Review Detail

This review was originally posted at The Book Parade http://www.thebookparade.blogspot.com

I was blown away by this book, I honestly was. When I first read the blurb of A Long, Long Sleep, I thought, ‘This looks good – I think I’ll like this...’ but I wouldn’t have predicted that I would turn out to LOVE the book. However, that is what happened.

At first glance, A Long, Long Sleep looks like just another fairytale retelling with a modern twist, but it’s so much more than that. Maybe it is loosely based on Sleeping Beauty, but only very loosely – A Long, Long Sleep is a whole different, brilliant story in its own right.

It’s a beautiful, intriguing story, but with a slightly deeper, darker feel to it at times as well. There are elements of mystery in the story, with many questions to be answered, and, as truths are gradually unveiled – about Rose’s past, and about the mysterious robot-like creature that is pursuing her – we begin to discover some haunting things. (I won’t expand on this for fear of ruining the story for you!)

Rose was a character I really clicked with; I felt like I was right by her side throughout the book, experiencing everything she was experiencing. I can just imagine how terrifying it must be to wake up in a world sixty two years into the future, completely bereft of everyone and everything dear to you. As I progressed through the novel, and as I discovered more and more about Rose, I began to empathise with her and feel sorry for her. It gradually became clear that Rose’s life had been anything but perfect and the image of her as a princess, heir to an incredibly successful interplanetary empire was anything but accurate.

The world that Rose wakes up into is a very interesting one, and one I enjoyed very much actually. Having read about lots of dystopian worlds recently, it was quite refreshing to visit a world that was more utopian. True, Rose has arrived in a world that has risen from the catastrophic “Dark Times”, which I guess does classify it as a post-apocalyptic world, but nevertheless it is more similar to the kind of ideal, technological future world we tend to imagine (well, at least I tend to image, anyway) – where there are “limoskiffs” and “solarskimmers”, where we have connections with other planets, and where texting is “antiquated technology.”

Somehow, A Long, Long Sleep managed to really grip me emotionally and I was so caught up in the story that there was one particular point, which took me completely by surprise (and was a stroke of genius on the author’s part, if you ask me), where I couldn’t help myself but start crying. (I had to momentarily tear myself away from the book and go and compose myself.)

Through this book, as well as me, as a reader, learning more about Rose, I think Rose really grew as a character and learned more about herself too. From what we saw of Rose in the past, she was reserved and obedient to an almost disturbing extent; she seemed almost brainwashed in her behaviour, but by the end of the book she seems a much stronger, more independent character.

I’m not sure that I have been able to justify how highly I think of this book in my review; I can hardly find the right words to describe what a brilliant book it was. I think it’s one of those books you have to read to feel what I have tried to describe and appreciate it. I’m really impressed with the way Anna Sheehan managed to take a simple storyline and use it to weave together an original, complex, brilliant story infused with so much emotion and meaning.