Summary: Women around the world fall asleep and become shrouded in a cocoon. Breaking the cocoon or waking them up results in brutal violence. While the women sleep they exist in an alternative world with no men. Meanwhile, in the ‘real world’ men are not coping as well as they expect with the absence of their female companions or colleagues.
Thoughts: The latest offering from Stephen King (written with his son, Owen King) could have been half the length. Lots of repetition and unnecessary tangents. Not as creepy or horrific as some of his other work – thank goodness. I scared myself silly with one of his books years ago and wasn’t able to pick up another for a long time. Women existing without men is an interesting idea, and while some of the ideas were explored quite well, others were handled in a trite and generic way. Not sure the ending was worth the wait, but it was an easy read (albeit endlessly long) and resulted in some interesting discussions with friends afterwards along the lines of “what would you do if…..”. King fans should give it a try, otherwise, I’d prefer a Scandi murder mystery.