it and I was glad that I did hang on ‘till the end.

I was profoundly grateful that world in this book wasn’t really that complex, I do picture it tech-ish like I see in sci-fi/futuristic movies. So I don’t need to dwell too much on the world building but focus on the story itself (I mean the narrator, Rose’s story). Like I said I almost stop reading it altogether, because Rose as a protagonist is not that striking to me. But what got me is her relationship with Xavier—because of their age gap. I mean I was really questioning it, like how it was possible for them to be together when she met him when he was a baby? But along the way, the information needed to understand it was there. All I need to do is to put the pieces together and draw my own conclusion. Actually Xavier and Rose’s relationship is the most interesting relationship I have read so far, it wasn’t one dimensional. Not even close.

One character that stood out for me was Otto. He’s this alien sort of creature. He became Rose’s friend and their conversation was funny, heartwarming with pricked of realism. I mean for someone who have hard time (that and he’s afraid of Rose gaps) carrying conversation verbally (I think they’re most of the time communicating via sort of pods, I forgot the term, sorry), he managed to say, for me, wise words to Rose. He’s a great help to her. Bren on the other hand, was a bit flat for me. But he made me laugh upon reading his reaction when Rose confesses to him. Haha, it’s like he’s afraid of cooties or something, lol. Speaking of confession, the romance in this novel though very subtle (I’m a sucker for subtlety but I’m not very much keen on this one) is quite…hmmm, I can’t think of a right word, somehow complicated (?). Not sure. Like I said, it was in the twist. And for the sake of not ruining it for others, I’m still not gonna tell you what it was.

I think someone mentioned that if you’re going to read this and expecting a science fiction plot at its finest, um, sorry to disappoint you, it’s not. But then again, I prefer this story. I have no problem with it. Though I do commend that smart twist it wasn’t enough for me to rate it higher than three. Because aside from that, there’s nothing grab my attention. For that, I gave it three stars.