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eadrianschmitz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Wow. What an interesting concept, approach, and execution. Some elements I could have done without but that's personal preference. A great experience to read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
steph7n's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Every once in a while a good literary piece will come out that represent its genre so beautifully with neatly written prose, lovable characters, and excellent plot execution. Such piece are considered good and worthy of recommendation. But then again, sometimes a literary piece is so excellent that to put it into one specific genre would be a disservice and it manage to transcends the genre segregation so astutely, you can't help but spread its gospel to anyone who would care to listen. 11/22/63 book belongs to the latter group.
Personally I don't think I'm gifted enough to be able to encapsulate the beauty of this piece in a few hundred words review but to not do so would be a cardinal sin, so here it is.
First of all let me say that I'm not a huge Stephen King fan. From what I heard, his most accomplished books are of horror genre and I couldn't care less for that genre. Also he's known to write very long books which is a recipe for boredom when combined with my aversion to abandon a book midway through reading even if I find the plot to be tedious and the writing insufferable.
My first Stephen King's book is Fairy Tale and I can't say that I love it abundantly. The story buildup was nice but around the middle of the book the story gets so predictable and the entire plot is kinda meh. But again, I hate not finishing a book I started unless I deemed it irredeemably bad that to complete whatever remain of the books would risk temporarily souring me on reading. So I soldier through and after two months I completed it.
Secondly, I know that there's a saying to "never judge a book by its cover" but to say that the design of the cover had nothing to do with me picking it up the first time would be a big fat lie. Had I first seen the book by its other cover (the one with the digital-watch-like font), I probably wouldn't even consider it.
As I start the book, I can't escape the similarity between 11/22/63 and Fairy Tale (considering the release date, it is likely that the latter was inspired by the former).
A man (Jake Epping / Charlie Reade) get introduced to another world (Mid-century America / Empis) through a portal by an acquaintance (Al Templeton / Howard Bowditch) who later died. Prior to dying, the acquaintance gave them a mission (save JFK / get Radar to the magical Sundial). Inside the portal, the main protagonist get to know and fall in love to the local resident (Sadie Dunhill / Leah Galleon) and had their fair share of adversities. They eventually had to part with their lover because they had to return to the world from which they came from.
The further I read through the book, I realized that saying the two books tells the same story differently is like saying a blue jay and a T-Rex are both dinosaurs. It's technically the truth but no one would ever mistake one for the other.
The overarching theme of the book is that the past harmonizes and it shows time and again whether explicitly stated or not. The spoiler-laden summary of the book is as follows:
Jake Epping, a recently divorced high school English teacher, learned that Al Templeton, the owner of a certain restaurant he often patronized, had a time-traveling portal hidden in the kitchen of his restaurant. The portal would drop travelers to September 9, 1958, at exactly 11:58 a.m.
How the portal was formed was never fully explained and remained a mystery. But the way it worked was an important gear in the plot engine that drove the story forward. Basically, whenever one traveled through the portal, they would be dropped at the exact same time and place each and every time. They could spend hours or weeks or years in the past. These were the times that they would live through. They could buy things, their bodies would age accordingly, and they could sustain injuries or sickness. When they returned to the future, whatever things that they had in their person, their aging, and their sickness / injuries would stay with them, but they would be dropped at exactly two minutes after they initially entered the portal. If that time-traveler committed any change in the past, the consequences of the changes would be carried to the present that they returned to. However, if anyone used the portal again, the consequences would be reset.
Al initially used the portal to buy groceries at 1958 prices. But on his final trip, he decided to live in the past long enough to try and prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and, in the meantime, try to save a certain Carolyn Poulin from a hunting accident that would paralyze the lower half of her body for life. He succeeded in the latter but failed in the former because cancer got to him, and he wouldn't have time to complete his mission. This prompted him to convince Jake to take over the mission.
Jake's first trip to the rabbit hole lasted only minutes but managed to undo what Al accomplished in regards to Carolyn Poulin. He subsequently spent weeks in his second trip trying to undo the damage in the childhood of Harry Dunning, a janitor / student in his school whose father, Frank Dunning, drunkenly killed his entire family and permanently injured him during Halloween of 1958. He partially succeeded in this mission but learned to his dismay that Harry was killed in the Vietnam War in the alternate version of the present that he returned to.
Al managed to convince Jake that saving JFK might prevent the United States from getting dragged into the Vietnam War and therefore saved Harry. He also gave him copious notes about the mission to save JFK and a rather large sum of money (in 1958 standard) before killing himself due to the pain of late-stage cancer.
In his next trip, Jake (or George Amberson as he was known in the 1958 world) managed to fully succeed in saving the Dunning family (by killing Frank Dunning before he committed the deed) and Carolyn Poulin (by occupying the hunter that would inadvertently injure her on that day with a game of cards). He also met (or rather stalked) Lee Harvey Oswald, whom he would not kill like Frank Dunning just yet because he needed to be certain that he was the lone gunman that shot Kennedy.
While waiting for 1963, he also managed to meet and fall in love with Sadie Dunhill, the recently divorced librarian of the school in which he worked. The love story didn't go on smoothly, however, because on one occasion, Jake absent-mindedly sang to a song that was yet to be invented and whose lyrics were considered too lewd by the 1958 standard. During their separation, Sadie's ex-husband managed to stalk her and permanently scarred her face before killing himself.
Jake subsequently revealed his secret and his mission to Sadie and promised her that he would bring Sadie back to 2011, where the doctors had tools and knowledge simply unavailable in 1958 to fully restore her. This promise and his entire mission were jeopardized when Jake was manhandled by men working for a certain bookies that suspected him because of the accuracy of his large against-the-odds bet. His injuries forced him reluctantly to involve Sadie in the mission to save JFK from assassination.
He ultimately succeeded in accomplishing his mission to save JFK but lost Sadie to a stray bullet from Oswald during the showdown. Brokenhearted, he vowed to redo the trip that already consumed 5 years of his life and saving Sadie too this time, not just from the bullet but also from the knife of her ex-husband. Just prior to returning to the past, however, he learned about an earthquake that killed thousands that did not happen in the past of his original "present". He subsequently learned from the guardian of the loophole that each time he changes something in the past, a new timeline was created. When the change was minor enough (buying groceries), the consequences were also minor. But a major change like preventing a globally recognized powerful figure from being killed, the consequences were big enough to rip the fabric of reality apart.
Jake returned to the new version of 2011 and met with none other than Harry Dunning himself, who told him that in the future that he created by preventing JFK assassination, nuclear bombs were used in multiple wars, inflicting radiation-related affliction even on Americans, and earthquakes continue to occur in unusual places so much so that scientists predicted the Earth to have only 70 more years before turning into the second asteroid belt of the solar system.
Realizing this, Jake decided to undo everything he had done by traveling back to the past and returning to the present without making significant changes. He considered trying to save Sadie from her ex-husband but decided to leave the past intact and returning to his known "present" seemingly accomplish nothing but additional 5 years’ worth of wisdom and aging in 2 minutes.
The story ends with Jake finding out about the 2011 Sadie Dunhill who was scarred by her ex-husband, never remarried, and yet accomplished so much in her life that she was awarded the "Citizen of the Century" by the city she lived in. In the last scene, Jake re-introduce himself as George Amberson and asked her to dance to the very same tune they danced to in 1961.
Through the time-traveling aspect of this book, Stephen King seemed to suggest (consciously or not) that the universe is pre-deterministic and a large change would be enough cause it to rip apart. Sci-fi aficionado everywhere would obviously have their own horse to back in this particular race but even if you disagree with this assertion, this book could still be enjoyable to read.
My only problem with the book is not about the way time-traveling work or its assumption of the way universe works but rather with the decision that Jake took at the end of the book.
The book has established through earlier time-traveling trip that it is possible for Al and Jake to save Carolyn Poulin and Harry Dunning respectively without world-ripping consequences. And yet upon learning about the consequences of saving JFK, Jake decided against saving Sadie, the woman he was supposedly in love with in his final trip in order to leave the future intact the way it is supposed to be. This decision was baffling and left me with conclusion that Jake Epping end up getting nothing but empty inconsequential adventure for the five years that he spent in the past.
That problem aside, I still think that the book in and of itself worth five star or even more.
So what is the genre of this book? Is it science fiction because of the time-traveling aspect? Is it historical fiction because of the timeline the majority of the book is told in? Is it a romance because of the love-that-transcends-time minor theme? A tragedy? A mystery thriller? A horror? That is the most difficult question to answer because not only the book does contain parts of each genre, but it also excels in most of those genres. And that's what makes this book one of the greatest read I've ever had in my life.
Personally I don't think I'm gifted enough to be able to encapsulate the beauty of this piece in a few hundred words review but to not do so would be a cardinal sin, so here it is.
First of all let me say that I'm not a huge Stephen King fan. From what I heard, his most accomplished books are of horror genre and I couldn't care less for that genre. Also he's known to write very long books which is a recipe for boredom when combined with my aversion to abandon a book midway through reading even if I find the plot to be tedious and the writing insufferable.
My first Stephen King's book is Fairy Tale and I can't say that I love it abundantly. The story buildup was nice but around the middle of the book the story gets so predictable and the entire plot is kinda meh. But again, I hate not finishing a book I started unless I deemed it irredeemably bad that to complete whatever remain of the books would risk temporarily souring me on reading. So I soldier through and after two months I completed it.
Secondly, I know that there's a saying to "never judge a book by its cover" but to say that the design of the cover had nothing to do with me picking it up the first time would be a big fat lie. Had I first seen the book by its other cover (the one with the digital-watch-like font), I probably wouldn't even consider it.
As I start the book, I can't escape the similarity between 11/22/63 and Fairy Tale (considering the release date, it is likely that the latter was inspired by the former).
The further I read through the book, I realized that saying the two books tells the same story differently is like saying a blue jay and a T-Rex are both dinosaurs. It's technically the truth but no one would ever mistake one for the other.
The overarching theme of the book is that the past harmonizes and it shows time and again whether explicitly stated or not. The spoiler-laden summary of the book is as follows:
How the portal was formed was never fully explained and remained a mystery. But the way it worked was an important gear in the plot engine that drove the story forward. Basically, whenever one traveled through the portal, they would be dropped at the exact same time and place each and every time. They could spend hours or weeks or years in the past. These were the times that they would live through. They could buy things, their bodies would age accordingly, and they could sustain injuries or sickness. When they returned to the future, whatever things that they had in their person, their aging, and their sickness / injuries would stay with them, but they would be dropped at exactly two minutes after they initially entered the portal. If that time-traveler committed any change in the past, the consequences of the changes would be carried to the present that they returned to. However, if anyone used the portal again, the consequences would be reset.
Al initially used the portal to buy groceries at 1958 prices. But on his final trip, he decided to live in the past long enough to try and prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and, in the meantime, try to save a certain Carolyn Poulin from a hunting accident that would paralyze the lower half of her body for life. He succeeded in the latter but failed in the former because cancer got to him, and he wouldn't have time to complete his mission. This prompted him to convince Jake to take over the mission.
Jake's first trip to the rabbit hole lasted only minutes but managed to undo what Al accomplished in regards to Carolyn Poulin. He subsequently spent weeks in his second trip trying to undo the damage in the childhood of Harry Dunning, a janitor / student in his school whose father, Frank Dunning, drunkenly killed his entire family and permanently injured him during Halloween of 1958. He partially succeeded in this mission but learned to his dismay that Harry was killed in the Vietnam War in the alternate version of the present that he returned to.
Al managed to convince Jake that saving JFK might prevent the United States from getting dragged into the Vietnam War and therefore saved Harry. He also gave him copious notes about the mission to save JFK and a rather large sum of money (in 1958 standard) before killing himself due to the pain of late-stage cancer.
In his next trip, Jake (or George Amberson as he was known in the 1958 world) managed to fully succeed in saving the Dunning family (by killing Frank Dunning before he committed the deed) and Carolyn Poulin (by occupying the hunter that would inadvertently injure her on that day with a game of cards). He also met (or rather stalked) Lee Harvey Oswald, whom he would not kill like Frank Dunning just yet because he needed to be certain that he was the lone gunman that shot Kennedy.
While waiting for 1963, he also managed to meet and fall in love with Sadie Dunhill, the recently divorced librarian of the school in which he worked. The love story didn't go on smoothly, however, because on one occasion, Jake absent-mindedly sang to a song that was yet to be invented and whose lyrics were considered too lewd by the 1958 standard. During their separation, Sadie's ex-husband managed to stalk her and permanently scarred her face before killing himself.
Jake subsequently revealed his secret and his mission to Sadie and promised her that he would bring Sadie back to 2011, where the doctors had tools and knowledge simply unavailable in 1958 to fully restore her. This promise and his entire mission were jeopardized when Jake was manhandled by men working for a certain bookies that suspected him because of the accuracy of his large against-the-odds bet. His injuries forced him reluctantly to involve Sadie in the mission to save JFK from assassination.
He ultimately succeeded in accomplishing his mission to save JFK but lost Sadie to a stray bullet from Oswald during the showdown. Brokenhearted, he vowed to redo the trip that already consumed 5 years of his life and saving Sadie too this time, not just from the bullet but also from the knife of her ex-husband. Just prior to returning to the past, however, he learned about an earthquake that killed thousands that did not happen in the past of his original "present". He subsequently learned from the guardian of the loophole that each time he changes something in the past, a new timeline was created. When the change was minor enough (buying groceries), the consequences were also minor. But a major change like preventing a globally recognized powerful figure from being killed, the consequences were big enough to rip the fabric of reality apart.
Jake returned to the new version of 2011 and met with none other than Harry Dunning himself, who told him that in the future that he created by preventing JFK assassination, nuclear bombs were used in multiple wars, inflicting radiation-related affliction even on Americans, and earthquakes continue to occur in unusual places so much so that scientists predicted the Earth to have only 70 more years before turning into the second asteroid belt of the solar system.
Realizing this, Jake decided to undo everything he had done by traveling back to the past and returning to the present without making significant changes. He considered trying to save Sadie from her ex-husband but decided to leave the past intact and returning to his known "present" seemingly accomplish nothing but additional 5 years’ worth of wisdom and aging in 2 minutes.
The story ends with Jake finding out about the 2011 Sadie Dunhill who was scarred by her ex-husband, never remarried, and yet accomplished so much in her life that she was awarded the "Citizen of the Century" by the city she lived in. In the last scene, Jake re-introduce himself as George Amberson and asked her to dance to the very same tune they danced to in 1961.
Through the time-traveling aspect of this book, Stephen King seemed to suggest (consciously or not) that the universe is pre-deterministic and a large change would be enough cause it to rip apart. Sci-fi aficionado everywhere would obviously have their own horse to back in this particular race but even if you disagree with this assertion, this book could still be enjoyable to read.
My only problem with the book is not about the way time-traveling work or its assumption of the way universe works but rather with the decision that Jake took at the end of the book.
That problem aside, I still think that the book in and of itself worth five star or even more.
So what is the genre of this book? Is it science fiction because of the time-traveling aspect? Is it historical fiction because of the timeline the majority of the book is told in? Is it a romance because of the love-that-transcends-time minor theme? A tragedy? A mystery thriller? A horror? That is the most difficult question to answer because not only the book does contain parts of each genre, but it also excels in most of those genres. And that's what makes this book one of the greatest read I've ever had in my life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Terminal illness and War
alainab113's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and War
elindseyr190's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Stalking
Minor: Cancer, Antisemitism, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and War
laurenleannereads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death
thebooksmegreads's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Stalking, and Suicide attempt
caitsgreats's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
At the time of release, the descriptor "romantasy" hadn't entered the set of literary genres, but I think it's apt to describe this novel. 11/22/63 is a corny time-travel romantasy with a dense background of historical fiction. And, being Stephen King, it's tonally tense and has moments of explicitly described violence.
Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Maine, USA, gets summoned to the back room of his favorite diner by Al, a dear friend, who shows him a portal to the past. Literally. A straight line to 1958 and back. Al is dying, and wants Jake to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jr. But that would require spending 5 years in the past just to get to that point, and still it remains unclear who really shot JFK. Was it truly the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald? Was it the CIA? Soviets? And what will the future behold, if he's successful?
But I've buried the lede. It's a romance novel, I promise.
What I liked:
Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Maine, USA, gets summoned to the back room of his favorite diner by Al, a dear friend, who shows him a portal to the past. Literally. A straight line to 1958 and back. Al is dying, and wants Jake to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jr. But that would require spending 5 years in the past just to get to that point, and still it remains unclear who really shot JFK. Was it truly the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald? Was it the CIA? Soviets? And what will the future behold, if he's successful?
But I've buried the lede. It's a romance novel, I promise.
What I liked:
- strong historical research
- feasibility of how the characters would have acted
- the flow of the storytelling
What I didn't like:
- failure to critically assess the downsides of the 50's and 60's
- only a peek behind the curtain of the time travel system
- the "downstream effects" of altering the past seemed farfetched in a book that was otherwise very reasonable (within its own world, of course)
When the book was written (2011), the willingness to overlook the glaring flaws of the midcentury in order to appreciate "a simpler time" was more okay than it is now, or maybe I just have a lower tolerance for it. Yes, major bad things happened to marginalized people as a part of the plot, but the character didn't seem to mind the "generic racism" that permeates his environment, for example. I prefer Kindred by Octavia Butler for getting that criticism correct.
The ease of systemic oppression is too distracting for me to really love the book. But to give the great Stephen King credit, it's the first book in a long time that I stayed up late to continue reading. Which was dumb, given that I was plagued with nightmares afterwards. But hey, I kept going back, because the book is written so compellingly. The characters are themselves. The time travel system sparks my curiosity, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. And I'll certainly continue to pick up Stephen King novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Stalking
Minor: Terminal illness and War
A quick note on all the content warnings. I wouldn't say this book is horror, or even "that bad," as it were. Gore and violence was used in a realistic, but minimal way (i.e. no sugarcoating, but it was the 60's). The worst part to look out for is likely the intimate partner violence. The rest is fit for cable television.lqne's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
mariposa517's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Drug use, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism
uphorikbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Pedophilia, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Vomit, Stalking, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War