The book: A Long, Long Sleep
The author: Anna Sheehan
The rating: 5 stars
Like Cress, A Long, Long Sleep is a futuristic retelling of a classic fairy tale (Sleeping Beauty, if the title wasn't indication enough). Unlike Cress, Sleep strays more from the source material, creating a wonderfully subversive tale in an incredibly well-built world that I was, quite literally, unable to put down.
Two things really make Sleep the wonderful novel it is: its characters and its worldbuilding. Sheehan's world is incredibly well-imagined with dark, realistic undertones. In the future, a corporation has its fingers in every facet of life, something that's not too hard for the modern reader to imagine. Rose was already in a future world before she began her sixty-two year period of stasis; both settings being futuristic from the reader's perspective allows natural exposition that never feels shoehorned, gradually building a believable world and establishing a compelling history that brings society to where it is in the narrative.
In addition, Rose is truly an intriguing heroine. Throughout the novel, she's incredibly passive. Awful things happen to her and she keeps them to herself like the college girl who is about to be murdered in a horror flick; the reader is constantly yelling at her through the pages, demanding to know how she can be so stupid. It seems like sloppy writing at first, an unbelievable protagonist. At first.
"You just let atrocious things happen to you and don't tell a soul."
That's what Bren tells Rose towards the latter half of the novel, echoing the thoughts in the reader's mind. These flaws in character aren't blunders on the author's part; they're purposeful, carefully crafted, creating a depth to the storyline and to Rose's past. Sleep is as far from sloppy writing as you can get. Everything is so meticulous planned, so carefully construed... when it all comes together, it really is literary magic.
The interpersonal relations between the characters also make Sleep a standout. It's a fairy tale retelling; the blurb itself promised me wakeup-kissing and princely analogs. I'm a bit rustier on my Sleeping Beauty than on my other fairy tales, but I was pretty sure there was something about the prince who saves her being someone she was supposed to marry in childhood. At least in the Disney version, maybe? Yeah, it's been a long time since I saw Sleeping Beauty, but it was something like that. Throughout the book I was expecting Rose and Bren to fall hopelessly in love, or for Xander to somehow return and for them to fall hopelessly in love, or for Otto and Rose to fall hopelessly in love. No matter the couple, I anticipated some hopelessly-in-loveness going on. Sleep defied my every expectation. It's a love story, but not a hopelessly-in-love story. It's about lost love and unrequited love, familial love, false love, and beginnings of love.
All in all, Sleep is a very subversive novel; it's not your typical fairy tale, and that's not just because of its stass tubes and Europan aliens. It sets itself apart from the genre in terms of characters, themes, and relationships, and if the promised sequel ever hits shelves, the continuation of Rose's adventures will also be hitting the top of my reading list.
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