Why I picked it up: I’m on a fairy tale kick at the moment and it seemed appropriate to do a Sleeping Beauty story after I finished a 12 Dancing Princesses retelling. And the premise sounded intriguing.

Most fairy tell retellings or reimaginings are fantasy, mostly because of the elements of the story. This one is science fiction, and while that isn’t usually my genre, it made this retelling imaginative and original. And the story went places I never expected. Rose wakes up after 62 years in a stasis tube to learn that her parents and everyone she’s known is dead, and she’s the sole heir to a mega-corporation empire. There aren’t a ton of elements that make the future world different than our world, but there were enough for me. It was a slow start, but as I got more and more into it, I got more and more hooked. The big turnaround for me was Rose’s first (written) conversation with Otto, an alien bred with human DNA. I found a lot of Rose’s predicament to be very interesting—imagine waking up to a world where nothing is the same as when you went to sleep. Phrases, streets, cities, governments, technology have all changed drastically.

I found it compelling and thought-provoking. My favorite character was Otto.

Quote: “Thank every god ever invented.”