In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • A Long, Long Sleep
  • April Spisak
Sheehan, Anna. A Long, Long Sleep. Candlewick, 2011. 342p. ISBN 978-0-7636-5260-9 $16.99 R Gr. 9–12.

Rosalinda has been in stasis for sixty-two years, and the world has left her behind in the interim. While it is at first appears that she was placed in stasis for her own safety (soon after she was put in, millions were killed during what is now called the Dark Times) and then simply forgotten, the truth is even more horrific: Rose, as she had been many times before, was put in for her parents’ convenience, and this [End Page 110] time she was simply left there. The truth requires a paradigm shift for the cloistered Rose, who was raised to believe that her placement in stasis was a caring choice from parents who felt it was, for example, better than her being awake at home while they traveled. She also must survive a long-dormant assassin who has been reenergized by her own awakening and sort through her crushing grief for all she has lost. If she succeeds, however, then Rose, defiant, brilliant, and creative, may find that she is better off in a time when her parents are long-dead, stasis is strictly regulated, and a teen girl with a strong brain might actually be listened to and respected. The raw vulnerability of the protagonist, paired with the slowly unfolding horror story that was her actual life, makes for compelling realistic fiction even in the science-fiction setting. Sheehan has captured the grief, shock, and resignation that anyone abused and rejected by their own parents, stripped of a first love, or suddenly thrown into a completely unfamiliar environment would experience, and readers will likely find it as unbearable as Rose that she has been handed all three of these at once (not to mention the zombie/robot would-be assassin). Fans of The Adoration of Jenna Fox (BCCB 4/08) will be equally intrigued by this similar examination of a girl who wakes up indelibly changed.

...

pdf

Share