Betta

Whilst the chemistry of the two main characters was absolutely and undeniably there, I cannot help but feel it was a little forced and certainly rushed. I think the juxtaposition of the eternity they have together with their one-week love story feels a little fast paced. Some of the writing, for me, was a little too casual, like the constant use of ‘um', ‘BFF' and ‘obvi', although it was done to show the character of Lily throughout the work, I definitely felt it was unnecessary. Although I have to say I adored Lily's personality which contrasted well with Tristan's and Cat's in many parts of the book, the fact that the relationship with her best friend was just as important as the one with Tristan is incredible to finally see written, and that this book does not follow the usual cliché of the main character dropping all their friends when they meet “The One”. When it comes to the body-positivity, whilst I loved the brutality and reality of what it is like not to fit into the beauty standards of society, I definitely felt it was underplayed towards the end, she seems to feel her insecurities have magically gone away thanks to a combination of her new vampire life and hot boyfriend. It feels too good to be true. Overall and amazing story with fun, laugh out loud moments and a romantic grand gesture, as well as plenty of spicy moments that really dialed up the tension between the main characters!

When I first started reading this I had some doubts, I had only ever read Needful Things by Stephen King before and that had been a struggle. The fact that, let's be honest, King's books can only be described as ‘hefty chonkers', a book like Needful things starts slow and then leads to one final, big climax meant it was very difficult to get through. Now, 11/22/63 is different. Incredibly so. It really throws you in the deep end and is full of crescendos all contributing to the grand finale of the novel. Each character is so well thought out and complex in its own way it is almost impossible to think that they did not exist in real life (aside from, of course, those taken directly from history such as JFK or Lee Oswald). The absurdity of the novel makes it impossible to set down and even more so to forget. I was also pleasantly surprised at the romantic aspect of this novel. From other readers I had heard that King tends to focus more on the physical than the emotional, something I definitely picked up in Needful Things. This is why the relationship between Jake/George and Sadie shocked me, in the best way possible. As a romantic at heart, I cannot deny I shed many tears over their love story.