Book Review / 11 22 63 by Stephen King

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.
 

 

 

Published:    5th July 2012
Publisher:  Hodder & Stoughton
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone (but does have references to characters and places from IT)
Source:  Owned

 

MY REVIEW

 

Despite the fact that I live in the UK, I have always been fascinated by the assassination of John F Kennedy.  What happened before, what happened after and who really shot him.  There are so many stories and so many conspiracy theories it is sometimes hard to have a feel as to what really happened.  When I heard that Stephen King had written a novel with this as the main plot, I knew I had to pick it up.  Yes, I bought this book when it first came out back in 2012 and no I haven't read it until now and the only reason for that is that this book is so big.  The copy that I have is around 740 pages and the text inside is closely spaced and not large. 

We follow Jake as he is introduced to this portal that takes him back to the 1950s and is given a mission.  To prevent the assassination of John F Kennedy.  Now, this is not all what this story is about and at 740 plus pages I would expect more than just that in this story.  The main story, for me, is following Jake as he discovers life in the 1950s/1960s, where he makes friends and works to have money to live, where he fits in locating and watching Lee Harvey Oswald to get more of a feel as to what he should do and what Lee Harvey Oswald is doing at the time.  Jake needs to be sure that he is getting the right person.  Jake even falls in love and we follow that relationship also.  

I enjoyed every moment of this story.  It is very slow paced and for a very long book I would normallly get frustrated by going slower in a book that is going to take longer to read but there's just something about this author's writing that does make me slow down, sit back and kind of relax (as much as you can reading a Stephen King novel!).  

I would certainly not classify this as a horror.  More like science fiction with a touch of romance and a thriller all mixed in together.  I wouldn't pick this up if you are are wanting a classic horror.  This is not that story. 

Right after IT, this is my second favourite novel I have ready so far from Stephen King.  I can't wait to delve into more.  Certainly, there are loads to choose from!