History Literature / SleepingBeauties

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The novel follows over a dozen major characters of varying importance. The book actually features a list of all characters at the beginning.

A mysterious epidemic affecting only women has swept the world; when women fall asleep, they are shrouded in a mysterious 'cocoon' and are unable to wake up. One woman, the mysterious Eve Black, is immune to the illness and may be the only one able to stop it.

[[quoteright:338:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sleeping_beauties.jpg]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Subverted. A subplot in the story involves Lila suspecting Clint of having an illegitimate daughter with a woman named Shannon Parks. She confronts Clint with it, but he proves her wrong.

* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: While on her way to meet her mother in Dooling, Michaela is forced to make a stop at a Mcdonalds restaurant due to a flat tire. The only other customer is a massive and bare-chested biker who threatens the waitress to give him all his food for free. Michaela quickly leaves upon seeing him, and after getting her hands on a working car, gets back at the Biker by [[PayEvilUntoEvil deliberately running over his motorcycle]].

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Clint Norcross recalls how he was taken from his drug-addicted, teenage mother, and put through various foster homes, most of which were at best forgettable and at worst downright horrible. In one of them, the foster parents even made the children under their care fight each other for a McDonalds milkshake. He also remarks how the majority of the children put in foster care end up in prison or worse later in life, and that he himself is one of the few exceptions to this rule. He does mention however that there are good foster homes, even more now than back in his own childhood; he just never landed in any.

'''''Sleeping Beauties''''' is a novel written by Creator/StephenKing and Owen King.

** Curt M, a teenager who tried to take advantage of Aurora to [[DudeShesLikeInAComa rape a sleeping woman]], only to find out the hard way that disturbing the cocoon around her private parts has [[UnstoppableRage the same effect as tearing the cocoon off her face]]. He ends up fataly injured, with his genitals ripped off.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: When it comes to the decision what to do with Eve Black:
** On one side there are Clint Norcross and his followers, who have Eve locked up in Dooling's Correctional Facility for Women and want to keep her there. Eve made a deal with them that if Clint is able to keep her alive till a designated time,she will wake up the women (on the condition that they chose to return to the old world). So they put the prison in lockdown mode and refuse to let anyone in to talk to or even see Eve. Clint also correctly fears that there might be men out there in Dooling who want to kill Eve [[NoOntologicalInertia because they hope it will wake up all the women]] or simply because they want [[TheScapegoat a scapegoat]] when she is proves unable to wake up their sleeping loved ones, which is another reason why he won't turn her over to the proper authorities.
** On the other hand, you can't entirely blame their opponents, who want to get their hands on Eve, either. The men of Dooling are desperate to find a cure for their loved ones and believe Eve to be the key to finding one (which is technically true, though not in the way they think since Eve can't end Aurora entirely by herself). Their leaders, Frank Geary and Terry Coombs, are correct about the fact that Norcross has no authority to put the prison in lockdown, or that he has the medical knowledge to study Eve to see what makes her immune to Aurora. Frank is at first willing to let Judge Silver bring in a professional negotiator to try and resolve the conflict peacefully. And of course, Norcross refusal to let anyone near Eve only makes him look suspicious.
** This is only made worse by the fact that Eve actively pits the two sides against each other by telling Clint she has to stay alive, but telling Frank he has to kill her. When trying to negotiate with Clint, Terry admits that both sides have gone out of line. Later, Jared, Clint's son, openly wonders if they are the good guys in this conflict.

* ADayInHerApron: As early as day one of the epidemic, Linny Mars, dispatcher at Dooling's sheriff's department, keeps getting countless emergency calls from men who have no clue how to take care of their male children now that their wifes have gone to sleep. One even ask her if FEMA is setting up a facility to take care of the children. Later in the story, Frank Geary notices that many men are walking around in wrinkled clothes since very few of them know how to iron.
* TheChosenOne: Knowing that the men of Dooling will come for her, [[TheChooserOfTheOne Eve selects]] Clint Norcross as the man responsible for defending her, giving him an ultimatum; if he can keep her alive till sunrise next Tuesday, or maybe one or 2 days later, she might be able to stop Aurora.

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Clint Norcross recalls how he was taken from his drug addicted, teenage mother, and put through various foster homes, most of which were downright horrible and even the best were forgetable. In one of them, the foster parents even made the children under their care fight each other for a McDonalds milkshake. He also remarks how the majority of the children put in foster care end up in prison or worse later in life, and that he himself is one of the few exceptions to this rule. He does mention however that there are good foster homes, even more now than back in his own childhood; he just never landed in any.

* DrivenToSuicide: From the first moment Aurora is reported, suicide rates among the men of the world drastically increases, with many men unable to live on without hope their wives and daughters will ever wake up, or hoping to join them in the dreamland they went to. A schoolteacher named Eliot Ainsley announces his suicide on a radioshow before doing it. And after waking up from her Aurora-induced sleep, Rita Coombs finds her husband Terry has killed himself in the garage after bailing out of storming Dooling's Correctional.
* FairPlayVillain: Although Eve has a very low opinion of men and is convinced the women of the world are better of in ''Our Place'', she does value their opinion and is thus willing to let them choose if they want to go back or not if Clint is able to keep her alive. When Elaine Geary sets out to destroy the tree that serves as a 2-way portal between the worlds, Eve sends Jeanette to Our Place with instructions to stop her since it wouldn't be fair to let Elaine make the choice for all the women in Our Place.
* FalseFlagOperation: After stealing Fritz Meshaum's bazooka, the Griner brothers use it to blow up the Dooling sherriff's office, then send a teenager to the men laying siege to the prison to tell them they are allies of Clint Norcross and this was apparently a warning to them to stop the attack. In reality, both brothers aren't allied to either side of the conflict; they just want to encourage the besiegers to go on with their attack so, in the chaos, they too can break into the prison and kill Kitty [=McDavid=], an inmate who snitched on them and got them both landed in prison.

** Early in the story, Clint warns the guards at Dooling Correctional Facility not to tell anyone about Eve Black and her mysterious immunity to Aurora, or else people "might come to prison like a [[TorchesAndPitchforks torch-carrying]] peasants StormingTheCastle in an old Frankenstein movie". His words turn out to be quite prophetic.
** When setting up their defenses, Clint and Tig discuss that it won't be possible to defend the raised level of B Wing, but both Clint and Scott Hughes are confinced they won't have to since it would take a bazooka to blow a hole in that wall. No points for guessing what happens during the attack.

** Don Peters, a correctional officer at Dooling Correctional Facility for Women, who loves to abuse his authority to sexually harrass the inmates, always making sure he's not caught on camera or seen by his coworkers. In his own mind he loves to paint himself as a victim who is constantly seduced by the various inmates, while it's perfectly clear he's just a sexually perverted, irredeemable ManChild. After finally getting fired, he keeps telling himself and everyone else [[NeverMyFault that he was framed]].

* HumanityIsInfectious: Eve remarks that the longer she stays in Dooling, the more human she becomes. Something that is proven by the fact that she develops a liking for Clint and feels remorse over having to kill judge Silver when he is about to bring in outside help for the conflict in Dooling. It's suggested this isn't the first time it happened to her either.

* KlatchianCoffee: The Super Coffee that Jeanette Sorley and Angel Fitzroy brew for the inmates of Dooling Correctional Facility for Women.

* MacabreMothMotif: Flocks of moths appear throughout the novel, as they are linked to the Aurora flu and the character Eve Black. At one point, while in prison, Eve emits a whole flock of moths from her mouth to subdue fellow inmate Angel Fitzroy.
* TheManBehindTheMan: After Lila finally succumbs to sleep, Terry Coombs is made acting sherriff. However, he's an alcoholic and clearly not up to the task, so it doesn't take long before he becomes just a figure head to Frank Geary, whom he appointed as his deputy.

* MenUseViolenceWomenUseCommunication: Discussed by a history teacher named Howland, who compares women to coolies from the mines (people whose job it was to keep machinery from overheating with water) and fears that with the women gone the men of the world will soon start killing each other.

* PapaWolf: Frank Geary, whose main motivation for leading the attack on Dooling's Correctional is to get his daughter back.

* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: One of the men in Frank Geary's posse when Eve Black demonstrates her powers by reviving Willy (who had just sufered a heart attack).
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The night before Frank Geary and his posse will attack Dooling Correctional, Terry Coombs decides to bail out, realizing he really isn't up to the task as acting sherriff. Frank watches him go, not sure whether to feel pity for Terry because he isn't man enough to handle the situation, or envy him because he gets to leave before things turn ugly.
* SkewedPriorities: Lampshaded by Frank Geary as he watches news footage of a man removing the cocoon from the face of his wife, upon which she violently attacks him and bites off his nose, causing the husband to utter a curseword.
-->The news network had bleeped out motherfucker but had permitted America to see a woman tear off a goodly portion of her husband's nose. Something in those priorities was badly screwed up
* TheSleepless: Eve temporarily turns Michaela into one so she can help Nocross get reinforcements and weapons to defend the prison, but warns her that it will wear off in a few days and after that, Michaela will go to sleep no matter how much she tries to prevent it.
* SlippingAMickey: When Janice Coates, the warden of Dooling's prison for woman, finally finds evidence of Don Peters' sexual harrassment and fires him, he gets back at her by drugging her coffee with [[HoistByHisOwnPetard her own Xanax pills]], which he found in her purse earlier.
* SoleSurvivor: Celia Frode for the exploration party that left the Dooling in Our Place to see if there are other women outside Dooling. The rest of the group dies when investigating an abandoned men’s prison, which then collapses due to a landslide.

* TechnicallyLivingZombie: If the cocoon on a sleeping woman is broken, they turn into this; a mindless, homicidal creature.
* ToiletPaperSubstitute: After the Bright Ones Cult is arrested and their compound abandoned, a few pages of their new nation's Constitution are scattered by the wind and end up pinned to cactuses. A graduate student hiking in the area comes across them, and since she has to defecate she happily uses the pages as toilet paper.
* TheTokyoFireball: A massive gang war between the Bloods and the Crips combined with there being hardly any fire fighters or police on duty due to Aurora results in what becomes known as the Second Great Chicago Fire.
* {{Troll}}: Eve Black really knows how to push people’s berserk buttons. It’s one of the reasons Clint doesn’t want people from outside the prison to get their hands on her; even if they initially mean well, Eve’s ability to piss people off could easily anger one of them into killing her. Eve also intentionally creates the main conflict between those that want to protect her and those that want to kill her.
* UnstoppableRage: What happens to any woman whose cocoon is disturbed.

* XanatosGambit: For Frank Geary, killing Eve Black is this. If killing her wakes up all the women, a happy ending for everyone. If it doesn't, then at least he will have avenged his daughter.

* YourCheatingHeart: Subverted. A subplot in the story involves Lila suspecting Clint from having an illigetemate daughter with a woman named Shannon Parks. She confronts Clint with it, but he proves her wrong.

* TheChosenOne: Knowing that the men of Dooling will come for her, [[TheChooserOfTheOne Eve selects]] Clint Norcross as the man responsible for defending her, giving him an ultimatum; if he can keep her alive till sunrise next tuesday, or maybe one or 2 days later, she might be able to stop Aurora.

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Clint Norcross recalls how he was taken from his drug addicted, teenage mother, and put through various foster homes, most of which were downright horrible and even the best were forgetable. In one of them, the foster parents even made the children under their care fight each other for a Mcdonalds milkshake. He also remarks how the mayority of the children put in foster care end up in prison or worse later in life, and that he himself is one of the few exceptions to this rule. He does mention however that there are good foster homes, even more now than back in his own childhood; he just never landed in any.

* FalseFlagOperation: After stealing Fritz Meshaum's bazooka, the Griner brothers use it to blow up Dooling's sherriff's office, then send a teenager to the men laying siege to the prison to tell them they are allies of Clint Norcross and this was apparently a warning to them to stop the attack. In reality, both brothers aren't allied to either side of the conflict; they just want to encourage the besiegers to go on with their attack so, in the chaos, they too can break into the prison and kill Kitty [=McDavid=], an inmate who snitched on them and got them both landed in prison.

** Early in the story, Clint warns the guards at Dooling's Correctional Facility not to tell anyone about Eve Black and her mysterious immunity to Aurora, or else people "might come to prison like a [[TorchesAndPitchforks torch-carrying]] peasants StormingTheCastle in an old Frankenstein movie". His words turn out to be quite prophetic.

* JustOneMoreLevel: After forcing officer Hicks to give her his smartphone, Eve gets hooked to a game called ''Boom Town''.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The night before Frank Geary and his posse will attack Dooling's Correctional, Terry Coombs decides to bail out, realizing he really isn't up to the task as acting sherriff. Frank watches him go, not sure whether to feel pitty for Terry because he isn't man enough to handle the situation, or envy him because he gets to leave before things turn ugly.

* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Eve is able to communicate with and in some cases control different animals.

* OutsourcingFate: Although Aurora is a worldwide epidemic, only the women in Dooling got send to ''Our Place'' after falling asleep. And in the climax, they get to make the final decision; if they choose to stay in ''Our Place'', all other women in the world will be send there as well and humanity can start fresh in this new world. If they choose to go back to the old world, all women worldwide will wake up.

* AnimalTalk: Animals can freely talk with each other in this reality. There is even a small b-plot about a fox.

* DrivenToSuicide: From the first moment Aurora is reported, suicide rates among the men of the world drastically increases, with many men unable to live on without hope their wifes and daughters will ever wake up, or hoping to join them in the dreamland they went to. A schoolteacher named Eliot Ainsley announces his suicide on a radioshow before doing it. And after waking up from her Aurora-induced sleep, Rita Coombs finds her husband Terry has killed himself in the garage after bailing out of storming Dooling's Correctional.

** Fritz Meshaum, a notorious animal abuser, weapons collector and domestic abuser. He uses his wife Candy as his own punching bag, and later admits that he killed her after she fell asleep due to Aurora. It's hard to feel sorry for him when he gets robbed by the Griner Brothers.

* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: One of the men in Frank Geary's posse when Eve Black demonstrates her powers by reviving Willy (who had just sufered a hearth attack).

* BurnTheWitch: The panic caused by Aurora, combined with a fake news article that the cocoons are contagious, leads to thousands of sleeping women being burned alive. They become known as Blowtorch Brigades.

** On one side there are Clint Norcross and his followers, who have Eve locked up in Dooling's Correctional Facility for Women and want to keep her there. Eve made a deal with them that if Clint is able to keep her alive till a designated time,she will wake up the women (on the condition that they chose to return to the waking world). So they put the prison in lockdown mode and refuse to let anyone in to talk to or even see Eve. Clint also correctly fears that there might be men out there in Dooling who want to kill Eve [[NoOntologicalInertia because they hope it will wake up all the women]] or simply because they want [[TheScapegoat a scapegoat]] when she is proves unable to wake up their sleeping loved ones, which is another reason why he won't turn her over to the proper authorities.

* DoesNotLikeMen: Elaine Geary, due to her experiences with Frank. She even goes so far as to try and close the gate between ''Our Place'' and the waking world for good so the women never have to go back, [[ForYourOwnGood convinced that they will thank her for it in time]].

* YearInsideHourOutside: Time passes much faster in ''Our Place'' than in the waking world, though to the women there it doesn't feel like that and they don't age any faster either.

* DrivenToSuicide: From the first moment Aurora is reported, suicide rates among the men of the world drastically increases, with many men unable to live on without hope their wifes and daughters will ever wake up, or hoping to join them in the dreamland they went to. A schoolteacher named Eliot Ainsley announces his suicide on a radioshow before doing it. And after waking up from her Aurora-induced sleep, a woman named Rita Coomb finds her husband Terry has killed himself in the garage.

** When setting up their defenses, Clint and Tig discuss that it won't be possible to defend the raised level of B Wing, but both Clint and Sott Hughes are confinced they won't have to since it would take a bazooka to blow a hole in that wall. No points for guessing what happens during the attack.

* TorchesAndPitchforks: Discussed. Clint warns the guards at Dooling's Correctional Facility not to tell anyone about Eve Black and her mysterious immunity to Aurora, or else they "might come to prison like a torch-carrying peasants StormingTheCastle in an old Frankenstein movie". [[{{Foreshadowing}} His words turn out to be quite prophetic]].

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: In the final conflict. The [[DesignatedHero "good guys"]], Clint Nocross, and his followers, made a deal with Eve Black that Clint would keep her alive till a designated time, and in return Eve would wake up the women (on the condition that they chose to return to the waking world). So they put the prison in lockdown mode and refuse to let anyone in to talk to or even see Eve. Clint also correctly fears that there might be men out there in Dooling who want to kill Eve [[NoOntologicalInertia because they hope it will wake up all the women]] or simply because they want [[TheScapegoat a scapegoat]] when she is proves unable to wake up their sleeping loved ones. On the other hand, you can't entirely blame their opponents, who want to get their hands on Eve, either. The men of Dooling are desperate to find a cure for their loved ones and believe Eve to be the key to finding one (which is technically true, though not in the way they think since Eve can't end Aurora entirely by herself). Their leader, Frank Geary, is correct about the fact that Norcross has no authority to put the prison in lockdown, and is at first willing to let Judge Silver bring in a professional negotiator to try and resolve the conflict peacefully. And of course, Norcross refusal to let anyone near Eve only makes him look suspicious. Eve only makes it worse by outright telling Frank he has to kill her.

* HateSink: Don Peters, a correctional officer at Dooling Correctional Facility for Women, who loves to abuse his authority to sexually harrass the inmates, always making sure he's not caught on camera or seen by his coworkers. In his own mind he loves to paint himself as a victim who is constantly seduced by the various inmates, while it's perfectly clear he's just a sexually perverted, irredeemable ManChild. After finally getting fired, he keeps telling himself and everyone else [[NeverMyFault that he was framed]].