King sr. is back on form! Supernatural, although not very horrific as such, it's a pleasure to see the Kings not only creating that small-town atmosphere, which is King sr's forte, but also catching up with the times. There could hardly be a more timely novel: #metoo with moths.

I gave this 4 stars, because it lacks the genuinely creepy sense that the elder King does so well in Salem's Lot, It, Needful Things, and so many others. The sense of madness is not quite there, although the cruelty of (some) men is in clear focus here. Nevertheless, great reading after the somewhat meh Mercedes novels.

Also: The audiobook is brilliant. Marin Ireland does a superb job. Highly recommended.

I love Stephen King but fell out of reading his stuff for a while. That said, I was immediately intrigued by this book when I read the jacket back in December. It's generally a good story, but typical SK, takes a bit to get rolling and for-freaking-ever to wrap up. He is, as always, exceptionally detailed.

Like I said though, I liked this story. Once it got going, it moved pretty well and the concept of a world without women is definitely an interesting one to ponder.

My biggest complaint is the number of characters. There are SO many and he's introducing new ones right up until the final chapters. It was a bit much to keep track of them all. I felt some were thrown in just to become casualties he could easily wipe out toward the end.

And for someone who is so detailed, he kind of glossed right through a critical group decision toward the end. That said, I think most tried-and-true SK fans will like this book. It plays off themes he's explored in the past but with a new twist.

King has clearly run out of good ideas. Formulaic, time-tested story with little originality and, worst of all, boring. Very disappointing from someone who has written such great books. Seems like it might be time for King to hang up the typewriter.

I tackled this lesser-known King tome, with the help of an audiobook to get me through the 700+ pages. It's longer than it needed to be, and according to the acknowledgements, it was initially even longer. It's co-written with one of his sons, but the writing is seamless. Around the world, women are falling asleep naturally, then becoming cocooned in a web-like substance. If you try to remove it, the result is off-the-charts rage and violence. Yep, i loved the beginning. Word about this "Aurora Virus" quickly spreads, so women try to avoid sleeping. It's no real surprise what happens to the community of mostly men, and in contrast, the community of women. This is epic, and there are a LOT of characters. Thankfully, there's a character list at the beginning (but there are enough characters to have, for example, three unrelated characters with abbreviations of William, one of my pet peeves). It was hard to keep track of them all, especially when many were so similar to each other. King usually creates some characters i adore, but they are lacking in this one. I often wasn't sure who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. It's a very slow burn that ultimately ends in a battle.

I was really looking forward to reading this one, but I have to admit it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I am a huge Stephen King fan and I do enjoy long-winded books, but I did feel this one was a bit too long, and a bit too slow in places. The other problem for me was the characters. There were too many, and although the character list at the start was helpful, it was annoying having to keep flipping back to see who was who. Obviously, with such a huge amount of characters, it's going to be harder to empathise with them, and this was the other problem I had. I just didn't really like any of them that much. I really wanted to, because Kings characters are normally so good, but I kept waiting to really like or hate one of them, and it just didn't happen. I'm not sure why this is! They just didn't have an impact on me, which was a shame. The plot is excellent and very thought-provoking. How would men survive in a world without women? Are men really to blame for most of the world's problems? It certainly made me think and wonder, but I would have preferred to feel really on the side of a particular character and I just didn't. Still a great read and worth buying but not the best King I've read.

i liked it

Firstly, I want to say thanks to my friend, Chris, for getting me this book for Christmas and secondly, sorry Chris because this book sucks.

Stephen King has obviously got a lot of rope from selling 350 million plus books over the year, but there has to be an editor somewhere that can be honest with him. This book is 715 pages, but could easily have been half that length.

Sleeping Beauties is a The Stand/Under the Dome clone, but more clumsily done. There are a raft of characters involved, but the majority are one note or involved for barely a section of a chapter. Characters are introduced even into the last hundred pages of the novel and I did find myself confused once or twice in the middle of the book about who was who.

My biggest qualm with the book is that the eventual conflict is set up at around the half way point of the book and it takes another 250 pages to get there. The trudge leaves no fulfilment when it finally happens. We're treated to the minituae of both sides setting up for it and treated to an unnecessary subplot that drags things out further.

It's rather idealistic in how it sets apart the men and women. Where I don't doubt there would be a lot of violence in a men's world, the setting up of the women's world and lack of conflict therein doesn't quite ring true especially with a group of inhabitants from the local women's prison. The prisoners are fine in this new world because men caused them to get sent to prison. It's a little trite.

Again, sorry, Chris!