Sleeping Beauties

This was my first SK experience. Reading the reviews now makes me think that I really should have read more about it before delving into it. I was hating it even 200 pages in. I thought MAYBE it will get better. I am happy to read from the negative reviews that I am not the only one who felt that this was drawn out and boring. I am also happy to read that this is not like SK's usual writing. Maybe I will try to give him another chance.

This book reads like a time capsule a lot of the time. I understand they made modern references so that when people do go and read it they can understand that it is happening in the modern world and not in some 40's setting, however if that was the plan then it just felt like it was being shoved down my throat over and over again. Mentioning celebrities or popular colognes was just completely unnecessary and took away from the story.

I could probably write a detailed paragraphs on each of the characters and what I disliked about then but I don't feel like this book even deserves that. I guess all of the characters just felt weak. There was no depth to any of them so I really had a hard time even caring about any of them surviving. Even Don Peters, who is the scum of the Earth in this book, I honestly didn't even care if he died at the end. Usually if I hate a character and they get their just desserts I would be excited and happy for all of the inmates that were assaulted by him. The ending was super predictable too. I think I would have at least found it more enjoyable if the deliberation was longer. It was just so obvious they were going to come back, even Lila, who sort of went back and forth on it immediately decided yes she is going back.

I also felt like there wasn't any explanation for the whole ordeal. Was it a test? This is also not an interested kind of wonder. It's more of a, why did I have to go through that to not get anything out of it at the end?

Hope if I ever come back to SK I will have a better experience. For now, I am going to stick with books that have less than 12 characters at a time, and less than 700 pages of boring, drawn out plot.