TCCDM Dig & Flip: "Sleeping Beauties" - Stephen King and Owen King (2017)

Sleeping Beauties
by Stephen King and Owen King 
(2017)
Hardcover, 702 pages

NO SPOILERS:
    Sleeping Beauties is not exactly horror.  It doesn't have a significant thrill factor.  And any moments of suspense are negligible.  The idea behind the novel is interesting, though.  However, as a reader, I felt like a casual observer rather than an involved and invested participant in the happenings.  The characters are just not sufficiently developed to separate the wheat from the chaff.  The story is okay, but as much as I wanted to, I could never take that leap of faith, trusting I was in good hands.  Of the gazillion characters that flitter in and about this tome, only one I truly remember, and she was mostly a small-potatoes part of the big picture.  That's never a good thing.

    Admittedly, I'm a Stephen King fan, so the bar is always going to be high, no matter who is wielding the family King pen.  After many years, I've become reasonably groomed in King's writing style.  His ways and means.  So, how much of the story was Owen King's and how much Stephen contributed was hard to set aside.  The book is good enough to get on and ride.  But it is overly long, and I was disappointed in its presentation.

    The conclusion of my epistle is this.  Sleeping Beauties is a good idea for a story, but the delivery gets lost somewhere in transit.  In the end, after reaching the last page and putting the book to rest, I realised the payoff arrived in small bills.  If you’re a Stephen King junkie, you’re gonna want to read this regardless.  It's Stephen King, right?  However, if you're new to the Kingdom, this isn't the best place to start.  Outta five stars...Sleeping Beauties gets a three.

"Behind The Wall Of Sleep" - The Smithereens / "Especially for You" (1986) 

Good stuff.

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