11/22/63

I like a lot of little ideas in this book, and like most Stephen King I have read it is well written and easy to consume, but it just felt like it wanted to go in so many directions at once.

The setup is interesting, but the mid section of the book is a bit meandering and drags. I think I understand what King was going for here, though ultimately for me the ending didn't land enough to justify all of it. It was a nice little idea that just missed the mark for me.

I listened to this via audiobook from the library, and while it as pretty long at ~31 hours, Craig Wasson's narration was really good.

I really wish someone had sat me down about ten years ago and explained that Stephen King has the reputation as a great author because he's a really damn good author. I won't read all of his stuff, but a lot of it is just legitimately so good, spectacularly plotted and paced and engaging and enjoyable. This was a hell of a book and I am glad I got around to reading it.

It took a really long time to read this book, more so than it normally would have. And that is not due to any factor of this story, it's just down to the fact that I've had so much going on in the last 3 months that I have struggled to be able to sit down and just enjoy reading. But in a way, I'm glad I did take so long to read this one.
Stephen King is one of my all time favourite authors. I love his stories, his writing but mostly his imagination. Where does he come up with all of these brilliant ideas??
11.22.63 has become one of my favourite novels by King. The sheer volume of research that went into writing this book is insane. His accuracy for actual historical events was amazing.
I loved how he was able to create and mould fictional characters into interacting with real life people.
Jake/George was a very likeable character and I was rooting for him and Sadie the whole way.
I won't write a long review just now, maybe later once I've had time to think about it more, but this book was great. It's amazingly written, thr characters were great. And although it's quite lengthy, that is one of the best things about it. The detail was great and the history was amazing.
Well done Mr King, on another masterpiece.

I've always been a sucker for time travel. When the author highlights very specific rules for how it works in that universe and sticks to them it makes for even more interesting stories in my eyes. King does an amazing job in this one of setting up the structure needed to explore his main objective – what would happen if someone stopped Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating JFK?

This book was a page-turner and the extensive research on setting, real people, and time period encouraged me to seek out primary sources to check the facts. If a work of fiction does that for me, I consider it a successful book.

However, the three-star rating comes from the conclusion that fell flat and disappointed me after spending so much time with the book.

So usually I break a book down in my reviews and comment on the style, but this is Stephen King. I think anyone who came to literacy in the last 50 years knows what they're in for. He is a master, and this story is one of his masterpieces, that's all I need to say. If you like time travel stories, or you're interested in JFK, hell even if you don't like those topics, this book is still worth the read. I had a big Stephen King phase in high school. I totally overdid it. In fact, I read so much of him in such a short time that all the books sort of blended together and I managed to get turned off of his stuff. In my experience, Stephen King is a master at getting readers to binge the first half of a story like it's crack and then letting his stories slowly fizzle out. I pretty much swore off of King by the time this novel was published, and shortly thereafter I was firmly off of the reading wagon altogether. What's that got to do with 11/22/63? Well aside from having the most engaging premise mankind's ever seen fit to imagine, 11/22/63 also happens to have an ending that wasn't entirely composed by Stephen King. It is his son, Joe Hill, to whom we have to thank for a Stephen King book with a proper ending. I can't stress this point enough because it was this little tidbit that got me to read this book to begin with, can you imagine it? A Stephen King book without the drawback of a shitty pissy little half-assed ending!There are a few things about 11/22/63 that are special, these are small touches that elevate it beyond standard SK fare in my eyes:The first is that it takes place in the same universe as many of King's other popular works, most notably [b:It 830502 It Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334416842l/830502.SY75.jpg 150259] and the town of Derry features prominently. This is a book aimed squarely at the fans, there are more small nods than I could try to list, and as I worked my way through the book I was constantly finding them (to my delight). The second is that this book is not a reference for reference's sake kind of story. I think it would have been all too easy to get lost in the nostalgia sauce/exploration of the late 50s/early 60s; this book does have a ton of 60's material to get lost in but it's doled out with a measured hand. This could have easily read like a 60's Highlights/SK bibliography highlight reel, but everything that Stephen King has added to the pot is in there for a reason.The final touch is one that ties it all together; the theme and tone of the book are just perfect. This is a story of echoes, and the focus is on harmonics and repeating patterns. With every little detail, the story is meant to evoke a sense of Deja Vu, and there's plenty of that to be had between the nostalgic 60's callbacks (a decade which thanks to TV and film we are all nostalgic for, even if we never lived it) and in-universe references. Everything the main character sees and does is mirrored bizarrely in another section of the book, and the story itself reads more like a collection of stories set in the lead-up to, and aftermath of, the Kennedy assassination. There's a lot of interplay is the point, and the more you pick up on it, the more it amplifies the feelings that King wants you to feel as you read the story. I am a sucker for this kind of attention to detail, it's rare and hard to pull off but like I said before, we are in the hands of a master for this one.TL;DR: Finally an SK novel with a proper ending. For my money, this is the best thing he's ever written. It's definitely aimed at SK and JFK fans, but I wouldn't consider it necessary to care about either to enjoy this book.

Came for Kennedy stayed for Sadie.
I started reading this book on the premise of: we are travelling back in time to save the president. Which in paper sounds awesome. But at the end I kept reading because I was more invested in the romantic subplot than actually saving the president.
I had a few problems with how the time travel works and I really struggled to get through the scenes where we stalked Oswald.
Firstly my problems with the time travel. In this novel we have a very soft time travel mechanic. Our main character enters a closet and appears in 1958. When he enters again he returns to 2011 exactly 2 minutes later. This is neat my problem come with the harmony and how fast it escalates.
The concept of harmony in this book is that the past harmonices with itself, or basically that history repeats itself. At the beginning this harmony is just characters with similar names and lifestyles across different towns. Then it becomes repeated actions across towns and it even becomes like a premonition tool. But at the end, all of a sudden it somehow provokes earthquakes. I found this harmony thing a neat part, with references to other towns and as a plot device to make the final chase to stop Oswald more tens and interesting. And then all of a sudden the whole us is constantly being hit by earthquakes because the president lived... there you lost me buddy. I could follow all other events that lead to the world in 2011 being like that, but the earthquakes killed me. I know it is a petty critique and it was not so bad and it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the novel it just bothered me at the end because I had the feeling it came out of nowhere.
Speaking of the past not wanting to be changed, I didn't like the whole amnesia part towards the end. It felt as a cheap way to make the end longer, because in no moment I felt like he was going to miss the assassination because he forgot who killed the president. It was nice because it shows there are no infinite money glitches in time travel. But with the beating it would have been enough, you don't need the whole amnesia part.
Secondly the Oswald plot. I did not like it, the whole stalking sequences I understand their purpose, but felt they were excessive. I understand the whole point of those scenes is to humanise Oswald and to generate a dilemma for the protagonist concerning the window of uncertainty. But they felt boring and excessive. I also got at a point overwhelmed by the amount of names introduced. If these parts where a little bit shorter it would have been a 4 stars for me.
Finally to the good part of the story. At the middle of the book we get introduced to the romantic interest of the main character and surprisingly I loved it. I never thought I could be more invested in the romantic subplot than the actual plot, but it happens with this novel. I loved every single interaction between them and the epilogue got tearing up.
All in all it is a great novel and would recommend it, but not as your first king novel. It is a little bit too long and some parts I had to push through but it was worth it for the epilogue.

This was my first SK book. Truly incredible, I couldn’t put it down. I thought I was reading a time travel book but the sci-fi elements turned out to be merely a backdrop for a wonderful exploration of the rich relationships the main character builds along the way. I didn’t expect to have such an emotional response to this book, but was devastated to finish this story and no longer get to spend time with King’s characters.

After watching the first episode of the series I decided to read the book first and I'm so glad I did. This was my first Stephen King book and I loved it. The plot, characters and the writing style made it a really quick read despite its length and the ending wasn't a cop out either so I highly recommend it. Looking for some other Stephen King recommendations now.