Skip to main content

Review: "11/22/63" by Stephen King


From Goodreads:  If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you? Would the consequences be what you hoped?

Jake Epping 35 teaches high school English in Lisbon Falls, Maine, and cries reading the brain-damaged janitor's story of childhood Halloween massacre by their drunken father. On his deathbed, pal Al divulges a secret portal to 1958 in his diner back pantry, and enlists Jake to prevent the 11/22/1963 Dallas assassination of American President John F. Kennedy. Under the alias George Amberson, our hero joins the cigarette-hazed full-flavored world of Elvis rock n roll, Negro discrimination, and freeway gas guzzlers without seat belts. Will Jake lurk in impoverished immigrant slums beside troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald, or share small-town friendliness with beautiful high school librarian Sadie Dunhill, the love of his life?

My Thoughts:  I can't believe I waited sooo long to read this!  I honestly think I was a little intimidated by how big it is which was completely silly because it was such a fast read.  There is so much about 11/22/63 that I absolutely love and am fascinated by like time travel, the JFK assassination and historical fiction.  It was the perfect book for me. 

The premise of this book is awesome.  The idea of traveling back in time to stop the JFK assassination is so intriguing but what makes the book even more interesting is how the main character wasn't able to just travel back and stop it from happening.  Jake had to spend four years in the late 1950s/early 1960s assimilating to a completely different way of life; Stephen King does make Jake's assimilation to be a littl easier than I would have expected it to be but all in all, it still made for good reading.

I did think that I would be able to get away from some of Stephen King's usual creep factor in this book but not so much.  Jake ends up making a trip to Derry, Maine (home of that scary clown from 'It') and there are just some creepy characters like the Yellow Card Man and Johnny Clayton.  Jake definitely encounters different forms of evil on his quest but I think what is most creepy is how the past fights him.  Throughout the story, it is made clear that "the past" doesn't want to be changed and it has the power to try to stop whoever is trying to change things.

I have heard people say that Stephen King doesn't do well with endings but I must say that the ending to this book was perfect.  I don't want to give anything away but I liked that everything didn't end with puppies and rainbows (I don't want to give anything away because I really wasn't expecting what happened).  11/22/63 is now one of my favorite Stephen King books and I think everyone would enjoy it.  5 stars.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review and Giveaway: "Distant Signs" by Anne Richter

Synopsis: Distant Signs is an intimate portrait of two families spanning three generations amidst turbulent political change, behind and beyond the Berlin Wall. In 1960s East Germany, Margret, a professor’s daughter from the city, meets and marries Hans, from a small village in Thuringia. The couple struggle to contend with their different backgrounds, and the emotional scars they bear from childhood in the aftermath of war. As East German history gradually unravels, with collision of the personal and political, their two families’ hidden truths are quietly revealed. An exquisitely written novel with strongly etched characters that stay with you long after the book is finished and an authentic portrayal of family life behind the iron curtain based on personal experience of the author who is East German and was 16 years old at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why do families repeat destructive patterns of behaviour across generations? Should the personal take precedence over...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mailbox Monday (49)

It's time for another Mailbox Monday post!  Once again I could not resist the cheap ebooks that Amazon and Barnes and Noble were promoting this week.  I really need to stop!  I already have more than I can read.  I also was able to spend a little time browsing at the library and I came home with a nice stack of books.  These days, I hardly ever get to spend time at the library by myself for more than a minute or two so it was wonderful to have time to just wander and see what I could find. Purchased (for kindle): The Color of Secrets by Lindsay Ashford The One I Was by Eliza Graham House of Bathory by Linda Lafferty   Purchased (for nook): One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore  Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams From the Library: The Messenger by Daniel Silva   The Ripper's Wife by Brandy Purdy Hotel Moscow by Talia Carner Brazen by Katherine Longshore What books did you get...
15 comments
Read more

Review and Giveaway: "This Son of York" by Anne Easter Smith

Synopsis: Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by This Son of York…” — William Shakespeare, Richard III Richard III was Anne’s muse for her first five books, but, finally, in This Son of York he becomes her protagonist. The story of this English king is one of history’s most compelling, made even more fascinating through the discovery in 2012 of his bones buried under a car park in Leicester. This new portrait of England’s most controversial king is meticulously researched and brings to vivid life the troubled, complex Richard of Gloucester, who ruled for two years over an England tired of war and civil strife. The loyal and dutiful youngest son of York, Richard lived most of his short life in the shadow of his brother, Edward IV, loyally supporting his sibling until the mantle of power was thrust unexpectedly on him. Some of his actions and motives were misunderstood by his enemies to have been a deliberate usurpation of the throne, but thr...
Post a Comment
Read more