Sleeping Beauties

Title: Sleeping Beauties

Author: Stephen King

Published in: 2017

Date read: Not yet read

Score: /5

Genre: Horror, Fantasy

Plot: (Warning, may contain spoilers):
"Sleeping Beauties," published in 2017, is a collaborative novel by Stephen King and his son Owen King. It's an expansive, thought-provoking horror story that imagines a world where women literally "sleep" away, leaving men to cope with the consequences.

The premise of the novel is a global pandemic called Aurora. When women fall asleep, they become encased in a strange, cocoon-like, fibrous gauze, resembling a chrysalis. If these cocoons are disturbed or violated – if someone tries to wake a sleeping woman by tearing the gauze – the woman awakens in a feral, violently aggressive state, brutally attacking anyone nearby, particularly men. While they are sleeping, the women's minds are transported to another place, a beautiful, peaceful, and harmonious alternate world, seemingly free from the chaos and conflict of the male-dominated real world.

The primary setting for the story is Dooling, West Virginia, a small, isolated Appalachian town whose main employer is the Dooling Correctional Facility for Women. As the Aurora phenomenon spreads globally, women everywhere succumb to this mysterious sleep. The men left behind struggle to understand and cope with a world without women. Chaos quickly erupts, fuelled by fear, desperation, and an escalating battle of the sexes. Societies begin to unravel as essential services collapse and men's baser instincts come to the fore.

At the centre of the unfolding mystery in Dooling is a mysterious, enigmatic woman named Evie Black. She appears in Dooling at the same time Aurora begins and is arrested after brutally killing two crystal meth cookers with seemingly superhuman strength. Evie is unique because she appears to be immune to the Aurora phenomenon – she can sleep without cocooning.

This makes her both a potential saviour and a terrifying anomaly. Some men, like Dr. Clint Norcross, the chief psychiatrist at the women's prison and husband to the town sheriff, Lila Norcross (who is fighting against the sleep), believe Evie might hold the key to understanding or even curing Aurora. Others, however, see her as a demonic figure, responsible for the catastrophe, and believe she must be killed.

The novel follows a sprawling cast of characters, both inside the women's prison and within the wider Dooling community, exploring their reactions to the crisis. We see the desperation of women trying to stay awake, the fear and aggression of men trying to protect their loved ones (or exploit the chaos), and the growing divisions between those who want to understand Evie and those who want to destroy her.

Themes explored include:

Gender Roles and Societal Structure: What happens when one half of the population disappears? The novel sharply satirizes traditional gender dynamics and the male perspective in a world suddenly without women.
Feminism and Misogyny: The book directly tackles the complex and often fraught relationship between men and women, exploring both the deep love and the inherent conflicts.
Human Nature in Crisis: How quickly civility can break down under extreme pressure, and the various ways people respond to societal collapse – with compassion, violence, or desperate self-preservation.
The Power of Dreams and Alternate Realities: The concept of the "other place" the women go to while sleeping serves as a powerful metaphor for escape, desire for a better world, and perhaps a deeper, collective female consciousness.
Prophecy and Mythology: Evie herself often feels like a mythological figure, an almost supernatural entity sent to trigger a global shift.
The climax involves a massive, violent confrontation at the Dooling prison as different factions of men converge, some trying to save Evie, others trying to kill her. Meanwhile, the women in the "other world" must grapple with a monumental decision: whether to return to the world of men or build a new society entirely separate from them.

"Sleeping Beauties" is a massive, ambitious novel that is both a compelling horror story and a provocative social commentary, inviting readers to consider fundamental questions about human society and the roles of men and women within it.

Comments:

Books that we've read by Stephen King (68):
Carrie (1974), 'Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (The Shining, #1) (1977), The Stand (1978), Night Shift (1978), The Dead Zone (1979), Firestarter (1980), Cujo (1981), The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) (1982), Different Seasons (1982), Christine (1983), Cycle of the Werewolf (1983), Pet Sematary (1983), The Talisman (The Talisman, #1) (1984), Skeleton Crew (1985), It (1986), The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2) (1987), The Eyes of the Dragon (1987), The Tommyknockers (1987), Misery (1987), The Dark Half (1989), Four Past Midnight (1990), The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3) (1991), Needful Things (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1992), Gerald's Game (1992), Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993), Insomnia (1994), Rose Madder (1995), The Green Mile (1996), Desperation (1996), Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4) (1997), Bag of Bones (1998), The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999), Hearts in Atlantis (1999), On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), Black House (The Talisman, #2) (2001), Dreamcatcher (2001), Everything's Eventual (2002), From a Buick 8 (2002), Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5) (2003), Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6) (2004), The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7) (2004), The Colorado Kid (2005), Cell (2006), Lisey's Story (2006), Duma Key (2008), Just After Sunset (2008), Under the Dome (2009), 11/22/63 (2011), Full Dark, No Stars (2011), The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5) (2012), Dr. Sleep (The Shining, #2) (2013), Joyland (2013), Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1) (2014), Revival (2014), The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015), Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #2) (2015), End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #3) (2016), Elevation (2018), The Outsider (2018), The Institute (2019), If It Bleeds (2020), Billy Summers (2021), Later (2021), Fairy Tale (2022), Holly (2023), You Like It Darker (2024)