Review of "A Long, Long Sleep"

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Genre: YA

Description from Goodreads: 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.

My thoughts: A few words come to mind when I reflect on this book. They are dysfunction, obsessive, and abuse. Don't let the words stop you from reading this book. Rose has to overcome the effects of these actions. This book is well written and uses a setting that is non-threatening to her readers to discuss these issues.

Rose has been in stasis for 62 years. Her parents regularly put her in stasis for their convenience. Somehow during her last stasis session she was forgotten and put into storage.

She was "awakened" by a young man (Bran) and her first few weeks are a blur and confusing. She didn't realize while she lived with her parents how dysfunctional her life with them was.

When I first started this book I thought it would be similar to Across the Universe, probably because of the stasis thing. This book is a futuristic take off of Sleeping Beauty.

She awakens to a life very different from the one she left. Technology has progresses and she feels left behind. The people around her are unfamiliar and she is not fully accepted by the youth she meets. She makes friends with a being who is even more different than she is. To top it is she is being chased by an assassin.

At first she let's circumstances control her. I loved that she learned to take control of her life.

I struggled to determine my rating for this book. In the end it met my criteria for five stars.  I stayed up until early morning reading and not able to put it down.  There are a few cuss words, but overall it is very clean and appropriate for a broad age range.