Sleeping beauties : a novel

by King, Stephen, 1947-

Format: Print Book 2018
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy
Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
Northland Public Library Readables FIC KING READABLES
Location  Northland Public Library
 
Collection  Readables
 
Call Number  FIC KING READABLES
 
 
Summary
In this spectacular New York Times bestselling father/son collaboration that "barrels along like a freight train" ( Publishers Weekly ), Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare. One woman, the mysterious "Eve Black," is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain?

Abandoned, left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions, some wanted to kill Eve, some to save her. Others exploit the chaos to wreak their own vengeance on new enemies. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world. Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a woman's prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously dramatic father-son collaboration that feels particularly urgent and relevant today.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "A sleeping sickness quickly takes over the world, affecting only females. As they drift off (and enter a different dimension, the reader soon learns), a white, mossy substance covers them, leaving them in a sort of cocoon. No one knows why or how this is happening, but it soon becomes clear that trying to wake any of these sleeping beauties results in deadly, horrifying acts. Evie appears in town out of nowhere and seems to be the only female unaffected by this event but she's got supernatural powers, natch. The Kings set their tale in a small Appalachian town, home to a women's prison. Dr. Clinton Norcross, the staff psychiatrist, finds himself in charge as all of the female leadership falls asleep. It might not seem so hard to run a prison of sleeping women, right? Well, it's not so easy when Evie is there, still awake and doing strange things, and Norcross' wife, Lila the town sheriff succumbs despite her best efforts. This allegorical fantasy has a rich premise but is overly long, which may put off readers who aren't already King fans. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Two Kings in one, father and son, are bound to attract readers.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2017 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "This delicious first collaboration between Stephen King (Doctor Sleep) and his son Owen (Intro to Alien Invasion) is a horror-tinged realistic fantasy that imagines what could happen if most of the women of the world fall asleep, leaving men on their own. No one in Dooling County figures the sickness will affect their rural Appalachian life, but TV images of women asleep and unable to be woken, with white membranous stuff wrapped around their heads, makes residents undeniably distraught. Dr. Clinton Norcross of the Dooling Women's Correctional Facility finds himself unexpectedly in charge of 114 female prisoners when an unhappy guard slips a bunch of Xanax into the coffee of warden Janice Coates, causing her to fall asleep and succumb to the sickness. Clinton's wife, county sheriff Lila Norcross, is called to the scene of a double murder and explosion; en route, she nearly runs down a half-naked woman standing in the middle of the highway. That woman, Evie, seems to have some connection to the peculiar goings-on, though no one knows what it might be. The authors' writing is seamless and naturally flowing. The book gets off to a slow start because of the amount of setup needed, but once the action begins, it barrels along like a freight train. Agent: Chuck Verrill, Darhansoff & Verrill Literary; Amy Williams, Williams Company. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Epidemics -- Fiction.
Women -- Fiction.
Demonology -- Fiction.
Male domination (Social structure) -- Fiction.
Horror stories -- Fiction.
Dystopian fiction.
Thrillers (Fiction)
Horror fiction.
Fantasy fiction.
Publisher New York, NY :Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.,2018
Edition First Gallery Books trade paperback edition.
Contributors King, Owen, author.
Language English
Notes Includes an author's note and a conversation with Stephen King and Owen King.
Description x, 702 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN 9781501163418
1501163418
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