In a way, I did this to myself. I should know by now that I do not like, and have never liked, science fictiony retellings of fairy tales. There’s just something about it that feels very deeply weird. Magic is magic and science is science, and — and — you know? It feels jarring. So I was setting myself up for disappointment in this, my first attempt to discern whether all Candlewick authors are as good as Patrick Ness and Melina Marchetta.
(Also because Patrick Ness and Melina Marchetta are really awesome.)
Rose Fitzroy wakes up after sixty years in stasis to find that the whole world has changed. Humanity has been through plague and pain and terror, and everyone Rose ever knew — her mother and father, her boyfriend Xavier — is long dead. Rose herself is rolling in money and utterly isolated; though the grandson of one of her parents’ former colleagues befriends her, she still feels conspicuous and out of place at school. And an illegal robot Inferius* is on a mission to destroy her.
I read — unfortunately for this book! — another young adult novel over the summer in which the heroine is unreliable because she has been made to feel worthless and trouble by the adults in her life; and the heroine of that book, although she could perceive no value in herself, was still an interesting and dynamic protagonist. So I know now that this trick is an attainable one, and that Sheehan just does not know how to do it. When Rose does something insane that arises from believing herself worthless, it doesn’t feel earned. When she doesn’t tell her foster parents that she was attacked by a killer robot Inferius**, it’s supposed to illustrate, I guess, how little she values and trusts herself? And I get that Sheehan is trying to show that Rose has had a job done on her head. It’s just done with a broad brush.
So obviously I wished for a different protagonist. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I would have been happy with a different protagonist from this same book set in this same world. As I was reading, I felt like there was such a good book contained within this one and trying to get out. Rose makes friends with a cyborg guy*** called Otto, and his backstory? Should totally have been the front story. I’m going to tell it to you so you can support me on this:
Otto and his brothers and sisters are a genetic experiment; they are fully sentient beings, but as far as the government is concerned they’re objects. Many of them died when Otto was younger (this is an example of the genetic experiment’s failures). There are all these legal questions about their personhood in the world, and most of them are dead, etc. Then the girl who will legally own them when she reaches the age of 18 wakes up from sixty years in stasis, and Otto becomes friends with her.
I mean, that is the story.
Come on. That’s the story. I want to write that story. I’m sad that’s not the story Sheehan was interested in telling and that as a consequence I had to sit through so much of people in the story going “But Rose, you’re so great and caring!” and Rose going “No no! I’m not! I’m terrible! What? Great and caring? Me?”
(Social Sister and my mumsy are rolling their eyes all the way out of their heads right now, but I hope they find this parenthetical aside sufficient evidence of self-awareness on my part. I KNOW OKAY?)
Well, this post is just all over the place. This is what always happens when the thesis of my review is “I wish this had been a different book with a different protagonist/premise/themes to explore/all of the above.” The instinct to rearrange and fix what’s already in there is, one optimistically presumes, proof that I chose the right profession.
Everyone else has already read this book; their reviews here. Sorry I’m slow on the uptake.
*Not its official name
**Still not what it’s really called; but since we’re on the subject, can we can about how excited we are about J. K. Rowling’s new book coming out this month? YAY.
***Not what the book calls him but we have been living in this world, y’all. We know what a cyborg is.
Jenny's Books 
I KEEP FORGETTING JKR’S NEW BOOK IS COMING OUT AND THEN I GET EXCITED AGAIN
This sounds like an extraordinarily frustrating read.
I keep remembering! Because my coworker was like “The publisher says I can have an advance copy of that,” and I was like, “That sounds untrue,” and it was untrue and now he’s sad on many days that the publisher deceived him in this fashion. He’s sad BUT I AM EXCITED.
Obvious question from a bookaholic but what was the other book you read with the unreliable protag?
Billingsley’s Chime?
Billingsley’s Chime indeed.
Yes, I love the Otto story, and yes, you should name the other book, and yes, my eye did do a tiny little roll. And also, your asterisks are funny. (You’ve probably waited your whole life for someone to say, “Your asterisks are funny.”)
Okay, yes, but I am not a book character, which means you can tell me to hush up. I could not tell this girl to hush up. I also could not tell her to CALL THE POLICE when she gets attacked by a robot Inferius.
I actually liked this one. But I can definitely see what you’re saying about Rose being annoying, and about how Otto’s story is the real story. I think there is a sequel happening, so maybe we’ll find out more about Otto if that’s the case.
Hahaha, I seriously almost added an addendum to this review to be like, But at least it’s a one-and-done! Finding YA that’s not part of a series is hard! However, if she does write a sequel about Otto I’d be very in for that.
Ok, I agree with you. The second story about Otto is the one that I would have been most interested in as well. It’s not right that this inferior story took over and shoved Otto out of the way. He sounds like a wonderful character, and though I probably won’t be reading this book, since you disliked it so much, I would really suggest that we start an email campaign to make the author write the Otto story.
He was a cool character. There was some stuff about how he worked as a cyborg that I wasn’t so into, but the rest of the concept was so good I could have gotten past it.
Dude, I do want that Otto story. Wah!
I loved Chime when I read that one last year! I had this one on my TBR list but I’m reconsidering after reading your review. I guess I’ll wait awhile and maybe grab it from the library sometime.