Book Review: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King (as downloadable audio)

Sleeping Beauties
by Stephen King and Owen King (downloadable audiobook)

I don’t know how I missed reading this earlier! I see now that it came out in 2017, and I’m usually pretty on-top-0f reading items by my beloved author, Mr. King. An added bonus is that this is actually a collaboration with his son, Owen King! Nevertheless, I finally got around to this book. I listened to the audio book, and the woman who did the reading, Marin Ireland, did a GREAT job with the accents! The story takes place in a small Appalachian town…. the accents are what I would call “southern”, but not the same you would hear in Texas or maybe Oklahoma. It sounded different than anything I’d ever heard before, and I feel like she really did fabulous work.

Anyway, I was really pleased with this story and the way it unfolded. It was very intense from the beginning and, to me, the momentum never slowed. I’m always impressed with how well King can present a woman’s perspective. I feel like the complexities of marital relationships — the intense love combined with anger and frustration combined with renewed attraction, etc — are explored in such a way that still follows the main story-line. I was intrigued by the concepts laid out in this novel, and I’m curious what I would choose to do, if given the choice. One thing that really stuck out to me (without giving anything away): the women are all wrapped in a sort of cocoon once they fall asleep…. many of them fight sleep, eventually succumbing to it. That part of the story always made me a bit tired, even though I was captivated the whole time. It was kind of like a yawn, in that the feeling was sort of contagious!

I found myself wondering which parts were written by Stephen King and which were written by Owen King! (If you listen to the audio book, you may get access to a conversation they recorded together regarding their writing process, and they do say that they worked hard to make it flow seamlessly, so that it wouldn’t ever seem like two writers writing separate parts and then just piecing them together! Love these guys!).

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Under the Dome, by Stephen King, The Fireman, by Joe Hill or Bird Box, by Josh Malerman.]

[ official Sleeping Beauties page on the official Stephen King web site ]

Recommended by Tracy T.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Librarie

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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