Sleeping Beauties - A Graphic Novel Part I Review

Books about pandemics while in the middle of a pandemic sure are funny, am I right?

In "Sleeping Beauties - A Graphic Novel", adapted from the novel by the same name by Stephen and Owen King, a strange sleeping sickness known as "Aurora" has spread all over the world and strangest of all, it only affects women.

General Impressions

Sleeping Beauties has been on my TBRs for a while now but I never started it because of its size and more importantly, because I was a bit scared it might be filled with sexist or transphobic filth so when I heard about this adaptation I jumped at the chance to know the story without sacrificing to much time if it turned out not to be for me.

Art-wise, I fell in love with the cover and was really happy that most of the artists seemed to be women, to help balance the fact that this was a story written by two men. The style changes completely once inside the book, with the exceptions of chapter headers, to something that albeit a bit less traditionally pleasing to the eyes, serves the story much better. I applaud the way people from different races were drawn and coloured, especially Eve. You could see every lack of emotion in her eyes and smile!

Sleeping Beauties is an exploration of what men would do if every woman in the world disappeared and the answer, for a lot of different reasons, is unsurprisingly nothing good. That is not the same as saying that men are not good or capable by themselves. The problem is not masculinity, on a Y chromosome but the way men are conditioned to be by society in general, and toxic masculinity in particular.

What made reading this book such a wonderful experience for me despite my initial fears was that trans and gender non-conforming folks were not thrown under the bus. There is in fact the most beautiful two-page spread about how gender is not about how you were perceived by others but how you felt inside. So if like me, that was on your mind, you can relax and enjoy this beautiful (and very, very unsettling) piece of art.

Conclusions

This is an unmissable story for anyone, but particularly for all the trans and gender non-conforming folks that will be able to feel seen and respected by it. I have so many questions. I've been looking forward to the next volume since I was a dozen pages into this one.

Thank you so much to Penguin Random House USA and IDW Publishing for this copy.

Rating: 4.5/5