Laura is dying, the cancer is incurable (well for now anyway), and her parents make the tough decision to place her in a cryogenic sleep in the hopes that one day she can be woken, cured and live cancer free. Her little brother, also sick, is frozen alongside her.
As she emerges from the sleep she is disorientated, alone and very afraid. Piece by piece the memories start to filter back and she starts to remember that she was sick and frozen. She is cured now, but is shocked to learn that forty years have passed and the world has changed dramatically since she was last a teenager. Even more alone and afraid now she wants her family, her two moms and, most importantly, she wants to know where her brother is.
Technology has made many advancements since her youth, and she must adjust to the times if she wants to have any hope of building a new life as a teenager in a futuristic world. Her saviour, benefactor and now friend Miss Lilly encourages her to attend a new school where she makes new friends and tries to settle into a new routine.
It doesn’t help that Laura is famous now too, a real-life Sleeping Beauty who is even inspiring retro fashion trends across the world. Despite her best efforts to embrace her new life, she finds it difficult to just forget her past, the pain of losing her family is still raw, and she soon begins to question who she should trust…especially when her beloved childhood friend reaches out to her with a warning and a shocking conspiracy begins to unravel as the truth slowly emerges.
Beauty Sleep by Kathryn Evans was a captivating read, I found the plot to be intriguing and the technological peek into a futuristic world interesting. I think young adult readers will thoroughly enjoy this mystery thriller.
Beauty Sleep is available from book stores and online retailers for a recommended retail price of R170.
Thanks to Penguin Random House for sharing this book with me.
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