A Long Long Sleep
by Anna Sheehan
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: August 9 2011
ISBN: 9780763652609
352 Pages
Young Adult Fiction
Rosalinda awakes after what she assumes is a short sleep in stasis and discovers that she has been sleeping for sixty-two years. In the tradition of Sleeping Beauty, Rosalinda is awakened by a kiss as she comes out of her stasis sleep, but this loose retelling of the fairy tale is pushed forward into a futuristic society and clearly stands on its own merit apart from the original storyline. The writing is somewhat light and fluffy, but you’ll hear no complaints about that from me. The end result was a quick and fun read.
As I learned more about Rosalinda’s parents and their methods of raising her, I became outraged by their callous behavior. The parents’ control over their daughter, as it is revealed slowly throughout the story, added a surprise twist and a slightly malevolent tone worthy of the brothers Grimm.
Speaking of dark and malevolent, there is a killer robot chasing Rosalinda throughout the story, and the biggest mystery of all is: who wants Rosalinda killed? Any number of people stand to benefit from her death (because she’s the heir to a large company and her reappearance means that those high up in the company will someday lose their powerful positions if she takes over).
I thought the ending of this book was marvelous and quite satisfying. It was a realistically happy but imperfect situation at the end, as Rosalinda comes to accept and adjust to her new life.
Rating 4.5/5
Enclave
by Ann Aguirre
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: April 12, 2011
ISBN: 9780312650087
272 Pages
Dystopian Fiction
Deuce lives underground with other youngsters because no one lives long in this post-apocalyptic world. And those underground have to be careful of the zombie-like freaks that roam around seeking food (i.e. people).
Deuce gets paired up with a mysterious boy nicknamed Fade who used to live outside of their group, and who has remained a social outsider. Deuce and Fade are hunters who are responsible for obtaining food and bringing it back to the group; their largest challenge being the cannibalistic freaks that roam about underground.
I avoid zombie books and probably wouldn’t have picked this book up had I known about the “freaks.” Aside from my bias against zombies, I actually really liked the underground scenes from the first half of the book far better than the scenes set elsewhere in the second half. The first half was filled with action to make the heart race as the freaks developed new man-hunting skills and seemed to be hiding around every corner – ready to jump out and scare the crud out of Deuce, Fade and the reader.
The second half of the book slowed down and I started to lose interest in the characters and events, as the plot seemed to follow after that of many other dystopians of late. When all is said and done I just don’t care enough about the characters to read the next book in the series.
Rating: 3/5
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I have been rather curious about both of these books.
Not too sure if either of these appeal to me as if I’m honest I have a bit of a problem with all of these re-tellings of childhood favourites that seem to be so popular at the moment.
I’m not sure A Long Long Sleep is for me, but I bet my sister would love it!
I really didn’t think of Enclave as a zombie book, although I guess you could argue those things are zombies. I really liked Fade too, but there was a lot not perfect about this. Still, I’ll probably go for the continuation!
I felt pretty much the same way about Enclave. The first part underground was awesome, but after that I didn’t care.
Re-tellings of fairy tales can be tricky. But there is nothing wrong with something light and entertaining.
It’s funny – looking at the titles and covers, I thought I would prefer Enclave, but Long Long Sleep sounds much more interesting!
I love these retellins of fairy tales with robots and modern times! I’ll definitely skip the second one.
The first one sounds like one I would enjoy. I haven’t tried any zombie books yet, but I will read a few but not this one
I think Enclave sounds kind of interesting
Both sound interesting to me, but if I wasn’t on a book-buying ban, I would buy A Long, Long Sleep, right now. Oh, well. Onto the wish list it goes.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to read A Long Long Sleep, but your review made me add it to my soon-to-get list. I had similar thoughts on Enclave.
I was pleasantly surprised by A Long Long Sleep-I didn’t know much going in and was a little frustrated at the start by its seeming slowness…until everything started coming together and created a wonderful reading experience.
Enclave, bleah! That book has more inconsistancies than… well, just about any other book. Ever. And mistakes, too- like how does a girl who has never seen the sun know what a tan is?!
The story was okay, and had potential. I’ll give it a chance- I’ll choke through the sequel and hope that it gets better for the sake of the first book’s potential.
As for A Long Long Sleep- I’d love to read it! I’ve had trouble finding many good NEW books lately, so maybe I’ll enjoy it.