Reviews

What would happen when all the women in the world fell asleep and the men were forced to fend for themselves?

I loved the action (the attack at the prison???), I loved the characters. Even the nastiest characters felt like heroes from their own perspectives, which Stephen King always does so well. This felt a bit like a knock off of "The Stand", but I'm not that mad about it.

I know they didn't try to make "Our Place" out to be an all woman utopia, but there were moments where this book explored sexism and gender relations that felt kind of naive.

Also where were the trans people? In a book about gender, it felt weird that they weren't mentioned at all considering it came out in 2017.

justkenedi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

alisonstar87's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jimbowen0306's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is genuinely pretty good. It sees women go to sleep, and get covered in webbing (a la the victims in Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Once covered, you can't rouse them, and if you try, they come over all psychopathic, before going back to sleep.

Once the women are asleep, society promptly falls apart (in less than a week if you can credit it), because men, of course, can't cope without women. The men realise there's something about one of the women that makes them suspicious, so of course they decide to act in a typically "man" way to get her to tell them what's what. Carnage ensues.

The women's mind are transported to a parallel world run by women. They create their society, and find out how life can be without men. I can't work out which stereotype irritates me more, the soft gentle women building a society from the get go, or the rapid disintegration of the men's world, once the women are gone.

This is a strange book. I've read The Fireman by Joe Hill (by one of King's other children), and the similarities between this book and that one has to make you think "Didn't they talk to one another before they wrote?" It's not only that book to which there are similarities. I've mentioned The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But I was also reminded of elements of The Stand and Duma Key, which are both by King, and The Day the Earth Stood Still too. If you can get over the similarities, you'll enjoy the book. If you can't maybe not so much.

mbpartlow's review against another edition

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4.0

If you like a big, rich Stephen King novel, you're going to enjoy this one.

I liked the premise and how it was carried out. However, in the last third of the book, the cast of characters felt unnecessarily large and unwieldy. Too many characters we'd met early coming back in to fulfill their roles, or additional characters added to round out the numbers.

Maybe I just don't read as attentively as I used to? But toward the big finish, I found it hard to keep track of some of the characters. When they enter that late in the game, I really don't need as much backstory for all them.

Still, a very good read.

anyarebekah's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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