review: A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

pub date: August 9, 2011
publisher: Candlewick
pages: 342
format: audio
reader: Angela Dawe
appeals: future, fairy tale retelling, romance, sorta scientific
content: a few swear words--maybe ten?

thoughts:
I needed an audio book, but I wasn't sure what to listen to. So I went browsing at the library and picked this one up because the title sounded familiar. I'm sure I read something about it somewhere. Besides, I like fairy tale retellings, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The the story follows Rose, who is awoken by a boy (hehe) after 62 years hibernating in a stasis tube. Her parents are dead, and the world around her has changed quite a bit while she's been "sleeping." So she has the present she woke up in, but a long ago past that still haunts her.  

The audio was really good, too. I liked the Angela Dawe as the reader, a lot. I thought she did a good job with the male voices.

Here were my thoughts as I listened:


discs 1: This is a really interesting world that the author has created. I love well built worlds, and I think this one is well built. Very intriguing. However, where is this story going? If I had the book, I'd probably skip to the back and read the last few pages just to find out, because even after reading the summary on the jacket three times, I'm still confused on what the point of this story is.

disc 2: The plot is a little slow. Rose's present is broken up a bit by her memories from her past. It's still interesting, but a tad slow. And I still don't know where the story is going.

disc 3: Rose is a wimp. She is so spineless she's practically an amoeba. As her past unfolds, I understand why she never stands up for herself and accepts everything everyone tells/told her (especially her dead parents), but the book is a third through, when is she going to grow up? I want her to take a stand. Grow a spine.

disc 4: I am really enjoying the future technology Sheehan created for this book. It is so creative. And interesting. And very cool.


disc 5: I am so angry at the people that surround Rose and how they manipulate her, past and present. I am so angry at them! I want Rose to feel the same anger! Yet, she's still in the amoeba stage of her development. When? When will Rose break free?!!!!!


discs 6: YES!! FINALLY! Rose gets ANGRY!!!! It was long in coming, but very satisfying. I sit in my car for 30 minutes because I want to know what is going to happen. It isn't slow anymore! The pace has definitely picked up. I make myself get out of my car when the disc ends.

disc 7: Oh no! Is this the first book in the series? I had no idea it was a series! But I can see how Sheehan is setting it up for another book if she does continue it. And it's all so exciting! I like Rose when she has some bone structure. Yay Rose!

disc 8: The dreaded two words: Love. Triangle. Ack! Not in this book, but I think Sheehan is setting it up for one in the next book. And now I'm going to have to read it. I'm hooked!

summary:
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.