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...
The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain?
Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women's prison, SLEEPING BEAUTIES is a wildly provocative, gloriously absorbing father/son collaboration between Stephen King and Owen King.
Industry Reviews
No longer content with dominating the horror genre for decades, Stephen King now seems set on creating top-notch chillers as a family business....kick-started by a very Kingish high concept...made immersively believable by the usual Kingian control of a vast cast of brilliantly drawn characters. Bravo * Daily Mail *
'A beauty of a horror tale...The first epic collaboration between Stephen King and son Owen King is ambitious, heartbreaking and, when it comes to its central horrors, all too timely...The Kings create a thought-provoking work that examines a litany of modern-day issues * USA Today *
A bulging, colourful epic; a super-sized happy meal, liberally salted with supporting characters and garnished with splashes of arterial ketchup. -- Xan Brooks * Guardian *
Easily devoured, and I look forward to the next book from either or both Kings eagerly.... One of my favourite books of the year. * Sci-Fi Bulletin *
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...The authors' writing is seamless and naturally flowing...once the action begins, it barrels along like a freight train' * Publishers Weekly *
The prose never loses its vitality and humour; the ideas are always intriguing; and there's no gainsaying the adventurousness and ambition * The Times *