Sleeping Beauties

by Susanna Moore

Like her much-acclaimed previous novels, Susanna Moore's Sleeping Beauties is set in Hawaii, whose shimmering beauty and melancholy traditions are both seductive and dangerously hard to leave. Or so they prove for Clio, who marries a well-known Hollywood actor--providing her with the promise of escape from the entanglements of island life.

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Novels

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Susanna Moore is the author of the novels One Last Look, In the Cut, The Whiteness of Bones, Sleeping Beauties, and My Old Sweetheart, which won the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction, and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her nonfiction travel book, I Myself Have Seen It, was published by the National Geographic Society in 2003. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

got this book for my birthday (Aug 21) since me and hawaii have the same birthday. It did take me 2 and a half months to finish... Honestly I like the beginning and the last 100 pages a lot better than the middle of the book. I really liked the imagery in this book, but I thought the dialogue was stiff and vague at some points. I also thought the pacing was strange in the beginning, but I thought it made more sense towards the end. Solid book overall!

[Joshua Delos reyes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess this was empowering women, but I'm really not sure what this is about.

I had some problems with Moore's writing, specifically her focus on specific parts. She'll usually talk about one person and then move to another, not maintaining any kind of situation or person she'd like to tell.

It's the same with her thematic content. Although there's nothing wrong with having multiple themes, what's problematic for me is how she doesn't narrate the story seamlessly; she'd always leave out patches of vagueness or incompleteness.

To sum up, it was a waste of opportunity.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried to save this book from the retired list at my local library by checking it out, but it seems to me it may be time to put it to rest. The story did not flow...I thought that Hawaiian culture would be interesting. It was not solely about that. Story line was ridiculous.

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! A book about a women's nascent childhood where she experiences no sexual assault!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5*)

[Sanika · Rating 3 out of 5]

The descriptions are beautiful, very vivid, but the story lacks coherence.

[Erin Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the way the main character spoke and the mystical nature of this story

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this three and a half stars. I liked this book but I didn't love it; not because it wasn't good but just because it didn't resonate with me. It's very stylized; the dialogue can be stilted and there are odd spaces in the story. There is a flatness to it, as if all events are given the same emotional weight. I'm certain it's a deliberate choice--Moore is clearly a very talented and deliberate writer--but the result, for me, was a feeling of disengagement from the story and the characters in it. The prose is lovely, but I wasn't excited to find out what happened next.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't help but loving anything that Susanna Moore writes. This is the last in her Hawaii trilogy and it may be the most stunning of the three in its depiction of the islands. Her stories are both local and worldl y at once, both spare and deep. Some of the dialogue struck me as unnatural, but befitting the characters. Like her other books, I consumed this one quickly and anxiously.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Susanna Moore. Her subject matter varies so widely, and this was a book that, from its description, I thought might not really be up my alley, but I really liked it. It was too vague in spots--something that happens often in her writing but doesn't usually bother me as it did here. Still, it was very beautiful and very fierce, in its own way.

[Katherine Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love her style of writing. This is the first book I have read by this author, and I want to read more. I really loved the story, and I thought the main character was both strong and vulnerable. Some of the best lines too.

[ale ☀️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's maybe a 2.5, but I think that overall this book misses cohesion and a real plot. It felt like the writer wanted to make a point but didn't manage to actually do it. I liked the writing, though, which is what made me buy the book (the first pages were amazing I think).

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ms Moore's writings. She paint such a rich picture of Hawaii of her childhood, you want to go back there with her.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely and lyrical.

[Sally Kenney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this a little hard to follow. Interesting about Hawaii.

[David W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

HMM i am the only one who seems to not love this book.

[Evelyn Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

underrated!