Stephen King

Receiving a horrific essay from a GED student with a traumatic past, high-school English teacher Jake Epping is enlisted by a friend to travel back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a mission for which he must reacclimate to 1960s culture and befriend troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald. By the best-selling author of Full Dark, No Stars.

11/22/63

Danny White

In America, where surface has always passed for substance

I stroked a big red A on top of his paper. Looked at it for a moment or two, then added a big red +. Because it was good, and because his pain had evoked an emotional reaction in me, his reader. And isn’t that what A+ writing is supposed to do? Evoke a response?

Jake Epping is an English teacher in Lisbon falls, Maine, vv'ho makes extra money teaching in an adult education programme. One day, he receives an essay from one of his students — a harrowing first person story about the night, fifty years earlier. when Harry Dunning's fat her came home and killed Harry' mother. his sister. and his brother with a sledgehammer. 

Later, Jake's friend A1. who runs the local diner. divulges an extraordinary 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. 

Inspired by his desire to put things right for Harry Dunning, Jake leaves a world of iPods and mobile phones for a new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars, root beers and Lindy Hopping. It is a haunting world 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. 

With extraordinary imaginative power, King explores the culture. of the era and weaves it into a devastating exercise in escalating suspense. 11.22.63 is a love story, a tribute to a simpler time and place and a heartstopping What If? tour de force the like of which no-one has ever read.
--front flap

11.22.63 Mari-Claire Parrin

logan chung

I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did – or as quickly.

Wulf Bergner

Am 22. November 1963 wurde John F. Kennedy ermordet und die Welt veränderte sich. Jake Epping kann in jene Zeit zurückkehren und will den Anschlag verhindern. Aber je näher er seinem Ziel kommt, umso vehementer wehrt sich die Vergangenheit gegen jede Änderung.

Roman

Der Anschlag

Dominik

A fantastic book about time travel and the famous butterfly effect associated with it. But that alone would not be King. His characters literally live. The resulting tension is almost unbearable. And the fact that Jake Epping travels back there precisely to save JFK raises this time travel thriller to unimagined heights. My favorite book.

zibelao

The premise of the book is mediocre and it's boring to read it.

I started to read it because of the author and because of the topic of the book: time travel. But, I found the whole idea of the book (go back in time to save JFK) quite mediocre. Maybe, because I started to read with this in mind, I didn't like it, so I stopped reading.

Maybe I will try to read it in the future.

Melissa M.

One of my favorite King books. The characters are incredibly well crafted, as they usually are in King's books. The storyline is compelling and a page turner to the very end. I was captivated the entire book, waiting to see how Stephen King plans to change the course of history in this story.

Peggy Walker

I am from the generation that can easily answer the question "Where were you when JFK was shot?" (my college library). That made this book especially interesting to me...and I'm sure many others. This was one of the first National tragedies to play out on television, and the whole nation was glued to their TVs for many days. I enjoyed many of Steven King's earlier novels, but felt he had lost something with most of his later works. However, I was willing to give this one a chance because of the historical context and intriguing premise. I thought that the author handled all of the details of the time-travel and the peculiarities that went with it very well. The effects on the time-traveler himself reminded me a bit of stories about space travel...how much time would have passed for the traveler versus how much time would have passed "on earth". Very well done. It was obvious that a LOT of research went into this book. I certainly learned more about Lee Harvey Oswald than I had ever known before, and I found it very interesting. I liked the ways that he conveyed how hard "history" fights not to be changed, and how we can never predict how "if only" scenarios might play out. I have always found Mr. King's "sentinel" characters to be annoying, but in this case I thought he resolved the "yellow-card men" fairly well. FINALLY, there was one who explained his role, somewhat. Overall, I found 11/22/63 to be a very absorbing and interesting read, and the best Steven King novel in quite some time.

Jonathan Tysick

I can't remember a novel I've read more obsessively. Despite it's length it keeps good pace and balances immersion in the late 50's/early 60's (meticulously researched!), romance, and thriller. Had my heart racing, face grimacing and eyes leaking. The ending is the bees knees. Probably a 4.5 because of the graphic (language, violence, sex), but this book is pretty amazing.

ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN DALLAS, PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED, AND THE WORLD CHANGED. WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BACK?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer—takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away—a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life—like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963—turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.
Source: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/11-22-63/Stephen-King/9781451627305

Petar Toushkov

Роман поразителна каша, която би се разминала на малко, дори талантливи, писатели и на нито един епигон. Всеки един цитат от книга на Кинг е подходящ, но този има две допълнителни характерни страни, които го описват още по-добре и във връзка с книгата - обем и сантиментална струна (ако се чудите кои са другите, сред тях е способността да изпълни и най-нелепия нотен текст по омагьосващ начин):

For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don’t we all secretly know this? It’s a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark.

Ivan Giorgi

Kelly

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time - even though it took me 5 months to finish.

The characters are complex and well-rounded, the plot is captivating, and the ending was surprising but not rushed.

Keernan Lanismore

This could've been 350 pages shorter for a more solid ending. 

I might post a slightly better review later, but I might also decide not to waste any more time on King. >.<

Ashlyn

This could've been 350 pages shorter for a more solid ending. 

I might post a slightly better review later, but I might also decide not to waste any more time on King. >.<

Super interesting and so sad at the end. 

Jacob Lamb

Norma gruden

“But I believe in love, you know; love is a uniquely portable magic. I don’t think it’s in the stars, but I do believe that blood calls to blood and mind calls to mind and heart to heart.”

Mary Garza

Por segunda vez que leo Stephen King y no me decepciona, un libro que entretiene bastante, personajes que adoras y otros no tanto. El asesinato de Kennedy es un acontesimiento en la historia que al menos a mi me es irrelevante pero sin embargo me mantuvo enganchada de principio a fin, Y no era tanto por JFK sino por la historia que relataba Jake y todo lo demás, temía por el final algo me decía que no iba a terminar bien pero fue un final muy acertado y quede complacida con el. Y ya por el ultimo es lamentable y triste que me di cuenta que algunos pensamientos de los 60´s aun siguen presentes en pleno siglo XXI (racismo, desigualdad en la mujer y un gran etc.)

Dee B. 

22/11/63

Magda Pais

Aqui há dois anos, mais ou menos, vi este livro à venda e gostei da sinopse. Confesso que, na altura, o namorei várias vezes mas como tinha vários em espera e o preço não era exactamente atractivo, acabei por não o comprar. Mais tarde (o ano passado) a Fox deu a série que se baseia neste livro - 22/11/63 - e foi depois de ver a série que decidi que tinha mesmo mesmo de ler o livro.

Estas férias foi a oportunidade perfeita para o ler.

22/11/63 é, para mim, o melhor dos livros de Stephen King. A história está bem estruturada, houve bastante pesquisa de modo a que fosse o mais credível possível, e deixa-nos com a pergunta: o que farias se pudesses ir a um determinado momento do passado? (coisa, aliás, que já As Primeiras Quinze Vidas de Harry August, me tinha deixado a pensar).

Como seria o mundo se Kennedy não tivesse sido morto por Lee Oswald? Quem era Lee Oswald? Stephen King mostra, em 22.11.63, que é, acima de tudo, um contador de histórias, alguém sem medo de ferir susceptibilidades e que sabe como nos prender. Mesmo que a história principal (impedir o assassinato de Kennedy) só aconteça na parte final do livro (mais ou menos a um quarto do fim), até lá chegarmos vamos acompanhando a vida de Jake - vindo do século XXI - na década de 60 do século XX. Vamos conhecendo quem era Lee Oswald (King teve o cuidado de investigar a fundo a vida de Lee Oswald para se tentar aproximar o mais possível da realidade).

Um livro genial, longo - cerca de 900 páginas - mas interessante, até para percebermos como era o mundo na década de 60 do século passado. Há meros 60 anos, sem internet, sem telemóveis, sem redes sociais mas em que tudo acontecia à mesma, tal e qual como hoje.

Creiam-me... este é o livro que querem ler. Mesmo que pensem que é uma seca, que é enorme, que não gostam de excessos em ficção (sim, viajar no tempo é ficção em excesso) ou que não gostam do autor. Este é o livro que vos vai provar que estão enganados.

Dana Kraft

I can't remember the last book that I couldn't stop thinking about day and night until I finished it. I guess I need to read more Stephen King books because I loved this. Fun, terrifying, thought-provoking and addictive. I'm too young to get wrapped up in Kennedy stuff but I totally buy the depiction of Oswald as the lone gunman.

Dany

Just finished this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars 
🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 this book! this book!!!
Stephen king made me cry while reading pet sematary and he did it again!! Amazing, heartwarming, cute and there is dancing 😭😭😭 now I am to watch the adaptation!!!

RunLevelRobot

Charlotte J. Ruth

Sian Wadey

I have always been a massive fan of Stephen King. There are two kinds of his novels that I like, the apocalypse ones like The Stand, Cell and Under The Dome and the simple stories like The Body, Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Despite its size, this in essence is a simple story about a man called Jake Epping/George Amberson and his love for Sadie Dunhill. But Stephen King can't help but throw in a little apocalypse at the end. 
I wasn't alive when JFK was assassinated so my only impression of the man is from films, stories and TV. From what I've gathered he was a man that believed in the right things and tried to do his best for a country at one of its most difficult times. But really, this book isn't about JFK at all, it's about love and doing what you think is right and what really is. Time travel is a very small part of it.
First of all I need to mention King's ability to create a wealth of likeable and believable characters. There must be at least a hundred characters and yet it's easy to keep track of them, remember their relation to the story. Jake/George is a lovely character, someone I wish I had as a teacher who struggles with what he has to do despite the bigger picture. The character has flaws, but that makes him all the more brilliant and for every word of every page I was with him.
The second character is Sadie and she is just as fleshed out and loveable as Jake/George. King describes their relationship perfectly and at several times throughout the book I was shouting 'just tell her!' when she wanted to know what he was doing in Dallas.
King is also brilliant at setting the scene, particularly the era in this case. Despite being born in Britain in 1992, I now know what America in the 50's and 60's feels like and wish I could go there. This particular time appears often in King's novels and it's obvious he feels passionate about it. 
My last point about this incredible novel is actually the ease of reading it. It's no effort, it's not a challenge or difficult anyway and you just can't stop yourself being pulled in to King's world. I love the way he injects songs into the prose and there were probably lots of references to It and Dreamcatcher in there too, but I haven't read It so I'm sure most of it went straight over my head. My favourite parts of the story were when George was directing Of Mice and Men and when he chaperoned the school dance with Sadie. If King wanted to he could write chicklits and women would be hooked on his every word.
My only, very tiny, negative point is that I found the parts where he was watching the Oswald family quite boring. I knew the very basics of JFK and his death and found these parts to drag but then maybe I just wanted him to get back to Sadie.
Now, I imagine a lot of people have talked about the ending, although really it ends twice, once in 1963 and again in the present day. In the first ending it is very sad but a little bit predictable and it's obvious what Jake/George will do but the second ending is so sweet and so lovely it just makes your heart melt, like all Stephen King books do.

courtney garrison

11/22/63 had an intriguing premise and kept me interested throughout. I will admit the middle bit I was bored because it was just character stories and plot leading up to the end. I know why it was there I just wish it would have kept my attention better. The ending was the best for me because of all the information on JFK, his life, what life would have been like had he lived, etc.

Your MC Jake is shown essentially a portal in 2011 that leads back in time to 1958. His friend Al convinced Jake that he has to go back in time and stop the assassination of JFK. Throughout the story, you see Jake not only try to figure out life in the 50s but also try and keep up with Oswald and his plan to kill JFK.

The time-traveling was an interesting concept to explore. Did the past want to be changed or left alone? I think it also played into the mantra of everything happens for a reason and maybe you should leave the past in the past. I loved the different time loops and how many stories were interwoven but it did make it drag for me in places. I wish there wouldn’t have been so many different stories as it can get confusing if you are not paying attention.

The writing is good and I highly recommend the audiobook because it plays music here and there and the narrator is great. My favorite aspect was the time travel, yes, but the romance too and how you could go from action to romance in a matter of seconds. King is no doubt talented and one of the best.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I didn’t think it was his best. The stand still holds the best in my opinion. I loved exploring the possibility of saving JFK and what the world would look like had he lived.

Tws - Murder, Suicide, Gun Violence, Use of the N-word, Domestic Abuse, Racism but called out

—————— Spoilers ——————-

 

I will say the ending left me sad and so emotional and confused, to be honest. I wanted Jake and Sadie to last and see more of the world after he saved JFK. When jake went back it was like the apocalypse and I would have loved to have to know the course history took when he lived. I think it was fascinating to see the world was in utter chaos when jake came back and I would have loved to see what course had history taken to get to that point.

Jake Epping is a high school English teacher 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 fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. 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.
(back cover)

11/22/63

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