melissa_isreading 's review for:

11/22/63 by Stephen King

4.5

---

 

This was my first foray into Stephen King, and it won't be my last! I was sucked in from the first page through to the end. That is a feat for an 850-page book! Stephen King does tension and settings so well. The parts in Derry were chilling and eerie and contrasted perfectly with the more idyllic Jodie. The sense of urgency builds and builds so that I could not put it down toward the end. 

I loved the character work done at the beginning with Jake, but I was a bit let down by the central relationship. It felt like a lot of telling versus showing. I was told they were madly in love, but I didn't really see it develop or feel the chemistry. Part of the problem was that Sadie didn't feel as real as the rest of the characters. Jake and a lot of the side characters leapt off the page, but she fell flat. Because of this, the ending fell a little flat for me as well.

Overall, I did really enjoy this and had a fantastic time reading it.