Analysis

Sleeping Beauties (Novel) Sleeping Beauties is a novel by American writers Stephen King and his son Owen King, released on September 26, 2017. The book was first mentioned during a promotional appearance on Q, a CBC Radio program, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Of the novel, Stephen King stated, "Owen brought me this dynamite idea and I've collaborated a couple of times with Joe. I'm not going to say what the idea is because it's too good."[1] The novel was officially announced in June 2016 and is said to take place in a women's prison in West Virginia during a strange mystical occurrence that causes all the women in the world to fall asleep.[2] An excerpt was published on September 1, 2017 by Entertainment Weekly in their special The Ultimate Guide to Stephen King issue.[3] Synopsis The novel primarily follows Clint and Lila Norcross, a husband and wife who live in Dooling, West Virginia, a small, poor Appalachian town in the United States. Clint works as a psychiatrist at the local women's prison while Lila serves as the town's sheriff. The two find themselves facing a strange epidemic that causes women to fall into a deep sleep where they are cocooned in a strange material. Attempts to open the cocoon and wake the women only result in the women reacting in a homicidal manner. As a result the remaining women try desperately to remain awake by any means necessary while some men react by trying to set fire to the cocoons or accusing women of bringing the sleeping sickness upon themselves. One woman, Eve, seems to be the key to the entire strange affair. Of all the benefits a father can give his son, near the top must be a co-written novel. Also placing the name Stephen King on the cover guarantees a best-seller. King followers who read "Sleeping Beauties" may be disappointed because the book misses the page-turning intensity in so many of his classics. The couple started with an intriguing proposition: What if men and women become separated into two different worlds? How would the men react? Would the female society be more kind, gentle? These are questions that would merit a 700-page book, although the novel's answers to both incompletely. The plot seems simple. One day all the females in the world get sheltered up in cocoons as soon as they fall asleep. If any attempt to wake them up happens, they turn into feral beasts and don't hesitate to kill their loved ones. As some women realize this, they do whatever they cannot to sleep, using anything from coffee to cocaine. Most men react in expected ways, stealing, boozing, and arguing over if they should murder a mysterious woman who calls herself Evie who is the only female who can sleep and wake up. The book starts with Evie emerging from a tree trunk in a cloud of moths. A fascinating character who is a supernatural individual. She was sent to Earth, the novel explains, but by whom? And why? The writers let those questions remain instead focus on the men who want to kill Evie and the ones who want to save her. The action develops around a women's prison in Appalachia. Every inmate has a story and a reason to wake up or stay in the female world they enter when they sleep. There are several examples of why men are not good and women would be better off without them, and then there's a male hero, prison psychiatrist Clint Norcross. Who can't seem to articulate why, but he believes that Evie needs to be protected, so he and sympathizers in prison and prepares to battle with the men outside. Television Adaptation In April 2017, Deadline.com reported that Anonymous Content had purchased the television rights to the novel.[4]