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A review by loganisreading
11/22/63 by Stephen King
2.0
Over the last few months, I've been reading many books by Stephen King. From It to Carrie to The Shining and more, there was not a book by him that I did not enjoy. So when I saw the high ratings of this book, I immediately picked it up. I never thought I would dislike it as much as I did.
Jake Epping, a high school teacher from Maine, is recently divorced and desperately trying to help one of the janitors at the school earn a degree. His friend Al Templeton, who owns a local diner, disappears for only two minutes, but ages many years and develops terminal lung cancer in just those two minutes. After speaking to each other, Al explains that in the pantry of the diner there is a portal that brings whoever steps foot in it to September of 1958. Whatever happens there puts in place a "butterfly effect" and changes the course of the future for good. So when Jake finds out the janitor's father beat his entire family to death, he determines he has to go back in time and change everything. Soon, Al dies of cancer and leaves his final, dying wish to have Jake finish one task: save John F. Kennedy from his assassination.
I liked this book for about 200 pages. Having taken place in 1958, King brought in characters from It to give information to Jake. He also had Jake spend a lot of time in Derry, right after the murders stopped for that year, and I thought that was a great element to add to the plot. I loved reading It, so bringing back characters from that made it much more worth the read.
However, by the time the Derry plot was over, the storyline became so incredibly boring that I couldn't even finish the book. I went another 350 pages of reading basically nothing, where he "fell in love" for about 12 pages, but that was over quickly. None of what he did in Texas for the first 600 pages or so was interesting enough to keep me reading.
I never thought I would be so disappointed by Stephen King, especially since so many people loved this book. I wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy long stories of complete nonsense. His other reads are much much more worth it than this, and I hope anyone would choose another book of his instead of this to read.
Jake Epping, a high school teacher from Maine, is recently divorced and desperately trying to help one of the janitors at the school earn a degree. His friend Al Templeton, who owns a local diner, disappears for only two minutes, but ages many years and develops terminal lung cancer in just those two minutes. After speaking to each other, Al explains that in the pantry of the diner there is a portal that brings whoever steps foot in it to September of 1958. Whatever happens there puts in place a "butterfly effect" and changes the course of the future for good. So when Jake finds out the janitor's father beat his entire family to death, he determines he has to go back in time and change everything. Soon, Al dies of cancer and leaves his final, dying wish to have Jake finish one task: save John F. Kennedy from his assassination.
I liked this book for about 200 pages. Having taken place in 1958, King brought in characters from It to give information to Jake. He also had Jake spend a lot of time in Derry, right after the murders stopped for that year, and I thought that was a great element to add to the plot. I loved reading It, so bringing back characters from that made it much more worth the read.
However, by the time the Derry plot was over, the storyline became so incredibly boring that I couldn't even finish the book. I went another 350 pages of reading basically nothing, where he "fell in love" for about 12 pages, but that was over quickly. None of what he did in Texas for the first 600 pages or so was interesting enough to keep me reading.
I never thought I would be so disappointed by Stephen King, especially since so many people loved this book. I wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy long stories of complete nonsense. His other reads are much much more worth it than this, and I hope anyone would choose another book of his instead of this to read.