Status
Available
Genres
Description
In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare. One woman, the mysterious "Eve Black," is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Abandoned, left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions, some wanting to kill Eve, some to save her. Others exploit the chaos to wreak their own vengeance on new enemies. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world. Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women's prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously dramatic father-son collaboration that feels particularly urgent and relevant today.--Provided by Publisher.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member greeniezona
Fresh off of declaring, "Horror is just not my thing," what do I read next?
I've been thinking lately about horror I enjoy versus horror I don't enjoy, which made me nostalgic for my Stephen King phase, plus I kept hearing interesting buzz about the concept of this novel, so onto my hold list it
This monster of a book kind of absorbed my entire life, which it would have to for me to finish all 702 pages in three days. I am still kind of processing how I feel about it.
Don't go into this book expecting any kind of thorough critique of gender. Despite the entire book being about an affliction that affects all women and only women, there is nary a mention of trans men or trans women, which is something I think people would definitely be interested in in this situation. There are some very over-simplified "men are this way, women are this way" bits, but all from character POVs that make sense. You do sometimes wish for one woke folk to stand up and say, "it's our societal definitions of gender rather than biological determinism that yields the behavior you're describing," but, nope.
The whole thing could not be more perfectly timed though, published in the wake of the Weinstein scandal when every few days some new bigwig/actor/director/writer is outed and shamed as a rapist/harasser. It's hard not to root for the cocooned women who blindly dismember those who disturb their rest.
One thing that was weird about the book was how often a character would suddenly say or think something about being black, and every time my reaction was, "Wait, they're black?" and I would scramble across chapters and chapters of that character existing in the story looking for any clue or mention of ethnicity. It was especially odd because it usually came up in a "how being black has shaped my life" thought. HOW MUCH CAN IT HAVE SHAPED THEIR LIFE IF YOU HAVE GIVEN US NOT ONE INDICATION OF SUCH UP UNTIL THIS POINT? DOES THEIR RACE MATTER OR DOESN'T IT? DO YOU EVEN KNOW?
I think naming the agent of disturbance in this story Evie without ever really deciding if there is a Biblical Eve, or Biblical God, and just borrowing that imagery without making it really consistent was unnecessarily messy.
Despite all this, I actually really enjoyed reading it. It was like someone put Orange is the New Black, Justified, and The Stand in a blender with some moths. And I like 3 out of 4 of those things. (Still have never seen/read OINTB.) I liked the sheriff and the book club ladies and the puppy love and the women discovering each other's hidden skills in Our Place and Angel the homicidal maniac.
A good creepy read for Halloween. Horror still isn't really my thing, though.
I've been thinking lately about horror I enjoy versus horror I don't enjoy, which made me nostalgic for my Stephen King phase, plus I kept hearing interesting buzz about the concept of this novel, so onto my hold list it
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went.This monster of a book kind of absorbed my entire life, which it would have to for me to finish all 702 pages in three days. I am still kind of processing how I feel about it.
Don't go into this book expecting any kind of thorough critique of gender. Despite the entire book being about an affliction that affects all women and only women, there is nary a mention of trans men or trans women, which is something I think people would definitely be interested in in this situation. There are some very over-simplified "men are this way, women are this way" bits, but all from character POVs that make sense. You do sometimes wish for one woke folk to stand up and say, "it's our societal definitions of gender rather than biological determinism that yields the behavior you're describing," but, nope.
The whole thing could not be more perfectly timed though, published in the wake of the Weinstein scandal when every few days some new bigwig/actor/director/writer is outed and shamed as a rapist/harasser. It's hard not to root for the cocooned women who blindly dismember those who disturb their rest.
One thing that was weird about the book was how often a character would suddenly say or think something about being black, and every time my reaction was, "Wait, they're black?" and I would scramble across chapters and chapters of that character existing in the story looking for any clue or mention of ethnicity. It was especially odd because it usually came up in a "how being black has shaped my life" thought. HOW MUCH CAN IT HAVE SHAPED THEIR LIFE IF YOU HAVE GIVEN US NOT ONE INDICATION OF SUCH UP UNTIL THIS POINT? DOES THEIR RACE MATTER OR DOESN'T IT? DO YOU EVEN KNOW?
I think naming the agent of disturbance in this story Evie without ever really deciding if there is a Biblical Eve, or Biblical God, and just borrowing that imagery without making it really consistent was unnecessarily messy.
Despite all this, I actually really enjoyed reading it. It was like someone put Orange is the New Black, Justified, and The Stand in a blender with some moths. And I like 3 out of 4 of those things. (Still have never seen/read OINTB.) I liked the sheriff and the book club ladies and the puppy love and the women discovering each other's hidden skills in Our Place and Angel the homicidal maniac.
A good creepy read for Halloween. Horror still isn't really my thing, though.
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LibraryThing member thelibraryladies
Happy Halloween, friends!!!! I hope that you are all doing (or have been doing some great things to celebrate the holiday!! I’m unfortunately working today, but then tonight I’m going to watch some gory horror movies and hand out candy to the neighborhood children. I have been saving an epic
Stephen King has always known how to write a tense and dark disaster tale, be it “Under the Dome”, or my personal favorite “The Stand”, and when he teams up with Owen King they bring us a dark and dreamy tale of a world without women. Well, mostly. The human women of the world have started to fall asleep, and a gauzy film grows over their faces as they refuse to awaken. If you try to remove the film, the woman will violently and graphically attack you before going back to her slumber. This is definitely the stuff of nightmares, but in this book it never really treads fully into pure horror territory. Tense, yes. But there is also a dreaminess about it that makes you feel more like you’re living within, well, a dream. The cast of characters is huge, and we see perspectives of many different people. At times it was hard to keep up with them all, but they all mostly had connections to each other within the small town of Dooling and the Women’s Prison that is nearby. The characters come from a number of different backgrounds, be it Clint Norcross, the Prison psychologist, or Lila, the Sheriff of the town and Clint’s wife, or Jeanette, a prisoner who is trying to do good so she can do right by her son, or many many others. I liked seeing how all of them responded to the sudden crisis, and the places that the Kings took the reactions, from the sad, to the disturbing. My favorite character by far, though, was Evie, the mysterious woman who shows up in town just as the ladies start falling under the mysterious spell. She is both menacing and whimsical, frightening and utterly charming, and I loved that we got to know her, without getting to know much at all.
I also liked the setting of this book. Stephen King has always done a very good job of creating a small town and exposing it’s underbelly, but along with Dooling we get to see where these women ‘go’, when they are ‘asleep’ (though not all of the women characters fall asleep; some stay awake through either drug induced interventions). A sort of post-apocalyptic world comprised entirely of women is a fascinating concept, and where they are is a little “Y, The Last Man” and a little “The Stand”, but without the carnage and tragedy and violence. Sure, it kind of raises some hamfisted musings about how if women ran society it would be a peaceful place because they are just so so good, but I liked seeing a new society built up without the usual bickering and power plays that come with a story like this when dudes are in charge. Especially given some of the stuff coming out about violence and sexual mistreatment of women across our present society. Did I think it was a bit cloying and kind of ‘madonna’-esque? Sure. But man, it did kind of sound nice, if only for a short while.
I do think that this book was kind of long and filled with so many characters it was hard to keep up. The Kings provide a handy dandy chart at the beginning of the book giving us all the characters and their roles in town. This was a nice resource to have, but damn, if you need that resource maybe there are just too many characters you’re trying to juggle. I think that some of the subplots were kind of unnecessary, and it could have probably been trimmed down by a hundred pages or so. But I also understand that when you have two writers, both of them from the King family, there might be lots of ideas that are ultimately going to want to make the final cut. And when you’re part of the King family, who is to say no to that? I just found myself having to go back and remind myself of various things because there was so much to keep straight, and that’s not always a good thing when you’re trying to be absorbed in an otherwise well thought out story.
Overall, I thought that “Sleeping Beauties” was a well done collaboration between father and son. They blended their voices together well enough that it did feel like one voice and contributor, and that can be hard. This may not be the usual fare that one may expect from Stephen King, but hey, the guy is expanding his horizons, and it’s nice to tag along. It also makes me interested in picking up more of Owen’s work, to see if I can pinpoint his influence.
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book for my Halloween review, and what better book than the newest one by Stephen King and his son Owen, “Sleeping Beauties”. Clocking in at about seven hundred pages, this book is a bit of a behemoth, but the timing was such that it ended up being the book with which I close out my HorrorPalooza reviews (though fear not, lots more horror reviews to come in the near future).Stephen King has always known how to write a tense and dark disaster tale, be it “Under the Dome”, or my personal favorite “The Stand”, and when he teams up with Owen King they bring us a dark and dreamy tale of a world without women. Well, mostly. The human women of the world have started to fall asleep, and a gauzy film grows over their faces as they refuse to awaken. If you try to remove the film, the woman will violently and graphically attack you before going back to her slumber. This is definitely the stuff of nightmares, but in this book it never really treads fully into pure horror territory. Tense, yes. But there is also a dreaminess about it that makes you feel more like you’re living within, well, a dream. The cast of characters is huge, and we see perspectives of many different people. At times it was hard to keep up with them all, but they all mostly had connections to each other within the small town of Dooling and the Women’s Prison that is nearby. The characters come from a number of different backgrounds, be it Clint Norcross, the Prison psychologist, or Lila, the Sheriff of the town and Clint’s wife, or Jeanette, a prisoner who is trying to do good so she can do right by her son, or many many others. I liked seeing how all of them responded to the sudden crisis, and the places that the Kings took the reactions, from the sad, to the disturbing. My favorite character by far, though, was Evie, the mysterious woman who shows up in town just as the ladies start falling under the mysterious spell. She is both menacing and whimsical, frightening and utterly charming, and I loved that we got to know her, without getting to know much at all.
I also liked the setting of this book. Stephen King has always done a very good job of creating a small town and exposing it’s underbelly, but along with Dooling we get to see where these women ‘go’, when they are ‘asleep’ (though not all of the women characters fall asleep; some stay awake through either drug induced interventions). A sort of post-apocalyptic world comprised entirely of women is a fascinating concept, and where they are is a little “Y, The Last Man” and a little “The Stand”, but without the carnage and tragedy and violence. Sure, it kind of raises some hamfisted musings about how if women ran society it would be a peaceful place because they are just so so good, but I liked seeing a new society built up without the usual bickering and power plays that come with a story like this when dudes are in charge. Especially given some of the stuff coming out about violence and sexual mistreatment of women across our present society. Did I think it was a bit cloying and kind of ‘madonna’-esque? Sure. But man, it did kind of sound nice, if only for a short while.
I do think that this book was kind of long and filled with so many characters it was hard to keep up. The Kings provide a handy dandy chart at the beginning of the book giving us all the characters and their roles in town. This was a nice resource to have, but damn, if you need that resource maybe there are just too many characters you’re trying to juggle. I think that some of the subplots were kind of unnecessary, and it could have probably been trimmed down by a hundred pages or so. But I also understand that when you have two writers, both of them from the King family, there might be lots of ideas that are ultimately going to want to make the final cut. And when you’re part of the King family, who is to say no to that? I just found myself having to go back and remind myself of various things because there was so much to keep straight, and that’s not always a good thing when you’re trying to be absorbed in an otherwise well thought out story.
Overall, I thought that “Sleeping Beauties” was a well done collaboration between father and son. They blended their voices together well enough that it did feel like one voice and contributor, and that can be hard. This may not be the usual fare that one may expect from Stephen King, but hey, the guy is expanding his horizons, and it’s nice to tag along. It also makes me interested in picking up more of Owen’s work, to see if I can pinpoint his influence.
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LibraryThing member Tommie1
Great storyline but way too long for me. Lots of things going on.I found it difficult to remember all the players
LibraryThing member sturlington
Just the right book at the right time for me. It probably had some flaws, but I loved it anyway. If you are a fan of Stephen King's big fat page-turners, this is a good one to pick up. It was cowritten with his son Owen King, but I couldn't detect two voices in the writing.
What amazed me was thatcame down to making choices, especially women making choices, and also that, despite the fairy-tale trappings, there was no fairy-tale-like happy ending. Life does go on, and this seemed entirely realistic, if perhaps a little melancholy. What a great read--I don't know if I'll be able to top it for some time.
What amazed me was that
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this book was written by two men. The insight into women's anger, their labor, their oppression, and the humanity given to all of the women characters, especially the many women prisoners, inspired and uplifted me. Although not all of the men were as nuanced as characters, enough of them were, especially the two main male characters, who were not quite "hero" and "villain." What I especially loved about this story was that the ending Show Less
LibraryThing member ChelleBearss
Loved. Just loved. I've been a fan of King's work since high school and this one was as good as any I've read before. I ignored housework to find time to read, which in my world is something I did in my 20's and much less recently!
As much as I loved it, I admit it was way too long (700 pages and
King² wrote not just of the supernatural terrors (women spontaneously being wrapped in cocoon type substances after falling asleep) but also of the terrors of human nature.(Men mass exterminating the women in cocoons with fire.)
I was a little surprised as I neared the end as it really became very strong in the man hating camp. It's not often you read a book written by men that has such strong feelings of disdain for the violence that some men act upon towards fellow man and women.
I was very impressed that two men could show such insight into the violence, sexual violence and oppression that some women have dealt with. This book comes at a time where this is very prevalent in the media.
I thought this was a very well done collaboration and it makes me want to check into [[Owen King]]'s work as I have read both his daddy and brother's ([[Joe Hill]]) works.
As much as I loved it, I admit it was way too long (700 pages and
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probably could have been under 600 with a good editing). King² wrote not just of the supernatural terrors (women spontaneously being wrapped in cocoon type substances after falling asleep) but also of the terrors of human nature.
I was a little surprised as I neared the end as it really became very strong in the man hating camp. It's not often you read a book written by men that has such strong feelings of disdain for the violence that some men act upon towards fellow man and women.
I was very impressed that two men could show such insight into the violence, sexual violence and oppression that some women have dealt with. This book comes at a time where this is very prevalent in the media.
I thought this was a very well done collaboration and it makes me want to check into [[Owen King]]'s work as I have read both his daddy and brother's ([[Joe Hill]]) works.
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LibraryThing member Isaac_Thorne
I struggled with rating this one. There was the part of me that wanted to give it two stars for the following reasons:
* Far too long and rambling for the story it tells
* Much too heavy with the hammer on the sex-political message nail
* Way too many characters to be able to maintain empathy/a
It's possible that the empathy thing is on purpose. Every character in this story comes off as self-absorbed, self-righteous, and lacking in empathy for those with whom they do not share characteristics.
Eventually I went with three stars because it's an important (though a wee bit surfacey and misguided on some "facts" in the details) story for the time in which we live. I think it could be a good yarn (and much, much better at getting its point across) if it was distilled to something less of the sprawl that it is. Also, I can't assign a 2.5-star rating on this platform.
Because of its length and having to constantly refresh myself on what this or that character had said and done when I last saw them a hundred pages ago, getting through this novel was a bit of a slog (look at my dates started and finished). More than once, I put it down and swore I would just move on to something more likely to keep my attention. However, because I'm a fan of the elder King, I always relented and picked it back up again. In Sleeping Beauties, it felt like Stephen and Owen King were attempting to write The Stand for the 2010s. If that is the case, I can't say that they succeeded.
I believe this would have been a much more enjoyable and poignant read if cut to something less than a doorstop. There are some entire chapters within this epic that could have been removed without consequence to the story or to the messages the authors were attempting to convey.In fact, at least one chapter near the end of the story in which a hiker quite literally wipes her ass with the Constitution seems to have no bearing on anything that came before it or anything follows after it.
Sections like that like jolted me out of the story because I immediately began to wonder to whom the message of that chapter was intended and, in fact, what was the message? Was it to troll the extreme righties who harass Stephen King on his Twitter feed? Do any extreme righties actually ever read either of the King men's novels in order for them to troll them like that? Or maybe I just missed the point. That's happened before and will again.
Unlike much of Stephen King's work (especially his late 70s throughout the 80s stuff), this isn't a book I'm likely to reread. There are too many characters, too much head-hopping, and not enough layers to it to maintain my interest. That said, for those who want to read a sex-politics charged epic, you could do much worse.
* Far too long and rambling for the story it tells
* Much too heavy with the hammer on the sex-political message nail
* Way too many characters to be able to maintain empathy/a
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reader-relationship with most of themIt's possible that the empathy thing is on purpose. Every character in this story comes off as self-absorbed, self-righteous, and lacking in empathy for those with whom they do not share characteristics.
Eventually I went with three stars because it's an important (though a wee bit surfacey and misguided on some "facts" in the details) story for the time in which we live. I think it could be a good yarn (and much, much better at getting its point across) if it was distilled to something less of the sprawl that it is. Also, I can't assign a 2.5-star rating on this platform.
Because of its length and having to constantly refresh myself on what this or that character had said and done when I last saw them a hundred pages ago, getting through this novel was a bit of a slog (look at my dates started and finished). More than once, I put it down and swore I would just move on to something more likely to keep my attention. However, because I'm a fan of the elder King, I always relented and picked it back up again. In Sleeping Beauties, it felt like Stephen and Owen King were attempting to write The Stand for the 2010s. If that is the case, I can't say that they succeeded.
I believe this would have been a much more enjoyable and poignant read if cut to something less than a doorstop. There are some entire chapters within this epic that could have been removed without consequence to the story or to the messages the authors were attempting to convey.
Sections like that like jolted me out of the story because I immediately began to wonder to whom the message of that chapter was intended and, in fact, what was the message? Was it to troll the extreme righties who harass Stephen King on his Twitter feed? Do any extreme righties actually ever read either of the King men's novels in order for them to troll them like that? Or maybe I just missed the point. That's happened before and will again.
Unlike much of Stephen King's work (especially his late 70s throughout the 80s stuff), this isn't a book I'm likely to reread. There are too many characters, too much head-hopping, and not enough layers to it to maintain my interest. That said, for those who want to read a sex-politics charged epic, you could do much worse.
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LibraryThing member jmchshannon
Reading Sleeping Beauties at a time when arguments rage about victims’ rights, rape culture, and women’s health at large is a balm to the soul. Indeed, the idea of women building our own society without men is downright utopic after this past year of nothing but Hillary bashing, rising
Sleeping Beauties is not a typical King novel, and by that I mean it is not a typical Stephen King novel. It has his hallmark attention to detail, large cast of characters, and world-building. It does dabble in one otherworldly creature and one unexplainable situation. However, there are no monsters hiding in the shadows. There are no objects turned evil. No undead prowling the streets. In this regard, it is more similar to his 11/22/63 than it is to The Shining or even the Mr. Mercedes trilogy.
The most terrifying thing about Sleeping Beauties is the men and the rapidity at which society declines upon the women falling asleep. The entire novel occurs in the period of a week, and the town of Dooling by the end of that week is a burnt-out shell of itself in more ways than one. While the Kings resort to caricatures for many of the men in Dooling, readers still experience a shock at the ease with which most of the men, no matter how cliched they are, justify their crass or even violent behavior towards others. Even more upsetting is how frequently we hear and accept (for the most part) these same excuses in everyday life. The men in Dooling mirror right-wing arguments currently being spouted in the United States right now, and that is downright horrifying.
The story itself is interesting as a direct result of its close ties to current headlines. The Kings are careful to show that not all men are horrible pigs, just as they show that a women-only society will have its own problems. Conflict is a part of life no matter what gender you are, and crime will occur whenever a group of people live together whether that group is all men or all women or a mix of the two.
As much as I enjoyed the story and recommend it to others, Sleeping Beauties is not without its problems. For one, the Kings fail to discuss the sticky situation of gender. Does the sleeping curse only occur in humans with ovaries and a uterus? What about transgender? What about hermaphrodites? Does your identified gender matter in this case? I would have loved to see the Kings explore this area, especially because the men and women of Dooling are supposed to represent the rest of the world. Yet, this portion of society is missing.
For another, no matter how careful they are, the Kings resort to a lot of cliches. If one were to take the men of Dooling and categorize them, the majority of the men are the gun-toting, heavy drinkers who think women were put on the earth to serve men. Society breaks down so quickly because the men are too busy drinking away their sorrows to consider the greater good. The power struggle that occurs among the remaining citizens is solely because of the existence of Evie and the outrage that a woman could ever best a man. While I have no doubt that there are many men who fit the Dooling model in real life, you wish that there was a little more originality put into the characters. Did they have to be the stereotypical Appalachian man, complete with moonshine and drugs and gun stockpiles?
In spite of those issues, Sleeping Beauties is important in that it forces you to think about the coexistence of the sexes rather than to take them for granted like we do. I can see this being an excellent book club selection as well for that reason. There is so much within the story that begs for further discussion, from the fall of society without women to Our Place to the depiction of each gender in the story and more. It is worth repeating that this is not your typical King novel. Those of my friends who have read it and have expressed their displeasure at it cite that as one of the reasons they did not like it. However, if you go into it with an open mind and no expectations, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
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misogyny, and increasing hatred towards anything not white and male. Perhaps the wishful thinking evoked by reading Sleeping Beauties colored my opinion of it; it is difficult to see how it did not. It is with this in mind though that I type up my thoughts on the latest King novel.Sleeping Beauties is not a typical King novel, and by that I mean it is not a typical Stephen King novel. It has his hallmark attention to detail, large cast of characters, and world-building. It does dabble in one otherworldly creature and one unexplainable situation. However, there are no monsters hiding in the shadows. There are no objects turned evil. No undead prowling the streets. In this regard, it is more similar to his 11/22/63 than it is to The Shining or even the Mr. Mercedes trilogy.
The most terrifying thing about Sleeping Beauties is the men and the rapidity at which society declines upon the women falling asleep. The entire novel occurs in the period of a week, and the town of Dooling by the end of that week is a burnt-out shell of itself in more ways than one. While the Kings resort to caricatures for many of the men in Dooling, readers still experience a shock at the ease with which most of the men, no matter how cliched they are, justify their crass or even violent behavior towards others. Even more upsetting is how frequently we hear and accept (for the most part) these same excuses in everyday life. The men in Dooling mirror right-wing arguments currently being spouted in the United States right now, and that is downright horrifying.
The story itself is interesting as a direct result of its close ties to current headlines. The Kings are careful to show that not all men are horrible pigs, just as they show that a women-only society will have its own problems. Conflict is a part of life no matter what gender you are, and crime will occur whenever a group of people live together whether that group is all men or all women or a mix of the two.
As much as I enjoyed the story and recommend it to others, Sleeping Beauties is not without its problems. For one, the Kings fail to discuss the sticky situation of gender. Does the sleeping curse only occur in humans with ovaries and a uterus? What about transgender? What about hermaphrodites? Does your identified gender matter in this case? I would have loved to see the Kings explore this area, especially because the men and women of Dooling are supposed to represent the rest of the world. Yet, this portion of society is missing.
For another, no matter how careful they are, the Kings resort to a lot of cliches. If one were to take the men of Dooling and categorize them, the majority of the men are the gun-toting, heavy drinkers who think women were put on the earth to serve men. Society breaks down so quickly because the men are too busy drinking away their sorrows to consider the greater good. The power struggle that occurs among the remaining citizens is solely because of the existence of Evie and the outrage that a woman could ever best a man. While I have no doubt that there are many men who fit the Dooling model in real life, you wish that there was a little more originality put into the characters. Did they have to be the stereotypical Appalachian man, complete with moonshine and drugs and gun stockpiles?
In spite of those issues, Sleeping Beauties is important in that it forces you to think about the coexistence of the sexes rather than to take them for granted like we do. I can see this being an excellent book club selection as well for that reason. There is so much within the story that begs for further discussion, from the fall of society without women to Our Place to the depiction of each gender in the story and more. It is worth repeating that this is not your typical King novel. Those of my friends who have read it and have expressed their displeasure at it cite that as one of the reasons they did not like it. However, if you go into it with an open mind and no expectations, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
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LibraryThing member flourgirl49
I'm a huge Stephen King fan, but I didn't think this was one of his better efforts. There was absolutely no need for this book to be 700 pages long - I don't mind reading huge books, but probably 300 pages could have easily been cut. The spine-tingling horror that used to be so common in his
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writing seems to have been watered down a lot lately, and that's disappointing. Show Less
LibraryThing member Twink
I'm a long time Stephen King fan, having read everything he's ever written. His sons, Owen King and Joe Hill are also talented writers. Sleeping Beauties is a joint effort between father and son Owen.
Sleeping Beauties is set in a small Appalachian town where the biggest employer is the women's
On the one hand, Sleeping Beauties is a classic King horror tale. Taking something as innocuous as falling asleep and running with it. I love King's sideways view of the world and the pockets of unreality he imagines. But you could also look at the book with a different eye as well - in a social commentary sense if you will. Women's rights, the abuse of those rights, sexism, violence and more. There's also a snake in a tree and a woman called Evie.......'nuff said. There's a choice to be made by the women in the book. (Yep, including the sleepers)
I chose to listen to Sleeping Beauties. I've often said that listening to a book immerses me more fully in the story than reading. This was definitely the case for Sleeping Beauties. The performer (because she did more than narrate!) was Marin Ireland - and she was fantastic! She has a bold voice, easy to listen to and so very, very expressive. There are many characters in this novel and she created numerous voices, accents, tones and cadences to illustrate them. Her interpretation of the book was spot on.
How much of the book is Steven and how much is Owen? You know, it's not something I ever tried to discern. Instead, I happily popped in my earbuds for twenty five hours of what if...... and enjoyed every moment of it.
Sleeping Beauties is set in a small Appalachian town where the biggest employer is the women's
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prison. I love the weirdness that creeps into King's small towns. This one is no exception. As the women of the town start falling asleep, they become covered by white, gauzy tendrils. And once they're asleep and covered, well, they don't wake up. If the covering is torn away - let's just say it's not good for the men. There's one woman who has no trouble waking and sleeping with no ill effects. Who is the mysterious Evie? As more and more women fall asleep, the men begin to panic....are they ready for a world with no women?On the one hand, Sleeping Beauties is a classic King horror tale. Taking something as innocuous as falling asleep and running with it. I love King's sideways view of the world and the pockets of unreality he imagines. But you could also look at the book with a different eye as well - in a social commentary sense if you will. Women's rights, the abuse of those rights, sexism, violence and more. There's also a snake in a tree and a woman called Evie.......'nuff said. There's a choice to be made by the women in the book. (Yep, including the sleepers)
I chose to listen to Sleeping Beauties. I've often said that listening to a book immerses me more fully in the story than reading. This was definitely the case for Sleeping Beauties. The performer (because she did more than narrate!) was Marin Ireland - and she was fantastic! She has a bold voice, easy to listen to and so very, very expressive. There are many characters in this novel and she created numerous voices, accents, tones and cadences to illustrate them. Her interpretation of the book was spot on.
How much of the book is Steven and how much is Owen? You know, it's not something I ever tried to discern. Instead, I happily popped in my earbuds for twenty five hours of what if...... and enjoyed every moment of it.
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LibraryThing member rglossne
An intriguing premise. One day, all around the world, as women fall asleep, their bodies are quickly encased with cocoons. They don't wake up, although they continue to breathe. And you'll regret trying to break them out of the cocoon. For the women now exist in a place apart from men, full of
One woman, 'Eve Black,' who appears in a small Appalachian town, is immune to the disease. The town's major employer is a woman's prison, and the action revolves around its employees and prisoners, the residents of the town, and how they come to grips with the disease and the presence of Eve among them.
The Kings mix the supernatural with characters and locations so real you feel you know them. A solid entertainment.
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peace and cooperation, and they are not eager to return.One woman, 'Eve Black,' who appears in a small Appalachian town, is immune to the disease. The town's major employer is a woman's prison, and the action revolves around its employees and prisoners, the residents of the town, and how they come to grips with the disease and the presence of Eve among them.
The Kings mix the supernatural with characters and locations so real you feel you know them. A solid entertainment.
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LibraryThing member debrarbell
Oh, My, Goodness, another great Stephen King novel. Lots of characters, ( at least 75) and a lot of pages to keep you guessing!
LibraryThing member wearylibrarian
A strange tale of women who fall asleep and are wrapped in a cocoon. Interesting but not a chiller.
LibraryThing member DrApple
Engrossing, but a bit long winded. When a strange virus impacts the world causing all of the women to become wrapped in a cocoon and unable to awaken once they fall asleep, a small town holds the fate of the world in their hands. The action revolves around a women's correctional facility, the
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staff, the inmates, and the mysterious woman brought in just after the crisis begins. The story line is engaging, but things seems to drag at some points. Show Less
LibraryThing member rivkat
When all the women who fall asleep become cocooned in a mysterious substance and unwakeable without significant negative consequences, the fate of the world rests in the hands of a few people from a small town in Appalachia. (I know, I was surprised it wasn’t Maine too.) King the elder has always
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written about bad things happening to good and bad people alike, because that’s the nature of the universe, and he’s also always written about the violence men inflict on women and children, and how those children often grow up to repeat the same patterns. So this book very much feels like a Stephen King book. This time, probably for the same reasons as the Kings wrote this story, I found myself thinking a lot about how people who do good things can nonetheless be shitty people in their personal lives, and how people who are well-meaning can end up on very much the wrong side of a conflict. And how you’re not required to grade on a curve—a man who is by and large a good man doesn’t thereby become entitled to the love of the woman he wants, or of any woman. Anyway, the supernatural, in the form of one Eve Black, is never quite explained even as she induces two groups of men (and a couple of women running on adrenalin and hard drugs) to fight to the death over her safety, on the hope that the women will choose to return if she survives. It’s a surprisingly upbeat story, as the elder King’s work goes; here’s hoping he’s right about the terrible storm through which we are now passing. Show Less
LibraryThing member ecataldi
Sleeping Beauties tracks the frightfully fast spread of "Aurora" a sleeping sickness that only affects women. When women fall asleep their face is cocooned in luminous white fluff and if they're awoken they will attack their disturber and kill them before going back to sleep. The world is in a
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panic, men are committing suicide and it appears the end is near. However in a small town in the Appalachian a woman is able to go to sleep and wake up. Never mind that she went to prison for murdering two meth heads and no one knows her real name, but she might have the answers for this worldwide epidemic and the "cure" might be found right in the sleepy little town of Dooling. There is a massive, wonderful cast of characters. There's good guys, bad guys, inmates, confused souls, and every type of person in between. Stephen King is masterful at bringing his characters to life and this book is no exception. This book isn't scary per se, but it definitely makes you think. A solid addition to the King treasury. Show Less
LibraryThing member wkendgolf
Tedious, boring and WAY TOO LONG! I'm a King fan from his very first book but this one left a lot to be desired.
LibraryThing member CJ82487
I went back and forth on this rating, I really did. I didn't hate this book and it reminded me a lot of Stephen King's older works, which I love, but there was a bit of disconnect with the ending and a lull in the middle. So, here it goes...
This book BLEW UP my social media. Every time I logged
First book of the month box included this beauty and I stalked my mailbox for days waiting for it to arrive.
Here's what I loved about this one... it felt like King's older works: Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary. Those "classics" are some of my favorite and the novels that really made me love his writing. They're rich in description but not overdone and those novels, along with this one, seeped into my dreams and left a mark. There were some definable "non-King" parts that I attributed to his son's contributions, so I guess it would really be better described as "younger-King."
I haven't read any of Owen King's other works, but this novel did make me want to look into his books a little more. The transition between Stephen and Owen was seemless at times and that is incredibly hard to do.
The concept is what had me sucked in from the very beginning, women go to sleep and never wake up. It was intriguing and something unlike anything I had previously read. The pace in the beginning, though, was fast compared to prior King works that I have read. The action picked up right away and I was worried how a book this size was going to keep that momentum.
This is where the rating debate begins.
It hit a bit of a plateau in the middle. There are A LOT of characters to keep track of and in the middle, it became a little muddled. Everyone crosses paths with everyone else at some point or another, it is a small town after all, but the action slowed and there was a huge chunk that wasn't near as captivating as the beginning.
With that said, I still enjoyed every page and I had to get to the end, it just left me wanting something more up to speed with how it started. I had to see how everything would turn out and what would happen to all of the women.
And that is where the final rating debate falls... the ending.
For me, it missed an ending. Without giving the story away, there was a clear climax to the story and then... done. The ending, like the middle, didn't live up to the expectations I had based on the "battle scene" or the climax. It left me with a lot of questions and just wanting another chapter or two of closure. I felt like I needed more information on the aftermath especially after reading 700 pages of everything that happened while the women were asleep.
I'm still going back and forth about this one... 3 stars... 4 stars... which one.
I loved the characters. That was really a highlight for me. While some may think it had too many characters, I loved that there were multiple stories going on within the same story. I loved the different perspectives and how each character reacted to the events around him/her. It got a little fuzzy at one point and I did confuse a couple of characters, but they were the story.
I also loved the images the book gave me. This one creeped into my dreams. I had vivid dreams after reading this about falling asleep and being encased or finding my girls wrapped up in a cocoon, which is terrifying. If the descriptions were lacking, I don't think my imagination would have been able to fill in those blanks and luckily, I didn't have to. It was all very detailed and I like that, which is weird because a lot of the time, I want my imagination to fill in the blanks.
Would I recommend this one?
Yes. I did enjoy it, but it is a big book and if you are going to tackle a King novel, be prepared for a big read.
Would I read it again?
Probably not. I have read Carrie a handful of times, IT at least twice, Duma Key, Lisey's Story, Under the Dome, 11.22.63, Gerald's Game, Everything's Eventual, Cell... all of them more than once and will probably read them again. This one was good, but it wasn't one of the books that I would easily pick up and tackle a second time. Then again, I might change my mind one day... we'll see.
So, for now 3-4/5 stars for this and I am going to keep my eye on Owen King.
This book BLEW UP my social media. Every time I logged
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into Twitter, there was Sleeping Beauties. It was on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even on the radio in the morning when I brought my kids to school. It was everywhere I turned and I was so sucked in by the story as well as the fact that it was a collaboration with Stephen King's son, Owen. When Book of the Month club announced you could get the book for free when you signed up that month only, it was like a sign from the book gods above. I had been looking at the subscription box and looking at this novel, so it was time.First book of the month box included this beauty and I stalked my mailbox for days waiting for it to arrive.
Here's what I loved about this one... it felt like King's older works: Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary. Those "classics" are some of my favorite and the novels that really made me love his writing. They're rich in description but not overdone and those novels, along with this one, seeped into my dreams and left a mark. There were some definable "non-King" parts that I attributed to his son's contributions, so I guess it would really be better described as "younger-King."
I haven't read any of Owen King's other works, but this novel did make me want to look into his books a little more. The transition between Stephen and Owen was seemless at times and that is incredibly hard to do.
The concept is what had me sucked in from the very beginning, women go to sleep and never wake up. It was intriguing and something unlike anything I had previously read. The pace in the beginning, though, was fast compared to prior King works that I have read. The action picked up right away and I was worried how a book this size was going to keep that momentum.
This is where the rating debate begins.
It hit a bit of a plateau in the middle. There are A LOT of characters to keep track of and in the middle, it became a little muddled. Everyone crosses paths with everyone else at some point or another, it is a small town after all, but the action slowed and there was a huge chunk that wasn't near as captivating as the beginning.
With that said, I still enjoyed every page and I had to get to the end, it just left me wanting something more up to speed with how it started. I had to see how everything would turn out and what would happen to all of the women.
And that is where the final rating debate falls... the ending.
For me, it missed an ending. Without giving the story away, there was a clear climax to the story and then... done. The ending, like the middle, didn't live up to the expectations I had based on the "battle scene" or the climax. It left me with a lot of questions and just wanting another chapter or two of closure. I felt like I needed more information on the aftermath especially after reading 700 pages of everything that happened while the women were asleep.
I'm still going back and forth about this one... 3 stars... 4 stars... which one.
I loved the characters. That was really a highlight for me. While some may think it had too many characters, I loved that there were multiple stories going on within the same story. I loved the different perspectives and how each character reacted to the events around him/her. It got a little fuzzy at one point and I did confuse a couple of characters, but they were the story.
I also loved the images the book gave me. This one creeped into my dreams. I had vivid dreams after reading this about falling asleep and being encased or finding my girls wrapped up in a cocoon, which is terrifying. If the descriptions were lacking, I don't think my imagination would have been able to fill in those blanks and luckily, I didn't have to. It was all very detailed and I like that, which is weird because a lot of the time, I want my imagination to fill in the blanks.
Would I recommend this one?
Yes. I did enjoy it, but it is a big book and if you are going to tackle a King novel, be prepared for a big read.
Would I read it again?
Probably not. I have read Carrie a handful of times, IT at least twice, Duma Key, Lisey's Story, Under the Dome, 11.22.63, Gerald's Game, Everything's Eventual, Cell... all of them more than once and will probably read them again. This one was good, but it wasn't one of the books that I would easily pick up and tackle a second time. Then again, I might change my mind one day... we'll see.
So, for now 3-4/5 stars for this and I am going to keep my eye on Owen King.
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LibraryThing member JBreedlove
Maybe OK kept them it at a minimum but the fluff between the first and last 100 pages of an SK book was just that. This was a 3.5 all the way but the ending made it a 4 (Even made it past the Griner's silly closure)
Kudos to SK. Still not the dense and dark feel of his earlier works but a page
Kudos to SK. Still not the dense and dark feel of his earlier works but a page
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turner for sure. Show Less
LibraryThing member rosechimera
I'm out at chapter 3. As I just wrote that sentence, I picked it back up, and was like no, you can't possibly be, read a sentence and put it back down. They seem like nice authors with an interesting and timely theme. I just can't get into it. The first three chapters are good enough, it just feels
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like you are reading the beginning of a good book forever, but I also feel this way about Waiting for Godot and Catch-22. Show Less
LibraryThing member rosechimera
I'm out at chapter 3. As I just wrote that sentence, I picked it back up, and was like no, you can't possibly be, read a sentence and put it back down. They seem like nice authors with an interesting and timely theme. I just can't get into it. The first three chapters are good enough, it just feels
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like you are reading the beginning of a good book forever, but I also feel this way about Waiting for Godot and Catch-22. Show Less
LibraryThing member tjblue
Enjoyed it,but it was too long.
LibraryThing member dagon12
It's been a while since I've read one of Stephen King's doorstop of a books. I've missed doing so. Fortunately this novel completely satisfied me and made me happy.
The story is simple enough: one day, every women who falls asleep grows a cocoon and stays asleep. If someone tries to wake them, the
I found the story very engaging and topical; the book covers many of the societal aspects prevalent within the #MeToo and woman's equality movement now occurring. The book isn't a political book but I'm sure many will mistake it as one. Portraying a world where a large set of the population disappears is going to have some political aspects, at least it will if that portrayal is going to be realistic. Anyway, back to the book. I haven't read any books by Owen King yet so I don't know his voice. To me, this novel very much came across as a Stephen King book. It had many of the elements of a typical Stephen King book. I kind of feel sorry for Owen because I think his contribution is going to be overlooked by many. However, it does make me want to hunt down an Owen King book so that I can experience his pure writing. Nothing I say here is going to entice or discourage you from reading this book. You're either going to do so or not. If so, get to it. You'll be pulled into another world.
The story is simple enough: one day, every women who falls asleep grows a cocoon and stays asleep. If someone tries to wake them, the
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women strikes out viciously killing whoever woke them before going back to sleep. But as with most Stephen King books, there is a lot more to what is happening. One woman, Evie Black, is highly connected to nature and knows how to bring the woman back, if they want to come back. I'm not going to spoil anything because discovery is the fun of most books.I found the story very engaging and topical; the book covers many of the societal aspects prevalent within the #MeToo and woman's equality movement now occurring. The book isn't a political book but I'm sure many will mistake it as one. Portraying a world where a large set of the population disappears is going to have some political aspects, at least it will if that portrayal is going to be realistic. Anyway, back to the book. I haven't read any books by Owen King yet so I don't know his voice. To me, this novel very much came across as a Stephen King book. It had many of the elements of a typical Stephen King book. I kind of feel sorry for Owen because I think his contribution is going to be overlooked by many. However, it does make me want to hunt down an Owen King book so that I can experience his pure writing. Nothing I say here is going to entice or discourage you from reading this book. You're either going to do so or not. If so, get to it. You'll be pulled into another world.
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LibraryThing member BillieBook
It needed pruning.
LibraryThing member courtneygiraldo
I love a good Stephen King novel, and while I had heard that his son had made a foray into the writing sphere, I had yet to read any of his novels. I was eager to read this one not just to knock off a 2018 reading challenge item (a book by two authors) but to also try out an Owen King novel.
What if
While I really enjoyed the entire premise of this novel and the array of complex and interesting characters, it was a tad too long for me. It could easily have been trimmed by a hundred pages or so and had the same affect, not loosing anything in the plot. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend this read to any of my thriller/strange/Stephen King lovers as it delivered on substance.
As you can imagine, a world run by men quickly devolves into chaos and violence while the women not only survive in this strange new world beyond their cocooned bodies, but they thrive. They work together, problem solve, and build lives while the men pick off the weak and attempt to domineer those left. The men devolve into their baser instincts, the women flourish.
In addition to the action and drama that follows such an interesting conflict, their are some really potent underlying themes as they relate to women's rights and the societal disparity between men and women in a number of arenas, the often unjust and punitive nature of the prison system which often continues to victimize versus rehabilitate it's occupants, and police brutality/implicit bias that occurs between those with power and those without.
Definitely a solid read, one that I would encourage you all to check out!
What if
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one day, when women around the world fell asleep, they became ensconced in a cocoon like substance, unable to be awoken? This becomes a reality when what quickly becomes dubbed 'the Aurora virus" sweeps the globe. In the small Appalachian town of Dulling, North Carolina not only are it's residents succumbing to the sleeping virus, but a strange women has appeared from seemingly out of nowhere; one who can sleep and wake and will, one who knows things she shouldn't, and has an uncanny ability to have animals do her bidding. As the town scrambles for answers while the female population slowly succumbs to the virus, the sleeping women must forge their own way in a new world where they all end up once they fall asleep. Can the men of Dulling save their women from the other side, and more importantly, do the women want to be saved?While I really enjoyed the entire premise of this novel and the array of complex and interesting characters, it was a tad too long for me. It could easily have been trimmed by a hundred pages or so and had the same affect, not loosing anything in the plot. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend this read to any of my thriller/strange/Stephen King lovers as it delivered on substance.
As you can imagine, a world run by men quickly devolves into chaos and violence while the women not only survive in this strange new world beyond their cocooned bodies, but they thrive. They work together, problem solve, and build lives while the men pick off the weak and attempt to domineer those left. The men devolve into their baser instincts, the women flourish.
In addition to the action and drama that follows such an interesting conflict, their are some really potent underlying themes as they relate to women's rights and the societal disparity between men and women in a number of arenas, the often unjust and punitive nature of the prison system which often continues to victimize versus rehabilitate it's occupants, and police brutality/implicit bias that occurs between those with power and those without.
Definitely a solid read, one that I would encourage you all to check out!
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LibraryThing member feeroberts64
I'm a Stephen King fanatic, so of course I loved it.
Awards
Bram Stoker Award (Nominee — Novel — 2017)
Dragon Award (Winner — 2018)