Sleeping Beauties in Apocalypse Whenever

Sep 30, 2017 Kandice rated it liked it

2020-
I listened this time because I saw that the audiobook was read by a narrator I recently fell in love with, Marin Ireland. I cannot praise her reading enough. I enjoyed the story in her voice, but the same problems could not be defeated listening. It's so obvious how much respect and love the King men feel for their women, but Owen must have the same fear of a good ending as good old dad.

The journey is without parallel. The destination? Not so much.

2017 -
I am so torn! Stephen King is my a 2020-
I listened this time because I saw that the audiobook was read by a narrator I recently fell in love with, Marin Ireland. I cannot praise her reading enough. I enjoyed the story in her voice, but the same problems could not be defeated listening. It's so obvious how much respect and love the King men feel for their women, but Owen must have the same fear of a good ending as good old dad.

The journey is without parallel. The destination? Not so much.

2017 -
I am so torn! Stephen King is my absolute favorite author, and Joe Hill is not far behind, so when I got this and it was written by TWO Kings I felt that it was going to be perfect.

When I see a new King book is coming I anxiously await the page count because I am of the opinion that more is always more when you are talking about a King book. This one was a whopping 700+ pages and was a collaboration so I was thrilled. The beginning was good. It was obvious by some of the words and turns of phrases used that this book was not written by Stephen alone. I have only read one of Owen's books, but he tends to use a less down-to-earth vocabulary than his dad and that was certainly the case here. That's not a complaint, simply an observation.

The first few hundred pages built the town of Dooling, WVa, in a way that only King can. Dooling became a character, and as an added bonus for me, I grew up in WVa, so was thrilled that these two Kings got it so incredibly right! It is not a glamorous place, and sadly, as time marches on, drugs have replaced 'shine and the population shows this even on a cursory glance. They painted that balance between beauty, poverty, morality, and citizenship with a very delicate brush. Lovely job. Where they began to lose me was when the actual story began. The stage had been set, and what should have been the meat of the tale felt more like the empty cavity of an unstuffed turkey. I just didn't care!

I don't want to get all spoilery, but even the synopsis describes how all the women in the world are falling asleep, becoming cocooned and completely unwakable. Scratch that. You can wake them, briefly, but God knows you don't want to. The results are disastrous. The entire premise sounds pretty good to me. I love suspending disbelief. It's like my hobby. The problem is that when an author suspends my disbelief, he then needs to make me care. Go to all that trouble for what? A bunch of small-time squabbles? I just didn't give a rat's ass what happened to the men in this story. They lost me.

I understand that this is an allegory for our world, but I didn't want that. I understand that I was supposed to take away a lesson about equality, not just between the sexes, but also between races and those "other" than ourselves. I didn't need that lesson in a Stephen King book. He has never been a preachy writer, so I have to believe the preachiness was all Owen. Not what I wanted at all! I am incredibly disappointed. This will probably be one of the only King books I don't reread. That's sad. :*(

What I will say about this book is that if the story had focused on what was happening with the sleeping women, instead of on what the assholes of the world were doing in their absence, I would have enjoyed it. If the middle 500 pages had read more like the first and last 100 pages, this could have been five stars for me. Sadly they didn't. ...more

26 likes · Like · see review

Jan 08, 2018 Nicole rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned

Overall a great read - the plot was definitely original and the writing, as usual for SK, easy to read. I am constantly impressed by Stephen King's ability to so clearly portray how antagonists are thinking in sympathetic tones when writing from their perspective while also making it clear to the reader that they are the bad guys.
I would say my one complaint is that the small town degradation is highly reminiscent of Under The Dome - which, being my favorite King standalone novel, was fine by m ...more

Like · see review

Nov 17, 2019 Heather rated it really liked it

i really enjoyed this. there's plenty of action, tension, and mystery to keep the story moving and plenty of characters to root for and against and the stakes are HIGH. ...more

Like · see review