Oh, oh this book. I was inclined to read it because its a scifi twist on Sleeping Beauty (plus at least one other fairy tale I can't put my finger on), but this book was WONDERFUL. It was perfect; perhaps not technically perfect, but it was perfect for the time I was reading it. There's a scene, near the end, when Rose is confronted with a lot of harsh truths really quickly and I had tears pouring down my face. This reminded me of The Adoration of Jenna Fox (by Mary J. Pearson) actually as both dealt with gaps in memory and struggling with identity.

From an outsider perspective, Rose's memories don't match up quite right from the get go. Not just the fact she knew her boyfriend Xavier from he was in diapers, aging next to him in fits and spurts until they were the same age finally. Someone mentions she should be in her late 70's, based on the birthdate they found and she muses silently that she's really more like a hundred years old given all the times she's been "stassed" (put into stasis) throughout her childhood.

Her casual acceptance of this goes from worrisome to outright disturbing when a character--the boy who found her, Bren, says she uses being stassed like a drug to escape. Little things throughout the novel start to make more horrifying sense.

And then there's the ultimate revelations close to the end that just...this poor girl. The twist with the person hunting her was surprising, but fits in so well with everything we found out that its almost sickening too.

I found her friendship with Otto, a teen boy part of a hybrid/genetic experiment done by her parents' company while she was stassed, to be fascinating. Unable to 'talk' with each other, their conversations by instant messenger are far more revealing then any other discussion. The anonymity of the screen helps them both I think.

This isn't a fast paced book; Rose slips in and out of her memories often, and her memories aren't told sequentially for the most part. She's also rather...vague as a personality at first. Partially because when her parents were alive she didn't have one really. They told her where to go, what to wear, how to talk. The only time she really acted on her own was when she was with Xavier, but even then she was so afraid of her parents taking it away she didn't really act on her own.

A unique retelling of the sleeping beauty fairy tale, this princess overcomes her demons and figures out how to save herself. ( )

It struck me that there aren't very many Sleeping Beauty re-tellings. The fairy-tale subgenre tends to be peppered with tons of Cinderella, and smaller numbers of Beauty & and the Beasts and Little Red Riding Hoods. Sleeping Beauty tends to be overlooked. Which is fair, because it's a harder story to translate to a non-traditional fairy tale setting. After all, how can you plausibly have a girl asleep for 100 years?

This book tackled that question and surprising, it worked. It helped that Sheehan wasn't 100% faithful to the story, and mainly used the premise as a launching point. The book begins with Rose being taken out of stasis and learning that her entire life has changed. Rather than focusing on the happily ever after of a fairy tale, this book focuses on the after.

Unlike some reviewers, I was hooked from the beginning. The slow start made sense to me because Rose started slowly - her body and brain were recovering from being in stasis for over 60 years, and she was emotionally withdrawn and lives in her memories. The story picks up when it turns out there is something trying to kill her, and she is forced to face the truths of her memories, and her family.

This was a great stand-alone book, but it seems like the author sets up for a potential sequel or two. I'm happy either way. Rose's story ended perfectly. But I'd also welcome more in this world. ( )

Damn OMG this book... I want to read it so, so badly ( )

Sleeping beauty, modern fairy tale retelling, sci-fi, romance, YA, child abuse, Kindle, addiction

I’d never thought of Sleeping Beauty as tragic before reading this version. In the traditional version Beauty’s whole family remains asleep with her and all are awakened to a wonderful reunion. Not so in Rose’s story, she’s been asleep and forgotten for 62 years, her parents are dead, her boyfriend is dead, and the world she knew is dead. Rose’s awakening to her new world and herself is complicated by a threat from the past. She has to figure out what her childhood taught her and how she will go forward now. I cried at the reveal, and I want more story. I am buying a hard copy for the high school library.
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So hard to get into and the story line is pretty predictable. The ending sort of saves it for you, but at times Rose is obnoxious and oblivious. But I mean what else do you expect from someone who was asleep for like 60 years? ( )