Reviews with content warning for Gore - 11/22/63

🎧
I thought this was an enjoyable book. The pacing wasn't consistent, it was slow for most of the book and it was fast in others. I thought the characters were fine. I didn't really like many of them but I didn't dislike them either. I thought the plot was interesting, though a little predictable at times.

Content Warnings

booksoversecondbreakfast's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? No

3.5

I feel so conflicted about this book! On one hand, I loved it overall, but on the other hand, I disliked much of it.

This book has an amazing, well-thought out, invigorating plot, for the most part. It's so interesting, and with the exception of the slower middle half of the book, it was a real page-turner. That middle part was kind of rough though. I'm not kidding when I say this took me a few years to get through. I wanted to persevere through this book because I liked the story, but the middle part just dragged on and on, and I put it down and then picked up several times the past few years. Once I got passed the middle part, however, I was back glued to the book.

I loved that this revolved around the trope of a historian-type figuring uncovering the truth about something that happened in the past, and I liked that it actually used time travel too. Stephen King, as he always does, successfully worked horror into the story as well, and I thought it was very well done in an understated kind of way. I didn't love the ending, but it was okay, and I was just happy to find out how it ended.

This book's romance was lacking, in my opinion. The book used the 'not like other girls' and 'man teaches woman what good sex is', and I really dislike those tropes. I feel like the romance could have written so much better than it was, but it wasn't the main plot that drew me in anyways.

Overall, I enjoyed it, felt 'meh' towards some aspects of the story, and will keep the book around in my personal library. Will I read it again? Not sure, but maybe someday.

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daelight's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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quipo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Best book i've read up to this point. At one point I read 100 pages without even thinking. Very long book, so it's a commitment. But very worthwhile.

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nenah_elizabeth's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-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? N/A

5.0

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newswoman's review against another edition

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from the introduction of the love interest onwards i felt a gradual decline in my enjoyment of the book as i am not a fan of how the romance is written at all. i really liked the beginning a lot but the the main character is very hard to like in my opinion, which gets worse and worse as the story progresses.

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joshkiba13's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

I wrote a review for this in February and accidentally deleted it 🙃 I'll try to sum up my feelings from before:

This is the first book that made me cry (/pos). I started it for the time travel and historical fiction, and I became engulfed in Jake's double lives and relationships with other people. It was touching, exciting, and intense in all the right ways. Lovely, lovely read :)

"Life turns on a dime. Sometimes towards us, but more often it spins away, flirting and flashing as it goes: so long, honey, it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it?" -Stephen King, 11/22/63

Content Warnings

richardw2024's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Stephen King is most known for his horror writing and, like many readers, because I don't tend to gravitate to that genre so I have always automaticallg dismissed reading Stephen King. Which I now feel is a mistake because he am incrediblely good author. This was a good introduction for me to Stephen King as this is not a horror story, but more of a speculative fiction/time travel story. I really enjoyed it. I found the time travel mechanic quite confusing as reading it - it gets explained at the end, but maybe that's the point because time travel is theoretically confusing. If you like these types of themes then you may well enjoy this book. I do think it's a bit long and meandering sometimes though, but never felt particularly like it dragged. I'd definitely consider reading more (non horror) Stephen King.

I edited my rating to 5* a few months after finishing because I heard someone talk about it and remembered how great this book was, so I feel that is worthy of a 5* rating. Few books can evoke that kind of reaction from me.

Also check the content warnings - there are a few.

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