The literary world is quite familiar with the name ‘Stephen King’. With each new book, the author brings a new level of excitement to horror readers. With the name ‘Sleeping Beauties’, his attention is directed towards epic fantasy written for children, but be careful because this book is quite scary in concept.

What if one day women disappeared from this world? In Sleeping Beauties, women from all over the world begin to fall asleep, never to wake up again. When they sleep, a cocoon-like gauze wraps around their bodies. If anyone tries to disturb or harm the cocoon, what is awakened is not the woman herself, but a wild creature that is purely a killing machine. The pandemic soon begins to spread and fear begins to grow among people. No one knows the cause and everyone seems hopeless as no cure appears until a mysterious woman, Evie, begins to gain prominence. Apparently, she is the only woman who can wake up after sleeping and she knows a lot of things.

The only problem with the book is the long list of characters that are mentioned at the beginning of the book itself. For many readers, keeping track of 70+ characters can be a bit difficult, especially when they don’t all play a part in the overall plot. Reading their backstories and following character development seemed pointless when in the end it just didn’t matter. These useless characters, had they been removed, could have made the entire narrative sharper by removing a hundred or so pages.

Other than that, Stephen King and Owen King have done a great job of coming up with such a unique concept that also conveys an important message. As more and more women start to sleep, it creates discomfort among men. They start acting crazy to the point where just a rumor suggesting the infection is contagious is enough for some men to start burning their buds. The way it has been narrated is horrible and shocking.

When you get to the end, you realize that the father and son duo have basically tried to cheer up the women through the complex story. It all boils down to how men are extremely comfortable waging wars to resolve anything, while women are the ones who bear the burden and make sacrifices. You ask yourself: What if your children are raised in a world full of women? Will women be capable of creating a better world?

Overall, Sleeping Beauties is a bit stuffy and overflowing with characters, but the concept and climax make it worth it.