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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
I enjoyed the story. However, I found myself getting lost because there were too many names to keep straight. For example, Lila and Leanne (I think those are the names) were hard to remember who was who until the book picked up. Some of the female prisoners were hard to keep track because there were many. I definitely got confused around middle-end with all the men fighting along with the male prisoners introduced randomly. This also may have not been a problem if I hadn't opted for the audio book.
What a ride! I could see this playing like a movie. Wonderful writing and characters.
slow-paced
what the hell was that?! my first stephen king book and man am i disappointed. it had soo many pages but i still wanted to keep reading because i was convinced the big stephen king wouldn‘t write a bad book. the turn didn‘t come and the book was still very bad. wayyyy too many characters, way too long, a tiger???? ugh. the idea was SO good, the story could have been amazing but then he did... that? tragic. probably the first book (and ~700 pages) i regret having read.
I am a HUGE Stephen King fan but even I know there are better books of his and lesser books of his. I really enjoyed this one (written with his son). As always his characters suck you in and make you want to know a little more, and before you know it you're invested and have to finish.
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 [b:The Fireman|29875363|The Fireman|Joe Hill|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478683499s/29875363.jpg|40296144], 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.
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 [b:The Fireman|29875363|The Fireman|Joe Hill|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478683499s/29875363.jpg|40296144], 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.
This definitely wasn't a classic King horror story (which is to be expected since it’s a collab) but I was drawn in from the start and quickly fell in love with the characters and the story. I’m always wary of collaborations, too often they come out stilted and awkward. But that was far from the case with Sleeping Beauties. It was absolutely seamless, I couldn't pick out what was Stephen and what was Owen even if I tried! The whole idea of the story is so unique and interesting, I was instantly enraptured and waiting on pins and needles to see how it would all play out and the effects the events that happened would have on the world, Dooling in particular. My favourite part of the story was definitely the characters. There were so many memorable ones to pick from but my favourite is definitely Lila, she stole the show for me right from the start. Something about her just spoke to me and I felt an instant connection with her. I honestly couldn't have loved this book more and I think I enjoyed it even MORE on my reread than the first time around!
The women of the world are falling asleep, forming webs over themselves, and are not waking up. In the first few days women will do anything to stay awake, because who knows if they will ever wake up. As they start losing that battle, men are left to deal with the world without women and it's not a pretty sight. The Kings set the book in a small town in the south, but the gender stereotypes were still a bit much for me as I read the book. That very likely could have been the point, though. There's one woman who can fall asleep and wake up just fine and the mission becomes saving her life from those who want to question her abilities. I really enjoyed the book. I bought into the story and it really never crossed my mind that this would never happen in real life while reading it.
There is a strong "the future is female" element to the Kings' " Sleeping Beauties." When the women fall asleep, they are transported to a new world. It is a world without men, where they get to make all the choices, and where there is some conflict, but not a lot. This is a world that they must ultimately decided if they want to stay in, or leave in order to return back to the world with men. The men, on the other hand, have to learn how to live in a world without women, a less successful endeavor.
In some parts "Beauties" echoes earlier King novels, such as "Rose Madder," but "Beauties" isn't just re-write of those earlier works. It is instead very much crafted for today's world and the issues within it.
"Beauties" is neither my favorite nor least favorite King novel. It's a nice way to pass some time for those who want a fun read and don't mind a little gore.
In some parts "Beauties" echoes earlier King novels, such as "Rose Madder," but "Beauties" isn't just re-write of those earlier works. It is instead very much crafted for today's world and the issues within it.
"Beauties" is neither my favorite nor least favorite King novel. It's a nice way to pass some time for those who want a fun read and don't mind a little gore.