Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Review: Slumber

ISBN: 978-0692393819
Pages: 234
Source: YA Bound Book Tours
Publication Date: March 23, 2015
Initial Reaction:
Not all princesses get their happily ever after...
They tell me I killed my boyfriend Phillip in cold blood. I stabbed him twenty one times. I’m only seventeen years old, and I am serving life in Spindle Ridge Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
I don’t remember killing him, so it’s really hard to believe I’m capable of murder. In fact I don’t remember anything before I came to Spindle Ridge, not even my boyfriend.
I can only grasp onto my realistic dreams while the madness of the asylum threatens to pull me under. I dream I’m a beautiful princess and there is an evil faerie named Maleficent who is bent on my destruction. The dreams are the closest thing I have to memories of my life, except they aren’t real.
I’m crazy. I’m not a princess. 
They’re the mad illusions of an irrational teenage girl, right?
They’ve assigned me a new doctor, and she says I can trust her, and that she’ll help me see the truth of who I really am. 
When she arrived she brought a new patient, Sawyer, who is everything Spindle Ridge isn’t: exciting, mysterious and beautiful. He promises he’s here to rescue me. Trusting either of them frightens me.
Could it be possible that my dreams are more than just the imaginings of a delusional girl? Could they be truth?
 Hello everyone! Today I've got my review for Slumber by Christy Sloat. This is a really interesting take on the classical story of Sleeping Beauty.

Rory lives in at the Spindle Ridge Asylum for the Criminally Insane after she stabbed her boyfriend Phillip twenty one times in cold blood. However, she has no recollection of killing him, in fact, she has no recollection of anyone named Phillip. She lives her life in fear of Dr. M who rules the Aslyum with an iron fist and Raven, a sadistically cruel aid who carries out Dr. M's orders. 

Right from the start, this novel takes the traditional Sleeping Beauty story and twists it to make a completely different story. I was immediately sucked in by the unique components of the story and the different way the author wove the Sleeping Beauty plot into the story of Rory at the Asylum.

Rory as a character is the complete opposite of the Aurora from Disney's rendition, which is the only personality that comes to my mind. She's not exactly a strong character, but she's got enough of a backbone to realize that something isn't right and takes measures to change her life. I enjoyed seeing her recover her memories and taking the chances to right all the wrongs that were done to her.

Her relationship with Sawyer is...unexpected. The princess falling in love with someone other than Phillip? Why that is simply scandalous, but it happened. Sawyer was a great balance to Rory's character and played an extremely important role in the recovery of her memories. Honestly, his arrival and the sheer amount of spies that within the Asylum really brings to question just how "powerful" Dr. M. Speaking of Dr. M, she's everything Maleficent should be: brutal and unyielding, but with just a tiny sliver of redemption that makes you want her to succeed. Raven on the other hand is completely psycho and I'm scared of how she's going to develop in the following book.

Slumber is a really fun and unique take on Sleeping Beauty and it confirms for me that asylums are probably never what they claim to say...

 3.5 out of 5 stars

Foreverly Obsessed,


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