ABANDONED. Girl imprisoned in own mind, breaks free

[Petrel]

I read this book probably 20-25 years ago, so it was probably written in the early 90's/late 80's. It was young adult science fiction.

A girl commits some crime. I don't recall what it was but it must have been pretty bad because she was sentenced to some years solitary imprisonment in her own mind. Society at that time would drug you and you would "wake up" in a tiny cell that was constructed by your mind. You would live there completely alone while your body was kept alive. Because it was a mental prison time would pass more slowly than in the real world, so you could go for years and years in your mental prison while not much time passed in the real world.

She spent quite a while trying not to go crazy and seeing a shadowy creature that she thought was trying to kill her, and then one day there was a hole in the wall of the prison with sunlight coming in. She broke free into the world outside, which was made of all the places she had seen or heard of, but completely deserted. She spent the rest of her sentence exploring outside.

I believe she was woken up when her sentence ended, and then if I recall correctly she was being flown on a spaceship back to earth when someone (who I don't know) tried to kill her while they were both recovering from being in cryogenic sleep, and she was fighting him while suffering some severe time distortion where it felt like the fight took months. She ended up beating him with some telekinetic powers she managed to develop while being locked in her own head.

That's all I remember! Ring a bell to anyone?

[Andy]

Parts of this are very similar to Barry Longyear's "The House of If" (see description here https://sites.google.com/a/newmyths.c...) Main character was a man though.

[Andy]

"I believe she was woken up when her sentence ended, and then if I recall correctly she was being flown on a spaceship back to earth when someone (who I don't know) tried to kill her while they were both recovering from being in cryogenic sleep, and she was fighting him while suffering some severe time distortion where it felt like the fight took months. She ended up beating him with some telekinetic powers she managed to develop while being locked in her own head. "

This part sounds a lot like Haldeman's Buying Time Buying Time; near the end of that book, a woman is being held captive by kidnappers on a spaceship under the influence of a drug that paralyzes her, and makes minutes seem like days - but also (unknown to the kidnappers) eventually gives her superpowers.

[Andy]

Bump.

[Deborah]

Solitaire

The prison in one's mind w/ time dilation and disorientation upon release sounds like Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge, but the last bit doesn't sound like that book. Figured it was worth a suggestion just in case.

[Andy]

Petrel: Did you check out "Buying Time"?

[Andy]

Bump

[Andy]

Bump

[Andy]

Bump

[Andy]

Bump (anyone seen Petrel lately?)

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Petrel is showing as not having been active since Sept. of 2015.

I have sent her a message to see if she is still interested in finding her book.

[Courtney]

Solitaire

[Andy]

Bump

[Andy]

Bump - maybe move to "Possibly solved"

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Petrel was last active in January 2020. Mods no longer move to "Possibly Solved" and we discourage OPs from doing it too, as threads there tend to get forgotten and languish for years. It's rare for the OP to return and tell us their possibly solved thread is now solved.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Also people are suggesting multiple solutions so I'm not even sure which one "would" be correct.

[Andy]

Understood; thanks.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Petrel is showing as not having been active since Sept. of 2015.

I have sent her a message to see if she is still interested in finding her book."

No response; moving to Abandoned.