11/22/63 in Reading with Style

Nov 30, 2011 Jen Lynn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2011-reviewed, own-and-read

I'll admit, I wasn't too anxious to read this book when I first heard about it. I knew it had something to do with JFK, therefore it had something to do with history, therefore I wasn't too excited. I'm not a history buff at all. I find it boring. Even though King is one of my favorite authors, I was a little bit concerned about the history aspect of it. But then I read the synopsis and decided it could be good, that maybe it was more about time travel and the history wouldn't be so bad. When I I'll admit, I wasn't too anxious to read this book when I first heard about it. I knew it had something to do with JFK, therefore it had something to do with history, therefore I wasn't too excited. I'm not a history buff at all. I find it boring. Even though King is one of my favorite authors, I was a little bit concerned about the history aspect of it. But then I read the synopsis and decided it could be good, that maybe it was more about time travel and the history wouldn't be so bad. When I received the book as a birthday gift, I decided to give it a go right away. That decision was a good one.

This book had a little bit of everything in it. There was the fantasy aspect of the time travel, the history aspect of Oswald and the Kennedy assassination, the romance of the main character falling in love, and of course the suspense/thriller/horror that would come with attempting to change such a big event from the past. There was no way of knowing how the book would turn out. First, would the character be able to change the past? Second, what would happen to the present if he did succeed in changing the past? Third, would the character be able to escape the past back into the present so we could even see what happens when the past is changed? Considering there were so many different possible endings to this book, I have to say that King came up with the best. The ending was shocking, and sweet at the same time. Absolutely great!

To wrap this up, I just want to say a couple things about what I learned by reading this book. The first is that I now know the definition of the word obdurate, since King used it about a million times in the book. The second is I learned a lot about the Kennedy assassination. For someone who is not into history, that is saying a lot. I spent a lot of time on the internet while reading this book to see how accurate King's story about Oswald was, and just to gain more information for myself. Knowing this book is fiction, I had no idea how true some of the events were, so I looked them up to verify one way or another. I must say, many details appeared to be true. Looks like a learned a little bit of history along with reading a great fiction book! ...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Laura Feltner rated it it was amazing

Shelves: stephen-king

I really enjoyed this story. I was skeptical going into this story, thinking it wouldn't measure up to King's other stories. I do not know why I thought so. King has never let me down before.
I really liked the ending because I did not expect it. ...more

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