Спящие красавицы. Том 2

Sleeping Beauties #6-10

by Rio Youers (Adaptor), Stephen King (Original Story), Owen King (Original Story)

«Спящие красавицы» — официальная графическая адаптация романа Стивена Кинга и Оуэна Кинга от сценариста Рио Юэрса и художницы Элисон Сэмсон, основанная на одноимённом современном хорроре, бестселлере New York Times.
Таинственная болезнь «Аврора» поглотила мир. Мужчинам кажется, что все женщины, кроме тех немногих, что лишены сна, застряли в коконе беспробудного сна. На самом деле разум уснувших перенёсся в странный утопический мир грёз. Это мир, в котором шериф Дулинга Лайла Норкросс и другие женщины могут построить своё собственное общество. Общество, от которого они, вероятно, не захотят отказаться.
Тюремный психиатр, муж шерифа, Клинт Норкросс, осаждённый отчаявшимися, борется за жизнь загадочной девушки Иви. Ведь она единственная способна спать и просыпаться. Однако у Иви свои планы: многим придётся пройти испытание, если они хотят когда-нибудь увидеть своих близких...

Genres: Horror, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Supernatural, Dystopia

128 pages, Hardcover

Published February 1, 2023

About the author

Rio Youers is the British Fantasy and Sunburst Award–nominated author of Lola on Fire and No Second Chances. His 2017 thriller, The Forgotten Girl, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. He is the writer of Refrigerator Full of Heads, a six-issue comic series from DC Comics, and Sleeping Beauties, a graphic novel based on the number-one bestseller by Stephen King and Owen King. Rio’s latest novel, The Bang-Bang Sisters, was published by William Morrow in summer 2024.

Reviews

[Gareth Is Haunted · Rating 3 out of 5]

As graphic novels go, this wasn't bad.
I feel I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't previously read the original Stephen & Owen King novel of the same name. The characters I had formed in my mind from reading the original were very different to those portrayed in the graphic novel and I found it challenging to overwrite these initial impressions I had formed.
As an adaption, it accurately depicted the original story's events. The artwork was good, although not exceptional. I can let those negatives fly I suppose.
Overall I enjoyed reading this conclusion to the two-part series.

[Mary Heron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't enjoy the ending, this adaptation made me think maybe the artist took some L.S.D. Before completing it it's gives off that psychedelic 60s vibe. Just gave me a headache

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Volume 2 and the conclusion to this series. This is a horror graphic novel based on the book, which I haven't read.

Horror is definitely not my favorite genre. And I found this story to be too disturbing. But the illustrations were beautiful. And the white bubbles that the type/words were in was definitely easier to read than the first book.

I am curious to know this compares to the book.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as good as the first installment, if not better! I really enjoyed seeing this story brought into graphic novel form, the illustrations are just stunning.

[Ken W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story.

I’d say it’s a good but not great story. Interesting plot. Decent but not spectacular art. 3.75 stars rounded up to 4.

[TIFFY ⭐️🥂 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was something else aurora not from sleeping beauty but might as well been, but all the ladies all over the world fall asleep and there’s only one way back to the world of men if they choose to do they? You’ll have to read it.

[Aarica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean... I don't know what I expected in a graphic novel trying to condense Stephen and Owen King's writing. It felt choppy and disconnected. I don't think I understood really what was going on and when I finished I didn't really understand the plot.

That being said, the art work was good. I can see that if done well Graphic Novels are not only visually stunning but can really enhance how you take in a story.

Was this book amazing in this format? No, but I think it has merit and it was a new experience for me. I read it in about 45 minutes, quick and satisfying in that arena.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

As I stated in my review of volume one, this is a really weird story, but it is very original. The art isn't my favorite, and as such the adaptation didn't quite work for me. But still, if you're a Stephen King fan, this is worth checking out.

[Christine Lucia Asha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one much more than the first one. The may stories came together all of a sudden. It made sense even if there was a little much bloodshed for my liking. The creativity of how the sleeping women made up their minds as well as the 'enemy' men to make a good decision was well crafted.

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume of "Sleeping Beauty" finishes the story. The Aurora virus is spreading and the only hope for humanity is stuck inside a mental asylum. Most women are now asleep and covered in the cobweb covering. The few that still manage, with copious amounts of caffeine and drugs, to stay awake are sleep-deprived and zoned out.
The men? Half are acting like "Lord of the Flies"-like fools, while others try to defend the asylum. Dr. Norcross, the asylum psychiatrist, turns out to be an instrumental character in the test that Eve, humanity's last hope, has planned for him. The fate of the world will depend on it. No more spoilers

Overall? It was a good story and interesting. This volume also had some excellent alternate artwork at the end. Sadly the art for the story is the same putrid and mediocre art style from volume one. I point out, again, all the artists from the alternate art in the end part would have made far superior artists for this story. It's a shame since this is a story that needs better art.

[Ross Jeffery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great adaptation again four stars as I didn’t care much for the style of illustration!

[Phrique · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF, the most repugnant style of art I’ve ever seen in a comic & I’ve seen PLENTY. Made it hard to even digest what was going on in this cacophony of a clusterfuck of a story.

First DNF achieved. 🏆

[Emma Stallwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great graphic novel which shows a rather large book into 2 smaller sized novels. I really do love the creepiness you get out of the pictures and the story. Let alone how clever the story is. I could really see this working as a movie too. Really liked the current climate references to Doctor who and LGBTQIA too. Was over too quickly for me though.

[Tyler Hetland · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume is definitely leaning further into the horror category than the first. TW for blood and gore, murder, and coarse language. The -ist views taken in this book seemed to come out of left field near the end and I'm not sure why we went from a supernatural problem to a "solution" foundationalized in the colour of your skin or the status of your genitals. Pros to the GN for being a quick and easy read while getting the point across in less than 250 pages. Pros for the original novel of having a more satisfying ending.

[Wayne Fenlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I preferred vol 1 to be honest. Vol 2 seemed to be doing too much in such a little space. Dialogue heavy and so much violence. A third volume would have removed some of the load.

Saying that, it's an admirable feat, condensing such an epic novel into something this short.

And the artwork is fantastic. Especially all the bonus images at the end. Alternative comic covers.

Also, seeing it this way, really shows it would make an excellent movie.

A perfect little storyboard for the taking.

I'm giving this a four, but between both volumes it's a five.

Because overall it still deserves it.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would like to say that I enjoyed this but to tell the truth I didn't. Didn't enjoy the audio all that much either.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable! Part 1 wasn't available at the library so this is going to be read out of order but I was able to follow well enough.

[Giuseppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrazioni da 5 stelline, scrittura da 3.

[McKenna Deem · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️

This meant something. Not sure what though.

The second and last part of the Sleeping Beauties graphic adaptation is darker and bloodier than the first. I do wish that more time would have been spent on the women’s alternate world, as the choice they were given toward the end did not feel like a big choice to be made.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this just as much as the first part, with the exception that the ending felt a bit anticlimactic and rushed (which I think was similar in the book by Stephen King and Joe Hill, so it is consistent...)

[Yani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything I said about the first half of this (Sleeping Beauties, Vol. 1) is true here.

The story is interesting, I still hate the art. Especially since the characters are so generically rendered for the most part that there were times when I had no idea if we were encountering character we'd already met.

Also, I kind of hate the ending. I get the why of it, but there's something about having seen how the men have reacted to the women being gone, I feel like the women should have stayed gone. I get that the point is that "Things Have Changed", but I wonder how the decision would have gone down had it not been taking place in an American town and instead in another part of the world.

There is also an element of the story being incredibly heavy handed. But I chalk that up to it being written by two older straight white men in 2017. And then interpreted by another man into this graphic novel form. At least the art team seems to be entirely women. I just wonder how a version of this story written by a woman ends.

But the story is interesting enough, but I'm not sure I would have spent the amount of time with these characters needed to read the original novel, so I'm happy to have gotten to experience it.

[OmniBen · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review)
I actually liked the prose version of this. Admittedly I read it back in 2017 or some such distant epoch, although I distinctly remember thinking it was one of Kings better efforts, at least this millenium. Granted, Given the subject matter and the increasingly (intentionally) divisive and incendiary nature of the material, I might not enjoy it quite so much on re read, which I intended to do at some point. I even (mostly) enjoyed the first volume of this graphic novel adaptation, cringe/indentitarian moments aside. Now I sit here almost a year after reading volume one, having read volume two, and I'm left to ponder just how virulent and disgusting the comic book industry has increasingly became. For those who thought it couldn't get any worse than it had, 2022 said hold my beer, and then proceeded to piss all over the ashes of the industry, then salt the earth underneath, and you need to look no further for proof of this than Sleeping Beauties volume two. Published by a company that has flirted with bankruptcy for so long, as if bankruptcy was the unattainable girl of its dream, hopelessly pursuing it until the bitter end. A publisher that has managed to either lose or destroy just about every IP they currently have or had. I take no enjoyment of people losing their jobs, cause I'm sure their are staff working at IDW who have no time for the hateful identity politics festering within this book, but the sooner this company disappears, it'll be one less obstacle in the way towards decent comics again.
Whilst the art is fairly amateurish, I generally enjoyed the artistic style being implemented, with the desaturated colours adding to the overall enjoyment. Yes, the artists limits are painfully obvious on occasion, but it isn't the art that has me so worked up.
The first book had more than its share of identity politics. Again, given the source material, it was to be expected that a company as 'progressive' as IDW would take this and Spinal Tap it all the way up to 11. Yet in hindsight, volume one seemed suitable restrained. It was able to tell a decent story without doing its level best to convince every male who picked it up that they are a useless, hateful, violent infection, holding every stunning and brave woman back from their full potential. It seems they realised their mistake and went about correcting it in a big way.
This book was easily the most hate filled, vitriolic, preachy piece of garbage I've had the misfortune of giving my time and money to. And that's saying something right on the heels of The Witcher volume 2. What is it with volume 2's? Quite frankly, I can't even bring myself to recount in spoiler free detail all the ways in which this book actively seeks to tell me how disgusting I am. I wanted to give up two issues in, quite sure was I, that I wasn't getting a decent adaptation, just a sermon on my gender's infinite faults, but I soldiered on regardless. Wanting to give it the fairest shake possible. All that changed when I got to the middle of the final issue, when it took all the restraint I could muster not to throw the book clean across the room, and destroy any chance I had of sending it back to Amazon (who I very rarely buy from) to get my money back. I audibly said, 'I'm fucking done', slammed the book closed and went about starting the return process. No way I'm gonna be on record paying for this dreck. I'd rather eat my own feces than ever subject myself to this misery again. So hey, if you're a woman who hates men, and wants a book to reinforce this in the strongest way possible, then you've just found your number one read of 2022. For everyone else, avoid this like the plague. 0.5/5


OmniBen.

[Caitlin Ball · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only saving grace in this story was the fantastic art. Eye candy in the best of ways. The actual graphic novel lacked cohesion with the original book. Which is cartoonish, in a good way. But the subtle changes made here removed any basis it had in reality and therefore its believability. There were also blatant injections of identity politics which had nothing to do with the storyline and therefore stood out like a sore thumb. This story is already packed full of identity politics. It honestly just looks like they went out of their way to check all the boxes so that they’re accepted by present day social media rather than focusing on presenting a well told story. The disruption to the story was so egregious I rolled my eyes. It was more like an adaptation recreated out of fear rather than in the spirit of horror. Meaning the writer seemed so afraid of social backlash due to the sensitive topic of the story that they concerned themselves more with covering their reputation rather than with presenting the story in its most honest form, at times directly conflicting with things stated in the novel. Compared to its counterpart, which was at least half-way believable, this one has a social political cow prod that occasionally jerks you back to reality. Reminding you that it’s just a story, making it completely unrealistic and unlike any of the other King books I’ve read this year. Only five left on my list, so that’s saying a lot.

In the end I would still recommend this graphic novel set, the amazing art more than makes up for its lack of cohesion. Part of me honestly wants to frame some of these as fine art. There’s a dreamlike quality to them and the attention to detail puts the images above par with many of my favorite works.

Thank you for the stories.

[Tom Donaghey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sleeping Beauties: A Graphic Novel in Two Parts (2021) By Stephen & Owen King. These two graphic representations run to about 230 pages and contain the main focus of the original novel, but a picture speaks a thousand words… Here we have hundreds of nicely drawn, inked and lettered (by Rio Youers, Alison Sampson and Triona Farrell) examples of the ideas within the book. While I have long enjoyed the work of the senior King and have read much of his sons’ output, I couldn’t find it in myself to forage through this novel.
Lucky me.
This pair of books has allowed me to both grasp and enjoy the book in a much shorter time span. The tale, of women being transported while they sleep to the same world they have left, but without men to mess things up, has a nice ring to it. I only wonder why all the women would want to come back to the original version of things. I suppose, like every fairy tale, there must be a happy ending.
But for whom is it happy?
There is the usual quota of gore, small community self-applied tension, a bit of fantasy and dregs of horror, but there is also a beautiful story of love and self-realization happening here. This is sure to delight the busy followers of both Kings.

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm feeling generous in rating. Honestly it has to be next to impossible to distill over 700 pages of novel into two volumes of graphic novel. I didn't read the novel (I'm pretty much over books that big) and while the premise is interesting it's also....boring and not that unexpected. I wasn't surprised by any of it other than maybe what was the 'woman' causing this wanted out of it.

Women are falling asleep inside cocoons of some sort and they're awakening in a garden place in another dimension (or something) where they can live in peace and quiet. Men, back here in the real world, are losing their shit getting more and more violent by the minute.

But of course it's not as simple as men = bad, women = good. Even in paradise, some of the women are missing their sons and husbands and brothers etc. Some, abused by men, will do anything to keep from going back including murder.

It's simply nothing that is going to stick with me long. All it really did was make me glad I didn't opt for the novel length version of this.

[Daniel Hruskocy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...the graphic novel is a bit underwhelming on plot devices and character arcs...they are there, but attenuated and somewhat like Cliff's nots versions. As in Part One, this is an intriguing look at the idea that is "Sleeping Beauties" (the Stephen and Owen King collaboration) with art work that is not as good as the treatments for "The Stand" or "The Dark Tower: Beginnings" or "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger / Drawing of the Three". In many ways, the first volume was better - build up felt more paced and less comic-book than it really is.
For fans of Stephen King, this is a little like reading a summary of the story for the novel but not as deep or artistically relevant as other adaptations have been through the years... I would still LOVE to see "The Talisman" picked back up and finished off, but until then I am not sorry I read this, just not as blown away as I had initially hoped for.

[AJ Payne · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the first volume of this adaptation, this one just confused me. Most of the time I couldn’t really figure out what was going on and it seemed rushed to fit in here, so it seemed like they went to sleep and a few days later were back and in the meantime the dudes decided to go war with each other (I guess that part is probably plausible) and then everything changed. And a bunch of fox and butterfly imagery thrown in, and a mysterious lady. I guess I still want to read the novel someday to figure it all out, but not really because this telling of it inspired me but more because there has to be more to the story that couldn’t be told in this truncated way, and it feels missing.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Not *all* men!” if it were a graphic novel. Read a 1 star review on here of a guy who hated it because it was, to paraphrase, “pushing politics,” but I don’t think it was really that way at all. It seems to have tried to make the point that men aren’t so bad that life isn’t worth living in the end, and that was after a whole lot of nothing most of the way through. “Women unanimously vote to return to the real world where there are men.” I can 100% guarantee there would realistically always be one woman who wouldn’t vote for that. And what’s with lumping two-spirit and non-binary people in with all women? Not the greatest graphic novel horror I’ve read.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still not a fan of Alison Sampson's artwork in this, and Rio Youers's adaptation of the Stephen/Owen King novel of the same name is still somewhat piss-poor and muddled. "Sleeping Beauties, Part 2" is even more rushed and confusing than the the first volume. The story of a global epidemic in which women fall asleep, become encased in a cocoon, and the men are left to their clueless, violent selves fucking up the planet is a fantastic novel, but this graphic novel adaptation is a mere shadow of what it could have been.

[Dania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this conclusion to the duology. I think that I would much rather prefer to read graphic novel adaptations of Stephen King novels, because his lore is so complex.

I really loved the images on each chapter and the gallery of images at the end of the book, and the concept of the moths was alluring to me as they can get overshadowed by butterflies...

Anyway I would have loved if Evie could have survived in Dooling after the climax of the plot, since she was such a mysterious character. But I think the ending was satisfying enough.