A review by steveatwaywords
Sleeping Beauties by Owen King, Stephen King

3.0

Another "epic-sized" work with a worthy topic largely announced but unrealized. The Kings' take on domestic violence, the psyches of men (and even police shootings) is mostly a series of claims of single-issue characters with one or two counter-claims that thereby call the debate done, all with an apocalyptic "disease" scenario to reinforce the point. The sprawl, instead of a mature examination of these issues (or others more lightly touched upon--the mystery of the illness, its emissary, the fable), is more just of the actions of a grand library of characters as they pit themselves against one another as we have seen in several prior books (The Stand, Under the Dome, etc.). In this sense, the novel is an enjoyable pastime read (though large), but leaves us little memorable. The best sections, for me, are in the broken footing of the marriage between our protagonists, an ill health that is never quite starkly defined--an appreciated note of realism.