Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King
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If you are new around here, I used to be a lifestyle blogger. I focused on all sorts of things: fashion, beauty, travel, food (that my husband or other people cooked), career, and BOOKS. My passion for the all-encompassing lifestyle beat faded, but I have decided to kick this website back in gear and connect it to my bookstagram, @bookedwithbecca. So, if you aren't following that account and are interested in all things books, check it out!
This is what I envision for my blog now:
Reviews
Book lists
Sneak peeks
Opinion pieces on bookish topics
Interviews with authors if I can get big enough for that (ha!)
I hope you are excited for this rendition of HerStory! The good news is the blog name still fits. I still need to make some aesthetic updates, change out my advertisements and affiliate links, and update my about information, but that will all come eventually.
Now it's time to get to why you're here: my review of 11/22/63 by Stephen King.
11/22/63 is on my all-time favorites list. It's in the top 5. I'd slate it at #5. It's THAT good. And it's so much more than what you expect.
QUICK DETAILS
Title: 11/22/63
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Historical Fiction, Science Fiction (+ a little bit thriller)
Pages: 849 (don't run away)
Goodreads rating: 4.31 (out of 421,992)
My rating: 5 big stars
Quick Synopsis
Jake Epping is a 35-year-old teacher in Maine. His friend, Al, runs a local diner and tells Jake that his diner's storeroom is a secret portal to 1958. Yes, the year 1958, which happens to be two years before President Kennedy will win the presidency. Al wants Jake to complete a mission he is incapable of completing himself: He wants Jake to stop Kennedy's assassination.
To do so, Jake needs to start in 1958 and traverse multiple states and experiences, all under the new name of George Amberson. While Jake struggles to believe in the validity of his conquest at first, he finds himself entrenched in Al's mission, paving his own path along the way in a world he has only ever read about.
But what do we know about time travel? One minor change can lead to drastic consequences. Does Jake have it in him to completely alter history? And what does that mean for his own life?
My Take
Do not let this book's length scare you away.
I breezed through this book. You hear of books that are unputdownable, and this is one of them.
I haven't read many of Stephen King's fiction books because frankly, they scare me. I have read his memoir, On Writing—highly recommend! I checked out a few reviews before committing and ultimately decided to give it a shot because:
I love historical fiction
I am a sucker for JFK stories
I am intrigued by time travel
This book delivers. You get so much more than an opportunity to experience what could happen if JFK was never assassinated. King brings the late 1950s/early 1960s Dallas to life. I lived in Dallas when I read this book, so I could envision all of the areas he described. There's also a subplot going on with Jake's life alongside his mission to stop the assassination, and it is just as interesting as the mission itself.
11/22/63 is well researched, descriptive, interesting, and fascinating from the time travel aspect. I think we all understand the consequences of time travel. If you've read the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Ray Bradbury, you understand that the simplest thing like squishing a butterfly that wasn't supposed to meet its end that way could alter so much down the line, so just imagine what could be said of stopping the assassination of the president of the United States of America.
If you are even slightly interested in this book, if you have been putting it off because it's an 800+ page giant, I implore you to stop what you are doing and pick up this book. I am three books shy of my 60-book goal for 2020, and I plan on rereading 11/22/63 as soon as I hit that goal.
Have you read 11/22/63? What are your thoughts? No spoilers, please!
Side note: My husband and I got married on Nov. 22, 2014!
You can purchase 11/22/63 from one of my favorite independent bookstores, linked here:
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