Sleeping Beauties: Deluxe Remastered Edition

by Owen King, Stephen King, Rio Youers

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Comic Book, Comics

280 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2024

About the author

I'm the author of the novels The Curator and Double Feature, We're All In This Together: A Novella and Stories, co-editor (with John McNally) of the anthology Who Can Save Us Now, and co-author (with Mark Poirier) of the graphic novel Intro to Alien Invasion. I also co-wrote the novel Sleeping Beauties with Stephen King. My most recent work is the ongoing comic book series Self Help, co-written with Jesse Kellerman and illustrated by Mariana Ignazzi.

My wife is the beautiful and mysterious Kelly Braffet. She has written five wonderful books, and the newest is The Broken Tower.

Here are what a couple of my favorite authors were nice enough to say about Double Feature:

“What a kinetic, joyful, gonzo ride—Double Feature made me laugh so loudly on a plane that I had to describe the plot of Sam's Spruce Moose of a debut film (it stars a satyr) to my seatmate by way of explanation. Booth and Sam are an unforgettable Oedipal duo. A book that delivers walloping pleasures to its lucky readers.” - Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!

“Sharp, hilarious, and irreverent, Double Feature is not only a love-letter to cinema, but also a moving exploration of what it means to be an artist. This novel is brilliant, and Owen King is a magician.” - Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies and Arcadia

Reviews

[Mel (Epic Reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

IF, and let me emphasis IF, this series continued on it would earn five stars. But few things annoy me more than a cliffhanger ending with no planned resolution. Now yes, I know I could read the King novel to find out; but that isn’t the point. The point is that it seems crazy to build this beautiful series up in ten comic issues and then let it hang.

This is a very scary idea… all the women in the world are falling asleep and not waking up! Their faces covered in a web, cocoon like substance (ick!). And it appears to be a true plague in that no women are safe, or so it seems. The prison setting in the small town is a great choice for a pandemic that is spreading worldwide; but the small town focus allows many interlocking stories to be told at once. Trust that with two Kings on the writing side no details are left out.

I love the artwork here, and the many variant covers (showcases at the back of this deluxe edition) are just gorgeous!! Again I lament that it appears we don’t get any more of these lovely comics. So go in knowing you won’t get an ending, just a tease of the story and characters. The only consolation is the novel is complete.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

[Dana · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the least engaging comic books I've ever read. I wanted to stop reading after the 15 % mark and wish I had done so. The premise sounded interesting at first, like there was some real potential there. Not only does it fall completely flat, the comic book itself is so incredibly bad that I cannot for the life of me understand what prompted the release of a deluxe edition. The art is atrocious imo - characters look robotic and unexpressive, rendering any emotion completely flat; panels and their overall layout are cramped with text all the time and the action is hard to follow as a result; and, and that's just personal taste, I found it ugly and uninteresting. The art style is run of the mill, boring, uninspiring, you name it.

Writing-wise, Sleeping Beauties was also just a mess? I don't consider myself a huge Stephen King fan but I did like Needful Things , The Shining and Misery a lot. I imagine Sleeping Beauties works much better as a novel/novella: here, the dialogue was so badly written that I couldn't bring myself to truly read through everything and had to skim pages. The overall plot was also just not interesting beyond the first couple of pages.

I'm really disappointed with Sleeping Beauties; I fully expected to love it but ended up forcing myself to read on even though I wanted to dnf so badly. At least it has an apt title: it almost put me to sleep. Sorry, IDW, I usually really enjoy your stuff but this was a dud.

- ARC provided by NetGalley -

[Natalie all_books_great_and_small · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Sleeping Beauties is a fast-paced graphic novel that both intrigues and creeps into your mind. Women are being infected by some sort of virus that forms a cocoon around their heads and bodies when they fall asleep. They can't wake up, and if anyone tries to remove the cocoon or try to rouse them, they become feral and attack. A mysterious woman called Eve Black appears and seems to know what is to come but is in great danger of being killed for a cure as word has got out that she can sleep normally and nothing happens to her. I haven't read the original non-graphic book of Sleeping Beauties, but this has definitely whetted my interest to start it very soon! The illustrations are great but are quite graphic and gorey in places but were befitting to the story, and the eeriness and creepiness in the book was well captured.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sleeping Beauties was a beautiful, unnerving adaptation of the novel by Owen King and Stephen King. In the small town of Dooling, a mysterious woman named Eve is taken to the prison for a psych evaluation after she's found near the scene of a murder. As this is happening, women all around the world are falling asleep and their bodies are being wrapped in strange cocoons. If the cocoon is removed, they become violent before falling back to sleep. Only Eve is immune to the sleeping sickness and the townsfolk will do anything to break her out of prison to try to get the women in their lives back. This is an adaptation of a rather long novel, so of course it won't have all the details of the original, but it is faithful to the story. The artwork is so beautiful and colorful. I particularly enjoyed the cover gallery at the very end. Overall, fans of King's work will enjoy this, but it is also a more approachable version of the original story for those who want to dip their toes in before committing to a much longer novel.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

[Kim Scarlet · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I sometimes think that prison is like Aurora, it’s like a place where you’re cocooned away for a period of time, before waking up and trying again.” - Clint Norcross

✨ Sleeping Beauties: Deluxe Remastered Edition Graphic Novel tells the story of a sleeping sickness called Aurora that wiped out most of the women simply by falling asleep. As they slumber, their faces and bodies become cocooned in webs, and when the cocoons open, they turn into psychopaths and murderers. Desperate to save their wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters, the men left in charge take matters into their own hands, leading to even more violence and chaos. Meanwhile, a woman named Evie can sleep peacefully without becoming cocooned, meaning she is immune. As word of her immunity spreads, the men collaborate and attempt to get Evie out of jail, believing she might be the key to saving their loved ones.

✨ I’ve read three of Stephen King’s books so far, and I’ve loved them all. I thought I’d get used to his writing style by now, but it still surprises me every time. What I love about King’s writing isn’t just the plot twists, the thrill of the romance, the horror, or the humor—it’s how he tells the story. Each of his characters is given their own narrative, and they either undergo significant character development or take a darker path.

✨ At first, you might feel overwhelmed by the many characters introduced, but you'll eventually grasp the story as long as you keep reading.

✨ Overall, reading a graphic novel by Stephen King, Owen King, and Rio Youers was a delightful experience. It was pretty fast-paced, but it made me want to read the full novel too. I’m especially curious to see more of Layla, Clint, and the badass Evie.

✨ A huge thanks to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this awesome graphic novel.

✨ WHAT I LIKED:
📌 Showed how mothers and fathers express love differently.
📌 Clint focused on his good side despite his horrible past.
📌 It reminded me that not everyone who’s been to jail is a bad person.
📌 Characters went to great lengths to save loved ones.
📌 People learned from their mistakes.
📌 The chaos from the women’s disappearance made me rethink the role of women.
📌 Animals have their own thoughts.
📌 The concept art of the characters and the notes on the adaptation by Alison Sampson and Triona Farrell were great.
📌 ZOMBIES!!!

✨ TROPES:
📌 SLEEPING BEAUTY
📌 MENTAL HEALTH REP
📌 POST-APOCALYPTIC CHAOS
📌 DYSTOPIAN GENDER DYNAMICS
📌 DESPERATE MEASURES
📌 BADASS CHARACTERS
📌 ZOMBIES
📌 NO SPICE

✨ RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 03, 2024

💻 FULL REVIEW HERE: https://kimthebookdragon.wordpress.co...

[Misse Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should begin by saying that this is not my first rodeo reading Sleeping Beauties. I've always been a huge King fan and will read most anything he writes at least once. I read Sleeping Beauty when it released and enjoyed it for the most part. My rating then was 3/5⭐️s. I increased by a star this go round because the story seems truncated to support the graphic novel structure. And, after reading it once, I knew what was to come.
Initially, I thought the illustrations were much too gory, but then as I began to get further into the storyline, they helped to serve as a great support. I particularly enjoyed the images in the second half of the book and specifically the graphics in the forrest. Thanks to NetGalley for the gifted copy. This is my review and opinions here belong solely to me. Sleeping Beauties, the graphic novel released on 9/3/24. Right in time for spooky season!

[Vale ~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

very very disturbing.
The story tells the story of a sleeping disease called Aurora that kills most women simply by falling asleep. Men try in every way to save mothers, daughters, wives and sisters. Only one woman Evie, seems immune to this disease and therefore trying to understand if she can also be the cure

it is a very strong and intense story, the drawings are truly immersive, in the most violent scenes everything is tinged with red, to then return to soft and warm colors.

[Snoop Lannister · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love king and i can tell that he was most definitely trying to steady the ship here. I think this may have worked better as a novel and eventually ill get to it. It seemed like the stand and walking dead and a bit of under the dome. Good short and bloody

[Makayla Monroe · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. I just personally didn’t like and I couldn’t get through 50 pages of it.

[Natasha den Dekker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up because I fancied a graphic novel and something that was a bit different from the normal fare i.e. slice of life or fantasy.

This definitely delivered that in spades. The story goes 'what if all the women in the world went to sleep and never woke up' and what if there was one woman who wandered out of a forest (in America obvs there are no other countries) and she was able to wake up and also had the power of foresight. The premise is so so good - it's why I was drawn to it.

I'll be honest the art style (the panels and colouring) were a little hard for me to follow (but I fully appreciate that when you've cut your teeth on Image comics and webtoon strips other styles are harder to parse). I think the story itself was good - a little bit predictable and based on the whole Adam/Eve thing as one guy becomes 'the guy' to represent all of the men on earth and makes a decision. The women end up in an alternate dimension where they get to decide if they want to come back or not and they've built their own community etc etc. So these bits were predictable as was the violence (some of it a little gratuitous) but probably, sadly realistic. Can I imagine men going round torching women becauase they think it'll save them? Yeah I can see that.

It's a great story, wasn't sure about the execution but nice to see King's work in a different format.

[Mike Roderique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful line work and coloring. Loved the gender inclusion present within this adapted story.

Felt a little crammed and rushed towards the end. Typos in the text were a little annoying and would take me out of the story and world.

However, this makes me want to read the 700 page novel.

[Lady Jane Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would you still love me if I was a worm*?

*fell into a coma where I was wrapped in silk fibres full of moths?

[Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is hideous.

[Dione Basseri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve seen stories where all of one gender die out or disappear, or where women suddenly GAIN power, but this is the first time I’ve encountered a book where the entire fem populace is rendered inert. The sleeping sickness, Aurora, makes any woman (and that means anyone whom identifies as a woman, so trans women included and trans men excluded) who falls asleep STAY asleep. A chilling concept, all women being unable to react to the actions of men.

And I think the only reason this story doesn’t devolve into constant sexual violation is because sleeping women are covered in a cocoon, which, if torn, wakes the woman to a zombie-like, homicidal rage, which only ends when the one who disturbs her is killed, or she herself dies. That said, there is still an instance of sexual violence early in the book, so check your trigger warnings. Also, the absence of sexual violence against the sleeping women does NOT mean an absence of violence, and on a large scale.

Now, a bit more of review here, before I get into spoilers, because I’m really up for speculating in a little bit.

Plot. Oh, this FEELS like a Stephen King story. A very intriguing setup, and then a need to explain. King rarely lets things just HAPPEN, there’s got to be a bigger plan. The characters aren’t moving the plot so much as it moves them. Someone may go rogue for a bit, but then something else interferes and keeps things as going as King intended. Not sure if Owen King has the same habits, but I wish he brought in a bit LESS mysticism.

Art. Incredible background detail, not a bit of space is wasted. I wish more time was spent on the characters, though. It can sometimes be hard to tell the characters apart, and I think that’s due to style. There’s an attempt at high realism, which reminds me of rotoscoping. Which leads to a lot of weird face shapes, especially around the eyes. Pudgier faces squish and distort, but not in a way that LOOKS natural. While the artist no doubt did a lot of facial studies to get this right,

There’s also a good bit of extra content here, though it’s mostly just production notes. Nothing that expands on the story, just explains the creative process, and mostly the artists’ process. If you’ve got the original 2-volume release, you likely don’t need the remaster.

Now, spoilers.

With typical Stephen King mysticism, we also get to explore the life of some of the sleeping women, who live at accelerated time in an alternate version of their town, Dooling. It’s not a perfect utopia, but the implication is that they could get damn close, without the influence of men. However, shortly after the birth of the first (and only) child in this realm, the women are given a choice: stay in the alternate Dooling, and bring all the sleeping women of the world into this new realm, or ALL return to the “real” world, allowing all women to wake up.

Now, big spoilers, they return, our world moves on. But I’d LOVE to see an alternate ending to this book, where we see how life moves on for the split species. After all, the book specified that trans people go with their lived gender, and we know in the real world that trans men sometimes carry children and trans women sometimes provide gametes to conceive children. Both populations could go on. How would they differ? Fascinating.

Man. Now I gotta see if there’s good fanfic. I’m just left…wanting.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Maxine · Rating 1 out of 5]

[Review for the graphic novel adaptation, not the standard book.]

I was intrigued by the idea of a "sleeping beauty" disease that makes women mysteriously fall into comas, and I've heard plenty of good things about the Kings' writings over the years that, when the graphic novel adaptation showed up at my library, I thought "why not?"

Unfortunately, there was no part of the story that I found worth reading... or even writing in the first place. The main takeaway that the story heavily promotes (i.e., shoves in your face and down your throat) is this idea that men and women are inherently different in one major way: men are naturally violent and cruel and uncivilized, and women are naturally intelligent and kind and nurturing. And frankly? Not only is that rhetoric painfully incorrect and antiquated, it's also boring. It makes me assume that the male Kings are hiding some deeply depraved tendencies and think that that's a normal male experience, and that they've never once thought of the women in their lives as fully fleshed-out human beings who are capable of wrongdoing.

I mean, good gosh! One of the female characters kills her own girlfriend for no reason, but the narrative absolves her of all wrongdoing. Same with the woman who killed her own daughter, and the woman who killed her own son -- the narrative treats *them* as the "true victims," and their loved ones' murders are treated as unfortunate accidents rather than anything else. Meanwhile, one of the main male characters is given the motivation that he's willing to kill strangers to protect his daughter (a concerning stance, but not an inherently evil one), but the narrative casts him as both an antagonist and a violent cataclysm in the story. Even the "good" men are treated as if they're on thin ice at all times, mere steps away from committing some ultimate sin or other. Even the psychiatrist character, who is literally cast into the role of "the best of all men," is treated as a failure by the end of the story, even though he didn't seem to do anything 'wrong.'

The art isn't even good! I couldn't tell what was going on most of the time, and several characters look near identical to each other. There's plenty of moments in the story that could have looked really, really cool in this illustrated format (women wrapped in silk cocoons, women going feral and ripping men's eyeballs out, etc.), but the art team fails to convey any of it properly, presenting art made of messy, confusing lines and filling even the most violent scenes with a general mundane feeling.

(Also, the graphic novel adaptation was adapted by someone who, in his own words, "doesn't really work in comic books." Can someone please tell me why the hell a non-comic book writer wrote this comic book? Because that's just asking for disaster, and definitely explains why so much of the pacing didn't make sense to me.)

But yeah no, this ain't it. I had an awful (but mercifully short) time reading this. This was the first book by either King that I've ever read, and it made me want to never try anything else by either of them (or rest of the adaptation team) ever.

[Emi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publishing date: 03.09.2024
Thank you to Netgalley and IDW Publishing for the ARC. My opinions are my own. 


The book as a meal: Abstaining from drinking anything at the bar because my date has some terrifying opinions
The book left me: Grateful that I wake up as normal 


Negatives:
Heavy handed on "anti-men" sentiments
A lot of expository dialogue that could simply be expressions from the characters
Watermark on the copy made it hard to read some text


Positives:
Scary concept
Cool artstyle fitting of the story


Features: 
Conversations about feminism, a look at how it could be with a (mostly) man-only world, the worst from both genders


Why did I choose this one?
I have tried reading Stephen King once and it didn't really stick with me. Thought I should try at least once more. Also the premise is super terrifying and would affect me in the real world if it was a real thing that could happen. 


Pick-up-able? Put-down-able?
Relatively pick-up-able. Here is the thing with this comic ... When it drags, it drags heavily. There was so much text and explanation and retelling of already known information between characters. It really affected the pacing negatively. I think it would help if some dialogue was cut out completely and replaced with expressions from the characters. 


What was the vibe and mood?
Apocalyptic. We didn't really see how much of the outside world was affected (the internet, roads and export/import, politics, media), but it was apocalyptic in the few scenarios we got to see. I also felt unsafe the whole read. The way the "victims" were handled got me feeling sick (endearing in this scenario) 


Final ranking and star rating?
B tier, 3 stars. Fascinating concept, could be executed better. I thought it was a good idea and had mostly good foundations until we dragged some "supernatural" elements into it. I didn't really understand how it was all connected, and I also didn't like how quickly it was wrapped up when starting to handle these elements. 

The dialogue and text, the dragging of the storylines. Lots could be improved. I must be honest and say I haven't read the original book, so I don't know how this compares. At the same time ... this would be better as a show or a movie. 

Still, I would maybe recommend this to those who enjoy comics and want to dip their toes into horror and Stephen King. Could be a starting point. 

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read from September 1st, 2024 to September 3rd, 2024. Written on September 3rd, 2o24.

"This is a man's world, this is a man's world. But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl" - James Brown (said it best)

I want to start by saying that the artists, illustrators and everyone who chipped in for the final result of this graphic novel are absolutely filled with talent and deserve all the recognition for their work.

About the actual story, I didn't read the book that originated this, but the way the graphic novel tells the story and shows it allowed me to comprehend 99% of what was going on whilst making the reading experience more interesting and in-depth. Now...that was a trip. And a big one. This is a book about women and their endurance, fight and struggle, written by men. And really well written! It's profound, it shows a world without women and the caos that ensues and a world without men and the society it creates. Now, in the end we all know one cannot live without the other, and I think that that shows the beauty of the world we have. We all depend on each other and this story shows us that. At least that was my interpretation from it. Was the book confusing at times? Yes. Crazy and horrifying? Sure. But what's a Stephen King book without any of that?

About the reading experience in itself, I do have to say that there were moments I was confused about what was happening, and most times that happened because of the amount of panels chosen for a single page; while that added a new layer to how a certain part of the story, sometimes it made it hard for me to understand what was going on and I ended up losing track a couple of times. Also, sometimes the choice in colours affected the way I saw the illustrations because it blended too much into the drawings, if that makes sense.

Thank you so much for the opportunity! Stephen King is a very dear author to me so to be able to read one of his stories, with his son Owen King nonetheless, in this format was a new experience I never thought I'd have, so thank you.

(Free ARC from NetGalley and IDW Publishing that I chose to review after reading - Cross-posted on Goodreads on September 3rd, 2024)

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never read the novel that this graphic novel is based on, and I'm not sure if I will after this. The concept of the story is pretty interesting. All of the women of the world are slowly being affected by a sleeping sickness called Aurora. They fall asleep and slowly become entwined with a strange cocoon-like substance; if someone removes the cocoon the woman inside will go into a mindless murderous rage. With all of the women falling asleep, the men of the world have turned the world into a warzone. I found the overall story to be very disjointed and a bit confusing. I feel like there's meant to be a deeper theme, but instead, I found myself confused. I think the fact that this story was originally split into 10 comic volumes didn't really help matters. Also, there were WAY too many characters! I very rarely complain about the size of a cast, but there were so many characters I was starting to get different people mixed up. It felt like every chapter was introducing more and more characters. With how overcrowded the story was with characters, it feels like you learn only very tiny pieces about them. I wish there had been fewer characters so the story could have gone a bit deeper into their characters. I'm not sure how I feel about the main character, Eve. The second she introduced herself as Eve, seemed very mysterious yet all-knowing and then seemed to be tied to nature motifs, I instantly understood what she was supposed to be. But it wasn't some great revelation, it was more of a "Oh...okay I guess?" moment. I don't know, maybe this all works better in the original novel. But the story just did not translate well to a graphic novel format. Finally, the art style was just okay. It did have a lot of beautiful imagery, but the facial expressions seemed oddly stale or like they were traced off a photo.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

[Thomas Kiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

One morning a sickness spreads across the globe that causes any woman who falls asleep to become wrapped in a cocoon, unable to be woken up. In the US its nicknamed Aurora after Sleeping Beauty. In the small town of Dooling that same morning a woman called Eve is arrested after a string of violent crimes. She is taken to the women's prison where Clint Norcross works as the resident psychologist. As women in Dooling begin to fall asleep, Eve seems unaffected by Aurora. The number of women awake begins to dwindle and the remaining men begin to lean in to their violent tendencies. As the days go on Clint and Eve are drawn into a game that may decide the fate of everyone.

This graphic novel was a great distillation of the long Stephen and Owen King book. The deluxe edition also has a cool selection of in progress pages with commentary that provides fun insight into the process of creating the book. Rio Youers balances the numerous characters across the ten pages and is able to give the story time to breathe. The world building of a society suddenly without almost any women is not always the front of the story but gives interesting color to the good versus evil story that develops. I wasn't the biggest fan of the art, but that may have to do with the fact that the review copies have a lower quality than the actual book, so take that for what you will. After looking at the published book I liked a lot of the choices more and the style is definitely dynamic and colorful. I would recommend this to fans of the book or people who want the story in a new format.

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for a copy of Sleeping Beauties in exchange for an honest review.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I haven't read the novel this graphic novel was based on. I also have never read an Owen King book. But I have read a lot of Stephen King and this is very much a Stephen King story. There's lots of story, it's kinda creepy, and I'm a little confused about what was happening.

Sleeping Beauties is about a phenomenon happening to women. When they fall asleep, they don't wake back up, but are covered in a cocoon like thing. They wake up in different place, a place with all the sleeping women. Meanwhile most of the men have turned violent, while a smaller group is trying to figure out how to save all the sleeping women. There's one lady, in jail after a pretty gruesome murder (the reason for that isn't even explained), who can sleep and wake up again. Is she the key to solving this whole thing?

Overall, the story isn't bad, but in graphic novel form I feel like I missed some details. The art style is nice, it feels very much like most modern horror comics. There's a lot of chitchat that felt like just filling pages. The bloody bits have red tinting to the art and that is pretty neat. It wraps up a little too well at the end, with an almost touching "lesson" to be learned. The novel is on my TBR list and I'll definitely be keeping it there, hopefully it can fill in some gaps for me later. It was a very odd, quick story, but not unexpected coming from King. Personally, it didn't hit the horror spot I was hoping for.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a graphic novel adaptation of Stephen and Owen King's Sleeping Beauties, a powerful story about a world that becomes a shit show when all of the woman fall asleep and are shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. In their sleep, the women are transported to a land of peace and harmony while the male dominated realm is fraught with violence. I did read the novel but it was a few years ago. I am glad that I had some baseline knowledge about the book from my previous read or I don't think I would've been able to follow the story very well. In the novel, the Kings do an amazing job weaving the backstory of the individual characters and that is almost impossible to mimic in this format. The story also seems much more grim and macabre via pictures.

The artwork was very beautiful and gruesome where it needed to be. I was able to identify all the main players: Evie Black, Lila and Clint Norcross, Janice Coates, Michaela Morgan, Frank Geary, etc. However, it was very difficult to figure out who was who among the other characters, the inmates and all the raging men in particular. I liked the inclusion of transgender women in the female led society as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this graphic novel. Personally, I prefer reading the novel over the graphic novel format. The Kings are master storytellers via the written word and this version seems to lose some of that flair. I would recommend this as a companion to the novel for anyone who enjoyed the book!

[Sara Flubacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for this ARC. This is my honest review.

2.5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️

In this comic adaptation to Stephen and Owen Kings novel “Sleeping Beauties” we follow a mystery where women all over the world are falling asleep and are covered in a type of webbing, awaking in a parallel world with no men. The men are left with the bodies of all women and the question arises: what will men do when left to their own devices? An interesting concept, which I’m sure is interesting to read in a novel format.

Positives first: I enjoyed the graphic adaptation to better picture certain scenes and descriptions. It was a fairly easy read that helps the reader feel more immersed and it’s easy as an abridged version of the book.

However, I think that adds to its downfall. It left me wanting, especially at the end. I felt like there was no satisfying ending or explanation and seemed very abrupt. Sometimes the way the comic was formatted made it hard to understand which was the correct flow of dialogue. Some scenes were also hard to depict from the drawing style: I didn’t actually know what was going on at times from just looking at the pictures. And my biggest pet peeve of all: so many spelling errors. Hopefully this will get revised before it goes to print.

I may only recommend this if you have already read Sleeping Beauties and want a visualization of the story.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

So in my great but slow Stephen King (re)read I'm nowhere near the Stephen-and-Owen books, so this was a brand new title to me! Nor had I read the previously published graphic novel.

It was a fascinating story told in many many panels with various color stories depending (and this Deluxe Remastered Edition also has the benefit of a behind the scenes process after the main story is over!) about a sleeping sickness that just affects women-- yes, even trans women and femme nonbinary people (which honestly is a great addition! Since it's a magical sickness that has to do with women-as-others as compared to men, there's no reason that designation at birth should matter when its one's place in society that is the thing here.

In any case, sometimes the panels were a bit confusing, although I think at least part of that had to do with the size and saturation of the watermark in the eARC, but I did get some of the characters confused for one another at times. The art style wasn't my favorite, but sometimes I did like it too, so it was mixed for me.

I do want to read the novel, so I'm sure I'll be thinking of this adaptation when I eventually get there.

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the eARC in exchange for review!

[Anabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was a fever dream of a read! It all begins where there is a pandemic type event they have nicknamed “Aurora” where young girls and women fall asleep and a cocoon starts enveloping them and if the cocoon is disturbed they become extremely violent. Both men and women all over the world are freaking out, and with good reason, then we pull into where our main story takes place, the town of Dooling, near the appalachian region, where the main story is centered around the female correctional center, its officers and the men and women living in the surrounding areas. It  was a very interesting read, hard to follow at parts and the story sometimes felt all over the place. It would probably have helped if I had read the original book and had some reference to follow along with. The artwork is wonderful, detailed and mesmerizing, the story… it left much to be desired. I enjoyed it overall, it was just a lot of work to get into personally. I will re-read once I read the original book and circle back. It’s labeled as horror but felt more like a mystery/thriller. I thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. 

 

Book is released on Sept 3, 2024

Story is by Stephen and Owen King

Art is by Ryo Youers, Allison Sampson, Triona Farrell

[Kerena · Rating 2 out of 5]

**2.5 stars**

I haven’t read the book this graphic novel volume was originated from so it took me a while to figure out what was going on in the storyline.

The concept of the story was that all of the women of the world are slowly being affected by a sleeping sickness called Aurora. They fall asleep and slowly become entwined with a strange cocoon-like substance; if someone removes the cocoon the woman inside will go into a mindless murderous rage. It shows a world without women and the chaos that ensues. I feel like the storyline was good but some things could have been fleshed out a bit more.

Whilst the art work was really good and definitely brought an eeriness to the story, the watermark did make it difficult to appreciate it fully. There were definitely moments I got confused about what was happening just due to the amount of panels chosen for a single page. Also, there were ALOT of characters which made it hard to keep track.

Overall, the story was okay but not a favourite that I would go to pick up and re-read.

Thanks to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

[Sierra Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the ARC!

This graphic novel adaptation of the Father/Son collaboration of Stephen King and Owen King is a great way to dip your toes into Stephen King novels. I enjoyed the images and how they really portrayed the action packed horror. This book is for you if your are a feminist, into horror, and enjoy the what if of pandemic life.

Sleeping Beauties is a beautifully written and wonderfully drawn graphic novel about a strange sickness that only effects women of all ages (including transwomen specifically!). The sickness wraps them into a cocoon-like webbing when they fall asleep. If the webbing is broken and the women wakes, she turns into a ravenous fiend and attacks and kills everybody in sight. This leads women to abuse uppers to try to stay awake. One woman who checked herself into the prison on insanity, can fall asleep and wake up without issue. She also knows more than what she should know, intimate details about strangers lives. Will she be the answer to this sickness? What casualties could that cause?

[Elle (Lost in Wonderland) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will preface this review by confirming I have not read the novel version of Sleeping Beauties.

Going into anything blind can be a risk, however sometimes that risk has a great payoff.
Not knowing anything about the story meant the first issue of the bind up was a little jarring. The scenes swapped rapidly between different characters' stories and I was confused to say the least. Once the story got underway though I was completely enraptured.

The concept King originally created is unique, harrowing and fantastical. The art was not what I am used to in my normal graphic reading, but I enjoyed it nonetheless (The gallery of alternate covers provided at the end is stunning! ). This story does lean more towards fantasy elements, rather than horror, although let's be honest there are many horrific and unnerving things that happen throughout this graphic novel. Rio Youers did an amazing job of condensing a 700 page novel into just 10 volumes.

Big Thank-you to Netgalley and IDW Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review

[Valerie thepinkowlreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the ARC of this graphic novel.

This is a graphic novel adaptation of the novel by Stephen and Owen King (which was amazing and I do highly recommend the book). Unfortunately, for me this graphic novel falls short. While all graphic novels adaptations inherently have less details then a book this one has so many less that I feel like the only reason I could follow the story was because I knew the source material. I could see people struggling to understand what is happening if they didn’t.

The art style wasn’t my favorite type but it was really well done. There were a few blurry moments but given this was an ARC with watermarks it could have just been that.

I would recommend for folks who know the original book because it is always fun to revisit a story you like in a new format. If you haven’t I would at least suggest reading a synopsis of the book so you can follow the story better.

[Justine Korson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

So, men are awful is the moral of this story. I've never read anything by Stephen King (and I didn't realize this was by him when I requested it. I only read the synopsis) and this was a hell of an introduction. The violence depicted against women in this story was terrifying and the ending is wholly unbelievable. You're telling me not ONE woman in that small town would've decided "No, I don't want to leave. I want to stay here and never go back there" because that probably would've been me or, if not me, I would have at least had a lot of doubts about going back to the real world. I was also really upset that Jennette died in the end. It seemed like she died for nothing honestly and she never got to see her son again. So, while it was an interesting concept, the amount of violence in this should have come with a trigger warning at the beginning of the graphic novel.

[SHANE ⋆.ೃ࿔* 🎆 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this graphic novel from Owen & Stephen King!

★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ | 1/5


Where do I even begin with this…? Firstly, the art style being like the show “Archer” distracted me so bad I couldn’t focus for half the book. But you know, I feel like this was appropriate as the plot of the graphic novel - based on an actual novel that never should have gotten a second adaptation - was just so… all over the place.

Sexiest, misogynistic, this plot relied heavily on female characters IT RARELY SHOWED. Glorification of shitty men without any consequences for what they did ( which by the way, also made no sense ) on top of this strange, no answer virus, and the end feeling like a “and they lived happily ever after!” In a horror story feels as cheap as a Kidz Bop version of a radio song.

Maybe I missed some nuance of the story without having the background of the novel version but will I be reading that? No.