Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "owen-king"

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A supernaturally-charged apocalyptic epic from Stephen King and his son Owen King.

Stephen King, as well as being a master of horror, is known for his apocalyptic epics, amongst them the superlative ‘The Stand’, and this novel is evidence that his son Owen also possesses the same skill and imagination. Such stories are incredibly timely in the current global political climate, the authors evoking the unease and societal disintegration that can escape no one’s attention in the age of technology and social media.

The novel takes place in the town of Dooling, while all around the world women are falling prey to a mysterious pandemic – they fall into a sleep from which they don’t wake, cocoons developing around their slumbering bodies, a phenomena that becomes known as Aurora, named after the princess in the Disney adaption of the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ fairy tale. Concerned and panicked men attempt to break some of these cocoons, with fatal consequences. Meanwhile, a preternatural woman, Evie, has arrived in Dooling, destroying a meth lab and killing the drug dealers with her bare hands, which brings her to the attention of local sheriff, Lila Norcross. Lila’s husband, Clint, is a psychiatrist at the nearby women’s prison, where Aurora begins to affect the inmates.

As more women and girls fall prey to Aurora, anarchy rises, men either giving up or allowing aggression to rise to the surface. It takes little time for society to begin crumbling, organisations such as the sheriff’s department, hospitals and the correctional facilities succumbing to the strain. Volunteers step into the breach, but their intentions may not be altruistic, motivated instead by their own agendas. Amongst the terror and panic, it becomes clear that Evie is different to all the other women – she can sleep and wake again, unaffected by Aurora.

While our world is falling to pieces, the sleeping women find themselves in a new world and must face the challenges of their separation from their male loved ones and the opportunity to live life without the dominance and aggression of men. The novel explores this delicately - another crucial theme at a time when women are fighting back against their abusers, while as a society we are striving to achieve gender equality and snuff out patriarchal prejudices. Politically, prejudice is a monster from which society is struggling to shake free; the novel explores how we should depart from the mistakes of the past – whether we should cut ties and start over, or learn from past mistakes and move into the future.

The novel climaxes in a showdown between the remaining correctional staff and the volunteer/vigilante sheriff’s department, as Clint fights to protect Evie from the growing mob that is convinced she holds the answer to bringing an end to Aurora. The answer may surprise them, which leads to a thought-provoking conclusion.

Arresting and emotive, ‘Sleeping Beauties’ is an immersive experience, as all King epics are. You live with the characters through their journeys, arriving at a satisfying ending that stays with you after the final page. Evie is captivating, reminding me at times of another Stephen King character, with her supernatural abilities and smooth palms, but she proves to be more morally ambiguous than outright evil. It would be intriguing if either or both of the Kings were to revisit her in the future.

A fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable novel, with plot, characters and themes blending to create a thrilling concoction.



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