A review by yellowbinge
Sleeping Beauties: Deluxe Remastered Edition (Graphic Novel) by Alison Sampson, Stephen King, Rio Youers, Owen King

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Publishing date: 03.09.2024
Thank you to Netgalley and IDW Publishing for the ARC. My opinions are my own. 

The book as a meal: Abstaining from drinking anything at the bar because my date has some terrifying opinions
The book left me: Grateful that I wake up as normal 

Negatives:
Heavy handed on "anti-men" sentiments
A lot of expository dialogue that could simply be expressions from the characters
Watermark on the copy made it hard to read some text

Positives:
Scary concept
Cool artstyle fitting of the story

Features: 
Conversations about feminism, a look at how it could be with a (mostly) man-only world, the worst from both genders

Why did I choose this one?
I have tried reading Stephen King once and it didn't really stick with me. Thought I should try at least once more. Also the premise is super terrifying and would affect me in the real world if it was a real thing that could happen. 

Pick-up-able? Put-down-able?
Relatively pick-up-able. Here is the thing with this comic ... When it drags, it drags heavily. There was so much text and explanation and retelling of already known information between characters. It really affected the pacing negatively. I think it would help if some dialogue was cut out completely and replaced with expressions from the characters. 

What was the vibe and mood?
Apocalyptic. We didn't really see how much of the outside world was affected (the internet, roads and export/import, politics, media), but it was apocalyptic in the few scenarios we got to see. I also felt unsafe the whole read. The way the "victims" were handled got me feeling sick (endearing in this scenario) 

Final ranking and star rating?
B tier, 3 stars. Fascinating concept, could be executed better. I thought it was a good idea and had mostly good foundations until we dragged some "supernatural" elements into it. I didn't really understand how it was all connected, and I also didn't like how quickly it was wrapped up when starting to handle these elements. 

The dialogue and text, the dragging of the storylines. Lots could be improved. I must be honest and say I haven't read the original book, so I don't know how this compares. At the same time ... this would be better as a show or a movie. 

Still, I would maybe recommend this to those who enjoy comics and want to dip their toes into horror and Stephen King. Could be a starting point. 

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