The Fabled Realms

Review of

11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2011-11-08
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force. Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history. Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best.

Get ready for a mind-bending journey through time with Stephen King’s “11/22/63” – a masterpiece that proves sometimes the best stories take their sweet time unfolding!

Hold onto your fedoras, folks, because King is about to take us on a wild ride back to the land of sock hops, chrome-covered cars, and one very infamous day in Dallas. This door-stopper of a book (seriously, you could use it as a weapon in self-defense) is worth every single one of its thousand pages.

Meet Jake Epping, your friendly neighborhood English teacher who discovers a time portal in a diner (don’t you hate it when that happens?). His mission? Oh, just a casual attempt to prevent one of the most significant assassinations in American history. No pressure, right?

But here’s where King shows his storytelling genius – this isn’t just a time-travel thriller about stopping JFK’s assassination. Oh no, this bad boy is packed tighter than a 1950s diner on Saturday night! We’ve got mystery that’ll keep you guessing, suspense that’ll have you biting your nails, and a romance with Sadie Dunhill that’ll make your heart do the twist and shout.

King weaves historical facts with fiction so seamlessly, you’ll find yourself googling “Did this actually happen?” more times than you can count. The attention to detail about the late 50s and early 60s is so vivid, you can practically taste the root beer floats and hear Elvis on the jukebox.

The past, as Jake learns, is obdurate – it doesn’t want to be changed. And watching him navigate the butterfly effects of his actions while trying to prevent a historical tragedy is like watching a master chess player in action… if the chess pieces occasionally tried to kill you.

Yes, it’s a chunky book that’ll give your wrists a workout, but trust me – once you start this temporal rollercoaster, you won’t want to get off. King has crafted a story that’s part historical fiction, part love story, part thriller, and all awesome. It’s like “Back to the Future” meets “JFK” meets “Romeo and Juliet,” but with King’s signature style that’ll keep you up way past your bedtime.

So grab your copy, settle in, and prepare to lose yourself in a story that proves that while you can’t always change history, sometimes history can change you. Just remember – the past is obdurate, but this book is absolutely unputdownable!


About the Reviewer

PJ Flip

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