A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

Vivienne from Thrifted Shift suggested I read A Long Long Sleep. I'd seen it before but kind of forgot about it. I'm glad she reminded me about it. It was a wonderful story. 
A Long Long Sleep is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Shoshanah thought it should have been a Rip Van Winkle retelling. Since I knew what she thought going into A Long Long Sleep, I thought a lot about which it was. I'm mostly familiar with the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty which spends a lot of time on Aurora before she goes to sleep. Once she's awoken with the famous kiss, it's the end of the movie. Again Disney told me the Rip Van Winkle story with Goofy as the title character. I don't remember a lot about Rip before he fell asleep. Rip's story seems to focus on his life after waking. A Long Long Sleep focuses on both Rose before she fell asleep and after she was awoken. What happens after being awoken from a 62 year sleep? Why was she asleep for such a long time?

I really felt this was a coming of age story. Rose was 16 when she was "stassed" (put in stasis). When she awoke, her parents, her boyfriend, the world she knew was gone. Who she was before, who she could be now, the possibilities are endless. But would you want to be someone different or would you cling to the past? Rose wants to be who she's always been but there are so many questions. Why was she stassed for such a long time? Why didn't anyone look for her? These questions and more make it hard for Rose to stay who she was. Rose meets Otto at school. Otto is hard to explain. He's part human, part alien. He was created in a lab owned by Rose's family. Otto communicates telepathically through touch. It's Otto who's able to help Rose see what happened to her and how she doesn't have to be who she was.

Overall, I enjoyed A Long Long Sleep. I enjoyed the time I spent in Rose's new world. Others who shared their thoughts on A Long Long Sleep: Layers of Thought, Thrifted Shift, Read. Breathe. Relax, and From L.A. to LA.