Shannon Turlington

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King (2017)

If you are a fan of Stephen King’s big fat page-turners, this is a good one to pick up. It was cowritten with his son Owen King, but I couldn’t detect two voices in the writing. What amazed me was that this book was written by two men. The insight into women’s anger, their labor, their oppression, and the humanity given to all of the women characters, especially the many women prisoners, inspired and uplifted me. Although not all of the men were as nuanced as characters, enough of them were, especially the two main male characters, who were not quite “hero” and “villain.” What I especially loved about this story was that the ending came down to making choices, especially women making choices, and also that, despite the fairy-tale trappings, there was no fairy-tale-like happy ending. Life does go on, and this seemed entirely realistic, if perhaps a little melancholy. What a great read.