Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

11/22/63 by Stephen King

42 reviews

informative mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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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

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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: Complicated

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes

Definitely a unique way to learn some history I was never taught about in school. I’ll soon find myself going down a rabbit hole (not that one!) to learn more. Cool concept with a lot of questions and mystery surrounding to keep me on the edge of my seat. Really made me think of what I would do if I found myself back in 1958, not knowing much about the era. Loved the bonus playlist and recipes at the end of the book to help you feel “part of the time/book”. 800+ pages is no quick read (for me, at least) but definitely worth the commitment!

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medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No

really entertaining book and very immersive. I loved following our protagonist, and really loved the friends he made along the way, especially mimi and deke. I often felt the urge to keep on reading and find out what happened next. I wish we had gotten a little more time to spend in the changed future of 2011, because I found this to be very interesting. in the middle section, the book does suffer in pacing and length - it feels like we are reading a slice of life story rather than a suspenseful book. nonetheless, I thought the story was creative and well researched, the human connections were deep and authentic, and the ending was pleasantly bittersweet. 

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense fast-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: Yes

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

🎧
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. 

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

What a disappointing thing it is to spend almost 900 pages and weeks of time for a 2 star book. It may have been 3 stars if the ending wasn’t bad, but it was. This was my first Stephen King book, and I chose it because a time travel thriller sounded fun, and definitely more appealing than a 900 page horror like his more famous works. After this experience though, I’m doubtful I’ll ever read a King book again. Even if the others are objectively better (which I doubt, because this one had tons of 5 star reviews so I can’t trust the hype), he gives me creepy old man vibes from the way he wrote women. 

My main complaint is that this book could have been 500 pages shorter. For a book that is supposed to be a thriller, there was so much boring filler. We got a second life built by the main character in the late 1950s, complete with King's fantasies of being a cool English teacher beloved by all his students, having a beautiful, virginal (insert eye roll here) woman he gets to save who falls deeply in love with him, and more. There is so much that did not add anything to the story, and I kept wondering when we'd move on from this romanticization of the mid 1900s. He threw out a couple acknowledgements of the racism that existed but it seemed more perfunctory than real thought-provoking criticisms, espcially when he spent far more time talking about how much better the drinks tasted in that time.

Finally, the ending was awful. I don’t want to give any spoilers but it was not satisfying in the slightest bit. I think I could spitball five different better endings on the spot if I was asked to. Also, the time travel mechanics were lazy and introduced so late that it felt pointless. I’m trying to think of positives for this book, and all I have is that the concept is interesting and the writing style is engaging.

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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

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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