Sleeping Beauties: A Novel

Stephen and Owen King have written an EXCELLENT novel delving into the psyche of men and women with amazing accuracy and insight. Truly fanciful, yet possible, the world they create envelops all the separate traits of both sexes and lays them out for the reader's interpretation. I work in a correctional environment, and my job involves years of reading letters from male and female inmates. The situations leading to how the female inmates arrived at their various places in this novel mirror very realistically actual circumstances in the actual lives of so many women. "There but for the grace of God go I". There are so many cases where "justified" does not equal the right to freedom. This story made me think deeply, and as the mother of sons, showed me how thin the line is for men to cope with so many of life's situations, and how differently that behavior is between men and women. This is a story that will get you thinking about morality, community, and societal roles of both sexes. It won't give you answers, but it WILL definitely get you thinking. Plenty of plot twists and flights into believeable fastasy, with just a smudge of reality to satisfy the most critical of readers. This book is not a fast read, but a satisfying and hopeful one. We need hope.

I found it a little difficult to get into this novel. Once I did (about a quarter of the way in), it did move along briskly, but I found myself a little frustrated about certain characters. Frank, for example (choosing a main character with an issue revealed early so as not to spoil the story) had an anger issue that did not always read normally or easily. Sometimes it did seem like his outbursts were consistent with his characteriztion. But his self-awareness seemed inconsistent with the men (and one woman) I've known with anger issues. His blindness to his own behavior during outbursts, and his need to be "a good guy" did seem about right though. I definitely appreciated the approach of the story, ultimately being about how our culture encourages men and women to behave differently, and especially when the chips are down in one way or another. None of us is at our best when stressed and facing unknown outcomes even when we think we are doing our best. We may be doing the best we can under the circumstances, but we are still not at our best. Not surprisingly, these authors did focus a lot on the men in the story, and the women didn't always get as much attention. One woman character who stayed awake during most of the ordeal, for example, started off as one of my favorites, but then spent half the novel wandering around in the background giving the reader almost no idea of her motivations. Then she is used in a big climatic moment, and we're supposed to believe she had only one motivation that had only been discussed almost as an aside early in the story. It was a bit of a muddle. Also muddled was the experience of the cocooned women. That was when the book came alive for me, but we kept shifting back to the angry and depressed men, which had parts I literally only skimmed, because it was repetitive and boring. And while I can imagine the men doing all the things they did, why did no character in a story that deals so much with the ways in which many women are physically and emotionally vulnerable to the men in their lives, even think to point out the ENTIRE vulnerability of women in cocoons, whose cocoons - while somewhat protective - were not infallible. Once in a cocoon, a woman had no way to either fight back or escape WITH AGENCY if attacked by the men around her. I think I know what the authors were hoping to symbolize, but they didn't do this correctly, in my opinion. Any power seeking to help women see how they might survive on their own, without men, and with agency, would have made it happen without making their physical bodies (and, by necessity, their emotional well being) ENTIRELY dependent on men. I was also disappointed in the climax. It felt more like an anticlimax, in that a lot of questions that had been raised were not well answered. I don't need a complete explanation - we are supposed to use our imaginations when we read after all, and fantasy/horror/sci-fi does require a willingness to suspend disbelief. But we need SOMETHING to kickstart our imaginations, and there were too many gaps there, in my opinion, to do that well. All-in-all, it was an interesting thought exercise, and had its good moments. It also might be more rewarding for men reading. For this woman, however, it will not be one of those King books I reread with joy. I doubt I will reread it at all. Sorry guys. 7/10 stars rounded up on Amazon to 4/5.

This is a great collaboration between Stephen King and his son Owen King. It is a very good book, with a very weird premise of every woman on Earth falling asleep and then not waking up. It really explores the concepts of what is masculine and feminine behaviour, and the impact the patriarchy has had on our society through history. But other than that, it is also a gripping and suspenseful tale with great characters that you can really relate to.

It was well written. It provides hours of entertainment. It kept me guessing and the characters were real. I recommend this book to everyone and especially Stephen King followers.

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. First to be clear - is it worth reading? Absolutely. I love a long Stephen King novel - nothing better in my opinion. I haven't read any of Owen King's works (but I have read some Joe Hill and love his writing) so I was excited to see this combination of authors. It has a lot of characters - often it is confusing which character is which, even with the main ones for some reason. I had to constantly remind myself if Janice or Lila was the prison warden or the local sheriff for example. Even the main characters have backstories and characterization that doesn't really get you into them. But overall - the concept and the story is REALLY good. The character of Evie is mysterious and very cool. What bothered me was near the end (no spoilers, don't worry), you understand the Kings were trying to make a social statement regarding equality between men and women and which gender is responsible for certain ills the world (I don't want to give anything away so I won't get into detail). The point is made - it is easy to pickup but the last 10% of the book seems to feel it has to keep reminding you of that point... I felt like the book was saying "hey reader... did you miss the point? let me explain it to you very clearly...." over and over. To me that took away from the ending a bit and pulled me as a reader out of the story a little too much. That is probably my biggest complaint - fiction is often used to make social commentary, sure ... but I personally prefer that commentary to be subtle so I as a reader figure it out or discover it along the way - I don't like being hit over the head with "just making sure you got my point" from the authors. But again overall - I'd recommend it. I've read almost every Stephen King novel - been a fan since I was a kid... after reading this I ordered The Outsider and will continue my Stephen King journey and will probably grab an Owen Hill novel to try it out.

Once you start reading, it is impossible to stop until you get to the end. Intelligent, thrilling, a wonderful story.

When I was done with the book, the first line of the author's note made me smile. "If a fantasy novel is to be believable, the details underpinning it must be realistic." Right? Absolutely right. Sleeping Beauties is a joint effort by the Father and Son King duo and the plot is very very interesting. The idea that women who fall asleep start to get covered in a cocoon, a white sticky thread(Something similar to the ear-wax), intrigued me. The whole incident happens just like any other normal day-to-day activity in our life where people eventually start freaking out at the happenings. There's a lot happening. We all know how much King hates Donald Trump and that is evident in Sleeping Beauties. There are a LOT of characters in the book and the list of characters at the beginning of the book scared me. I shouldn't be surprised that I didn't have to look at that list to remember the characters. There were references to a dead cat and Mercedes. Is the fanboy in me connecting dots or are they for real? :D Sleeping Beauties is a metaphor that lasts 700 plus pages. Its a fable on how the current world has taken the opposite genders for granted. Its a great book no doubt, but I wish it had a tighter ending.

Eine spannende Geschichte, die den Leser von Anfang an fesselt. Durch seine facettenreiche und bildhafte Sprache wird man sofort in die Geschehnisse hineingezogen. Das Thema selbst ist gruselig und faszinierend zugleich. Dem Leser wird ein sprachlicher Ideenreichtum präsentiert, wie man ihn selten findet.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Loved the fresh plot and the book being women-centered is very meta. There were small details that showed the authors understood some of the routine female-male conflicts: men can be thoughtlessly messy in the home and that enrages women. The through line that the root of all female problems stems from men is cynical, but I can see how that might be a perspective. A thought-provoking novel from a solid writing team. I’ll be watching for more from this collaborative writing pair.

This man never disappoints. I am a huge fan of Steven Kings works and this story is right up there with this best. Loved the theme, the deep thought that went into this story, very thought provoking.