Sleeping Beauties

Instead of a really great fantasy story, with the undercurrent of the power dynamics between men and women and lots of food for thought, I read a book where the social commentary took precedence. This leads to a lot of sometimes dull, sometimes insufferable characters who exist mainly to fill their role, rather than engage my empathy and curiosity. Intellectually I was left cold as well. The central idea I pulled from this was that men are naturally violent abusers at worst and out of touch/out of control with their emotions at best. But when women are violent it''s because some man has pushed them into it, one way or another. There's some lip-service to women taking responsibility for their actions but that's not the overall vibe. I can't help but compare it to [b:The Stand 149267 The Stand Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1213131305l/149267.SX50.jpg 1742269], which also featured a virus and a large cast of characters. That book was entertaining, filled with people who did incite emotions, negative or positive, and I was interested in learning about their fate. The end of The Stand didn't thrill me but at least I enjoyed the ride. The only interesting Sleeping Beauties' character was Dr. Flickinger, meth addict and plastic surgeon, who had very little to do with the story.Evie, the supernatural center of Sleeping Beauties, does not inspire the same level of fear/excitement as Randall Flagg. Somehow such a powerful being spends all her time locked in a cage. Where Flagg was free to roam, Evie's role is to manipulate in place. She wants two sides of men to fight over her body; there's Frank's group that wants to take her apart (for medical/scientific purposes), and Clint's group that wants to protect her. About half way through this incredibly long set-up to the finale, I was wishing it was over. The men are left to cope without their women, which they do to varying degrees. The ultimate outcome is left to the women, but the men can't do anything to affect it either way, so I'm not sure what the point was, especially as it turns out exactly the way you think it would. No new thoughts or surprises offered.

I listened to the audiobook version, and the narrator did a great job! If you do the audiobook, I recommend downloading a Kindle sample of the book because there are tons of characters to keep track of but the book has a list of them all in the beginning. I consulted it a lot! I really liked this. I was worried because of Owen King not getting great reviews on his novel, [b:Double Feature 15802120 Double Feature Owen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468706055s/15802120.jpg 21525516]. But the Kings made a good team, and rewrote one another to blur the lines of who wrote what. I also like when Stephen writes with his other son, Joe Hill! Wonder what would happen if all three of them worked on a book. Anyhow, while this is the story of all the women falling asleep, there are a lot of strong female characters, and they are never silenced in the narrative. The story begins when “Aurora” is across the globe from the Appalachian town where the story is set, a few women never fall asleep, and we also visit where the women “go” while asleep. Sleeping Beauties explores women who've come from lives of abuse, and who've turn to violence, drugs, and/or crime as a result. The sheriff is a woman, as is the prison warden, the prison being one of the main locations. We also spend time with the warden's daughter, an up and coming reporter. And then there's Eve Black who is at the center of everything.I think the Kings channel women very well, and very progressively for the most part. I think there were a few too many mentions that seemed to refer to women as the ones who do laundry and iron, and it would have been nice since we had a number of good guy men to have met one that had some domestic skills. Also, I feel that at moments the book put womanhood in general too much on a pedestal, which constrains women in another (well-intentioned) way. I'm happy to have Eve Black be the most goddessesque character, than you very much. We get to explore the world (Our Place) where the women go, and I will not describe it too much in order to avoid spoilers. What I found interesting is the portrayal of the women as mostly missing the men, but how for some of the profoundly abused this was the first freedom, the first sense of safety, the first opportunity to build their own lives, they'd ever been allowed. In an extremely poignant plot twist, we discover that the actions of the men in the real world – main world? – could still reach the women in Our Place if their sleeping bodies are tampered with or destroyed. Perhaps in the strongest social commentary of the novel, the sleeping women are only dangerous if the cocoon they're in are tampered with, and then they become feral until the threat is destroyed. So you have these women who are very literally doing nothing to no one, and a portion of men decide they must be destroyed because they'll fight back if you, you know, try and rape them. Ugh. The last third before it really got to the ending lagged a bit for me. As mentioned, the book never stopped representing the women, but at one point there's a battle between a couple different factions of men, and I really struggled to care beyond how the results would change the outcome for the women. I understood that this outcome was based on the men proving they could “do better” – be less warlike, more intellectual, and cede control to the mysterious Eve. But I still would have preferred to hang out a little more in the portion of the book with the sleeping chicks. One of the recurring characters is a fox. I loved the fox. I also had to smile because the first time I encountered the word “vulpine” was in [b:Rose Madder 10619 Rose Madder Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375870513s/10619.jpg 833191], a Stephen King novel, which also featured (less fortunate) foxes. The fox in Sleeping Beauties, like the human men, is asked to consider another way of living.