Stephen King

Owen King

Sleeping Beauties

The authors tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

A Novel

Denaiir

My very first audiobook! I had tried audiobooks before but never really enjoyed them, I was never able to concentrate on them. I really enjoyed the narration of this one though, the narrator made characters recognizable and the flow was good so I was focused on the story. 

I think the various themes in the story were quite interesting, even though sometimes it felt like it was a bit rushed (which is strange to say when the audiobook was 25 hours long). I would have liked to stay in that world a bit longer, seen more of some of the characters. 

there is a wide cast o characters, so if you don't like that, maybe go for another book. But I really enjoyed their interactions and the evolutions of each of them. 

Overall a nice read, I wanted to know what was going to happen, even though it will probably not stay with me for a long time.

Ed Kay

I don't really read Stephen King any more. I read a lot of his early stuff when I was younger, but eventually lost patience as the books got thicker, more baggy, and ended abruptly, almost nonsensically, as if he woke up one morning after typing hundreds of thousands of words and said, "I'm bored now". Very frustrating as a reader having waded through so much to realise that it wasn't really taking you anywhere.

So it was with some trepidation that I picked up this huge, 700 page monster. And, unfortunately, it was more of the same. But worse. It seems the influence of Owen King not only failed to add some much needed plotting and structure, but also took away a lot of what makes his father so readable: good writing.

There was so little to enjoy here. Characters were bland and one dimensional, the writing workaday, and the plot incredibly simplistic. Clearly this was supposed to be some riff on sexism, misogyny, feminism and the modern world, but other than a few vague paragraphs it didn't really discuss the issues in any depth.

Amazingly, in the acknowledgements at the end of the book the Kings thank an editor who culled the book down from " a much larger manuscript". I have nothing but sympathy for her.

 The story was amazing, and I love Stephen king.however, the ending felt extremely rushed.I feel as if the story is too big for it to be just one book, maybe a series?

Lex Austin

Janice Hopper

Fairly early on in this book, I caught myself thinking: Is this a horror novel or a feminist tract? It's like the old Certs commercial: It's a breath mint! It's a candy mint! It's TWO THINGS IN ONE!

Mind you, I've got no problem with feminist tracts especially in this day and age when there is so much effing misogyny on display, especially in the American government. The idea that women could be lost to what we think of as "our" world, leaving all the men behind by themselves, is both intriguing and a little worrisome. What happens to the women when they disappear is also interesting. 

Also: the woman?/supernatural entity?/goddess??? that facilitates everything that happens to the women? In the book she goes by the name "Eve Black" or "Evie." I immediately thought of The Three Faces of Eve, where "Eve White" (quiet housewife), "Eve Black" (party girl and barfly) were two personalities inhabiting one body. (The initial 3rd personality was "Jane," who seemed to be a synthesis of the two, at least for a while. Look it up. It's interesting, sad story.) I don't know if the authors had TTFoE in mind, but it wouldn't surprise me. 

There are little bits of magical realism here and there through the book. The moths, the fox, the rats, and the other animals have interesting parts to play, though they seem like they came from a slightly different book. 

It's a bit of interesting speculation on male/female relationships. Many of the female characters are from a prison. The way one character was narrated really made me think of the character Pennsatucky Doggett from Orange is the New Black. 

The narration was fine. The narrator wasn't especially good with Southern accents, but I didn't find her distracting.

I think the whole story goes on a bit too long. It also gets pretty intense and violent at the big climax. But I thought it was ok. A perfectly cromulent collaboration between the two authors.

Celeste Richardson

You can now find this review and more at Novel Notions.

I’ll probably never look at moths the same way again.

What would happen to the world if half of the population went to sleep and never woke up? And how would that reaction differ if the population was divided by gender, and all of the sleepers were females? How would men handle a world without women?

I’ve been intrigued by this book since the cover art was released, and immediately put myself on hold for it at my local library. I was super excited when it came in, though I have to admit I was surprised by the size. Yes, King has written some huge books, but I guess that somewhere in the back of my mind I expected a co-authored book to a bit shorter. However, the length was perfect for the story; the pace never felt like it was dragging.

Back to the sleepers. Imagine if, one day, any woman who fell asleep became somehow cocooned, and wasn’t able to wake up. And if someone decided to remove a woman from their cocoon, there was hell to pay. Awakened women were angry women, and they fought dirty, biting off noses and beating or stabbing their awakener with whatever happened to be handy, until their faces were once more wrapped in silken fibers and they drifted back into their supernatural slumber. These sleeping beauties left the men of the world completely flabbergasted and the women still clinging to consciousness terrified of long blinks. The aftermath of Aurora, as the sleeping sickness has been named, is where the story really takes off.

There were so many things I loved about this book. The gender questions raised by Aurora were fascinating. Are men more violent without women around to calm them? What would a world without women, or a world without men for that matter, look like for the gender left behind? I don’t think gender roles are as cut-and-dried as they are portrayed in the novel (obviously), but the stereotypes exist and were explored in an interesting way. There are some people that found the book sexist, but I really don’t think that what King and King were going for; they were merely exploring the stereotypes that have defined our society for so long, and that still permeate certain corners and communities. And some of those stereotypes do still hold a grain of truth when discussing a gender as a whole. For instance, far less violent crimes are perpetrated by women than are perpetrated by men. Does this mean that there aren’t violent women? No. Does it mean that all men are violent? Of course not! But differences between genders as a whole do exist, and they bear discussing so that we can figure out the roots of said differences. And seeing societies redefined when they hold only one gender was fascinating. There was also a bit of examination of race and sexuality as they divide our societies, and I felt that these were tastefully. That’s not to say that there weren’t characters who spewed hatred and clung to archaic viewpoints, but isn’t that the case in real life, as well? No society is ever going to be without people who fight against the march of progress.

One of my favorite things about King novels is his ability to take a conflict of cosmic importance and show that conflict in a small town setting, allowing the outcome of the smaller-scale battle to dictate the fate of the world at large. In this case, Dooling, a little town in the Appalachian Mountains, is the focal point of the story, as is the women’s correctional facility that employs a chunk of the town. The fate of the world’s women and the men they left behind depends on the decisions made in Dooling and the prison, especially those involving Evie Black. Evie appeared in Dooling right as Aurora was making its first appearances in the town and prison, and a lot of people think that she has something to do with the sleeping sickness. They just might be right. Because the thing is, Evie isn’t quite human. And I really loved her. She’s funny and scary and incredibly compelling. Evie is one of my favorite characters I’ve come across in a King novel, and I loved how ambiguous she was, playing both sides of the war that raged through Dooling.

King always makes the characters in his small towns feel so real, resulting in a town that is completely believable. And that depth and variance of characterization was definitely present in Sleeping Beauties. I cared so much about the characters, and they were all incredibly well-developed and different from one another. However, this didn’t feel exactly like a King book. The prose was different. It felt a little more modern and polished than his solo work, which to me made it feel more like a co-authored book because I could feel Owen King’s influence. (Not that I have any problems with King's regular prose, mind you; I obviously enjoy it or I wouldn't be consuming so much of his work!) However, the writing was seamless; I could never tell who wrote what, although I could feel the influence of both writers. I’ve seen some people compare this in tone and scope to Joe Hill’s The Fireman, and I completely got that comparison. For me, that was a bonus, because The Fireman was one of my favorite books published in 2016.

In case you couldn’t tell, I really loved this book. It was fabulous. I know that it won’t appeal to everyone, but it just checked all the right boxes for me. It’s a compelling story that touches on some major sore spots currently plaguing our world, and handles those topics well. It’s fun and disturbing and kept me up late reading, and it’s a book that I’ll definitely be reading again.

Dana

I literally read for 5 solid hours to finally finish this book, but oh was it worth it! If you're into long books, Stephen King, and the thought of a new world, definitely give it a read!

Julie Viravaux

[read in French]

 

Sleeping Beauties is an adventure that you're thrown into without being able to catch a breath and I LOVE it. It's basically based on the question: how would men handle a world without women, and women without men? So now, maybe as a woman, I'm more inclined to say that Stephen and Owen King are right when they imagine the apocalypse that would happen. But both men and women characters in this book were incredibly well developed, and both genders had "bad" and "good" characters.
Some scenes were very graphic and I have to say that if sexual assault, gore, violence against women, child death, drugs usage triggers you, it's best to not read it.

Cariena

Oké ik ben dus bijna 3 jaar geleden begonnen aan dit boek en heb 2 weken geleden bedacht om de laatste 500 bladzijden te lezen. Ik las dit boek in het Engels en vond het toch wel lastig, door alle personages en verhalen was ik snel moe als ik wilde lezen. Over het verhaal: het was vermakelijk, interessant en ik was wel nieuwsgierig hoe het verder ging lopen (dat is ook de reden waarom ik hem weer had gepakt om te lezen). Had er wel meer van verwacht om eerlijk te zijn. Daarom 3 sterren.

I am not a Stephen King fan but I LOVED this book! Maybe it's because I read it after the #metoo movement or maybe it's because I read it after another of this type...The Power. But, I really enjoyed all parts of this book.
Maybe I will even go back and read some of Mr. King's more recent stuff.
I would recommend.

This official graphic novel adaptation of the horror novel by Stephen King and Owen King is a haunting interpretation of the chilling, timely bestseller. A bizarre sleeping sickness, called Aurora, has fallen over the world. Its victims can't wake up. And all of them are women. As nations fall into chaos, those women still awake take desperate measures to stay that way, and men everywhere begin to give in to their darkest impulses. Meanwhile, in the small town of Dooling, a mysterious woman has walked out of the woods; she calls herself Eve and leaves a trail of carnage in her wake. Strangest of all, she's the only woman who can wake up.

Sleeping Beauties, Vol. 1 (Graphic Novel)

Gabriel Noel 

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review

This adaption of Stephen Kings novel "Sleeping Beauties" is beautifully illustrated and well written. The plot is intriguing and the characters stories are interwoven masterfully in the overarching story. I'm hoping to get more of the unsettling horror that King is famous for in the next installment because so far it's more on the crime thriller genre side.

The illustration style is dark and grungy and sketchy which I think works well for this. The extra art at the end is beautiful!

Ren Christina

4.5/5 

Fantastic! While a collaborative effort, I never once felt pulled out of the narrative because the writing changes were jarring. In fact, not entirely sure I’d be able to pick who wrote what. While a large cast of characters can often be intimidating, I found myself embracing the times where I did have to piece together who was whom. It truly felt like a small town, built brick by brick. A book well worth a read, even if it takes you nearly a month like me 😉


Further thoughts 3/05/2018:
 - The characters were engaging and had such depth. Each character, even if I hated their actions, had motivations that made sense in this story. While the character list might've been daunting, I felt that it really made the small town of Dooling feel real. 

 - While the books of King's I've read thus far have largely been gory, this was the least so in my opinion. While there was certainly violence, I never felt like something was unnecessarily gruesome. Violence, especially that enacted against women, was never once purely for shock value and for that I will applaud Stephen and Owen. 

 - The references to police violence against people of colour was a fantastic commentary and I felt that it was really important to acknowledge it (and they did, multiple times and very respectfully too). The acknowledgement to Sandra Bland took me aback but in a positive way. 


Overall, I feel that this book is a great step in the right direction for the future of King's works. There was so much care put into the world building and the representation of women but particularly incarcerated women and women of colour. Bravo!

Ugh.

There were far too many characters to keep track of, despite the character list provided in the Book. The plot ended about 100 or more pages before the end, but the publishers must have wanted a longer book because they managed to drag it out for those extra pages. The characters, ones we actually followed and didn't just get name dropped, were well made, but they were usually one sided and the influx of them diluted their impact.

The premise I like. What happens if the women in the world up and disappear one day? What would men do and how would they feel about it? Mostly, they just want them back. The women themselves all seemed to be victims of something and that got old fast. The overall narrative was that men are horrible and women must decide if they can cope while living with them. That also got old fast.

I haven't read any Owen King books, if he has any, but it felt like conflicting authors were at work here. Without spoilers, there is a fight, and it is detailed in a summary sentence. Simple, right? But after the summary sentence, it turns into a few chapters long battle in detail. Weird that a summary sentence was used at all.

Not a good work of collaboration, that's for sure. I remain in the camp of either loving or hating King books.

Loredana

Casie Blevins

I LOVED this book. I would give it 10 stars if I could. I got it from the library but I will be purchasing a copy of it because it must become a part of my permanent collection. This book, at its heart, is about women, and how women interact with the world of men--and the dangers therein. It does not shy away from the foibles and failures of men, the issues between the sexes. It is frank and honest and insightful. The women are well drawn, represented in class, race, and status level. The men are more stereotypical but it works because like I mentioned before--this is a novel about WOMEN. It is a dark fantasy novel but it is also a social commentary for our times. And it is written unflinchingly by two men. Astounding. I did not know how I could love Stephen King more, but he has managed to make it happen. I hope that he and his son collaborate on another project because they did an superb job.

Mahasin S Ameen

Want to read a book where the Kings literally turn women into objects. Well, then this is the book for you. It isn't poorly written, I just didn't find it enjoyable

Jessica Nottingham

Ah, this book. I make no apologies for the fact that I will read all things Stephen King, regardless of what the subject matter is. He's one of my favorite authors and, across the board, I've been enamored enough with his writing that he's essentially an auto-borrow/auto-buy for me. When this dark story, featuring his son as a co-writer, came out I was intrigued. It went straight to the top of my library hold list and I waited patiently for my turn. All the while, I secretly hoped I would be blown away at this.

As it turns out, Sleeping Beauties didn't quite live up to what I was hoping for. The concept of the story I did very much enjoy. Imagine a world where almost all women are out of the picture. Oh, they haven't disappeared but, worse still, they've simply ceased to function. They lie dormat, as a reminder to the men in their lives of what they've lost. I loved the idea of a world where men were left to fend for themselves. I think the Kings really took the time to ponder over what kind of madness would ensue and, for the most part, I think they hit it right on the head. Not one bit of what the men in this book did when "the Aurora virus" hit surprised me. In all its darkness and brutality, it felt right.

I also loved the idea between Evie Black's character, and the choice that she presents to the women in this book. As a gender, women have come to begrudingly accept the fact that men continue to make the rules that govern our lives. What if that wasn't the case though? What if there was a chance to start over, without that fact in place, and do things differently? This whole idea just felt so perfect to me. Watching these women choose between a new world, and the men and boys they left behind felt... right. I don't know how else to explain it. Honestly.

What really lowered my star rating of this book though was just the god awful length of it. It drags, and drags, pulling out things that could have easily been resolved in a chapter or two. Although I appreciated the time to get to know the characters, after a while I began to hate them for how human they all were and how long it took them to make decisions. Everyone was always so blind to the needs and wants of everyone else. I suppose that's real life, and that's probably why it was so frustrating. I'm not going to lie, I almost gave up on this book multiple times for how slow it was moving.

However at the end of it all, I'm glad I finished. The message here is actually one that I think is really important. One of my respected reviewer friends referred to this as a "smart book" and I'm apt to agree. This story isn't being told to be entirely easy to read and mindlessly entertaining, it's being told to make a point. I think it does that, so 3 stars are totally deserved.

Michelle Marlow

Totally not what I thought it was going to be. Ended up being wonderful. I loved the take on this world and how it would run in that state!

Sleeping Beauties

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