Book Review: A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: August 9, 2011
Publisher: Candlewick
342 Pages

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.

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Review:

This was the first retake on Sleeping Beauty that I've ever read. (At least, I'm pretty sure.) It was a creative an imaginative take on the classic fairytale.

There were a lot of problems with this book. After the first couple of chapters, I almost put the book on hold, or dropped it completely. The beginning was that bad.

The plot took forever to build. All the information was repeated in different phrases, but overall it was just the same information. That was annoying. It got to the point where I wanted to scream, "I KNOW YOU LOVE XAVIER. I KNOW HE'S DEAD. GOD." It was so irritating. And the phrasing of many of the sentences in this book? Where did the author learn to write? No, no, no. I had to reread some multiple times to make sure that I was reading it correctly.  And when I reread them, the meaning changed. It was confusing.

The main character was weak. In the beginning, she had no faith in herself, no faith in her "new start" and absolutely no confidence. It was annoying to read. It always sounding like she was sniveling. Rose's perspective was so hard to read from at times. To read about how little strength and pride in herself was just plain difficult. You could understand why she was that way towards the end, but that didn't make it any easier to read.

There is one point in this book where the word ouch is spelled "owtch." …Seriously? Is this a joke? I wanted to shove my head against a wall repeatedly. The slang that is created for this book is ridiculous and half of it I didn't understand even after finishing the book and seeing it used multiple times. The slang did nothing for the story, in fact, if anything it took away from it.

The only part of the book that I never got sick of was the character Otto. He was the main redeeming quality of the novel. He was strong and brave and loved his friends with all that he was. I adored him and wish there had been more of him throughout the book.

Rose's parents were awful. In the beginning, I didn't understand them and why they would put their daughter is stasis all the time. They were horrible parents--horrible people, actually. I was disgusted by their treatment of Rose. It was disconcerting. Really? She's your daughter, not a toy that you can just put away when you don't want to play with them anymore. I don't understand how no one knew that this was happening and why it was basically allowed for these people. And when her father called her a derogatory term, I almost flounced. I use foul language all the time, but that was just unnecessary. It was directed at a child and the author lost a lot of respect from me at that point. There is a time and a place.

And the twist in this story? Don't even get me started. I knew it immediately. It was so obvious that it frustrated me. It was annoying to wait for the revelation to occur, when I knew it for so long. It made the main character seem like an idiot for not realizing. Also, the epilogue? It just opened up a lot of questions that it didn't answer. There is enough left open for a sequel, which is probably what the author wanted.

I love the cover. I love Otto, Xavier and kind of Bren and I love the plot. If this book had continued as it did the way it began, I would have dropped it completely. The three point five stars comes from the dreadful beginning, the amazing last forty percent and the annoying epilogue.

Overall, this was meh. Read if you want, but I'm not really going to recommend to anyone.