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Stephen King

Start date: June 1, 2024

Finish date: June 30, 2024

Discussion: October 2025 Group Read

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What Members Thought

Jan 14, 2012 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, rec-ig-blogs-friends-other, _own-home-library, _own-ebook, read-in-2012

This is Stephen King at his best. Although I still think there could have been some editing done that would have picked up the pace in the middle of the book, after reading the book in its entirety, it was worth the pacing issues to get to the end. I am going to be very careful not to give ANYTHING away in this review because the ending is great, especially if you come to it unaware. Unfortunately, another reviewer did not mark their review as a spoiler, so I had some sense of the ending. It was This is Stephen King at his best. Although I still think there could have been some editing done that would have picked up the pace in the middle of the book, after reading the book in its entirety, it was worth the pacing issues to get to the end. I am going to be very careful not to give ANYTHING away in this review because the ending is great, especially if you come to it unaware. Unfortunately, another reviewer did not mark their review as a spoiler, so I had some sense of the ending. It was still impactful but I think coming at it blind would have made it amazing! So, the less you read about this one, the better. Just trust me - READ it.

Sometimes even I forget what a great writer King is ... he knows how to spin a story, develop a character and use his imagination to take you into amazing situations. This is unlike any other King novels that I've read - it's not horror, at all. It's so much more that what I think people have come to expect of King - there are supernatural aspects, historical pieces, plus some philosophy & science fiction all packaged alongside a really nice love story. It has it ALL.

King's ability to build excitement and suspense are legendary & this book is no exception. I found myself holding my breath, wondering what was coming, then shocked by something coming out of nowhere and then sighing with relief. It's an emotional roller coaster of the best kind!

I have no doubt that King did a ton of research for this book. I don't know all of the history in any level of detail but I do know that King made the time period and the experiences come alive on the page. It all felt true. It felt real. It felt like I was visiting another time and place.

Although The Stand is still my favorite Stephen King novel, this one is a close second, edging out It and the Shining as my number 2s ( I can't decide between those so I had two of them). I definitely recommend it even if you aren't a fan of his other novels ... this is a special book that I think most readers will enjoy! ...more

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Mar 26, 2019 Kristi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reading-challenge-2019, read-harder-2019

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What would you do if you could travel back in time? When Jake receives a call from local diner owner Al, he finds himself the heir apparent to the ability to do just that and tasked with the mission that Al couldn't complete: to stop the assassination of JFK, thereby averting the other tragedies that followed and ushering in a better era for humankind. There's a catch though: every time you go back in time, things seem to reset, so there are high stakes to leave partway or trying to correct majo What would you do if you could travel back in time? When Jake receives a call from local diner owner Al, he finds himself the heir apparent to the ability to do just that and tasked with the mission that Al couldn't complete: to stop the assassination of JFK, thereby averting the other tragedies that followed and ushering in a better era for humankind. There's a catch though: every time you go back in time, things seem to reset, so there are high stakes to leave partway or trying to correct major mistakes. Jake agrees to take on Al's mission and finds himself enmeshed in the America of the late 1950s and 1960s. While he tries to figure out whether Lee Harvey Oswald really did act alone, he makes friends and enemies--and his worst enemy may be history itself.

** spoilers ahead **

I have been wanting to read this book for a long time, but I didn't feel that I had the time to really give it my attention due to its long length. This year, I made it a priority by naming it as my "alternate history novel" selection for the 2019 Read Harder Challenge. And I'm so glad I did!

First, it's obvious that Stephen King did a lot of research for this novel--and that the man can write. I am not a fan of horror, so the only other King novel I've read is The Dark Tower The Gunslinger, which I also really enjoyed. It's impressive how King brings a very complicated historical event and context to life, turning it into a something of a detective novel where the reader is trying to problem solve alongside the protagonist. He makes the whole thing engaging. Despite the length, I didn't really feel like it dragged.

Second, the characters and the relationships in this novel are key. Jake has to keep people at a distance because he's living a fake life and engaging in a variety of shady or outright illegal activity. His time in Florida, Derry, Forth Worth and Dallas is spent largely alone, obsessively tracking and analyzing events related to the upcoming Kennedy assassination. But Jake finds a home, friends, and love in the town of Jodie. King really made you feel how he opened up there, in ways that he never really did even in his own time. I was really captivated by Jake and Sadie's love story. It was fraught and full of tragedy, yet you could really see how their relationship and their individual lives bloomed in contact with one another. From the beginning, we all (the readers and the characters both) knew that it was probably doomed, but I for one couldn't help rooting for them.

Third, King creates an amazing amount of suspense and fear out of relatively little. Of course we want to know whether Jake will actually succeed, but he makes our investment in the endeavor increase more and more until the very end. I was really struck by the amount of fear that the nonsensical word "Jimla" came to have for both Jake and for me as a reader--it was like there really was a monster along with Jake, waiting behind every corner. And perhaps most of all, King brings the horrors of mundane humanity to life. In places like Dallas and Derry, Jake encounters very dark aspects of real life. They aren't caused by monsters (although he alludes to one in Derry)--instead, they are caused by the evil within people. Clayton, Dunning, and others were truly monstrous humans. In many ways, they were as scary as fictional monsters might have been. And I think that is a testament to King's writing and understanding of psychology.

Fourth, I think that King navigates the promises and pitfall of the time travel genre relatively well. He made it difficult and fraught, enough so that the reader understood why Jake couldn't just fix things. There's nothing that distracting in the narrative. I wish that the discussion of streams and such had been a bit more developed at the end, but I actually didn't mind so much because King kept the focus on the characters so effectively.

Finally, the ending broke my heart, even though it wasn't actually the worst that could have happened. Rather, it's a sadness born of the knowledge of what was lost and the realization that the loss really couldn't have been averted. I am still thinking about Jake and Sadie. ...more

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May 31, 2015 Amy rated it really liked it

What would you do if you had the chance to go back in time and prevent Kennedy from being assassinated? For Jake Epping, the choice was made for him by an old friend's last wish. As he circumnavigates the past, he creates a Butterfly Effect that ripples through the past and alters the present. Finding love, fulfillment and a chance to put things right, will he risk everything, including his heart, to save the future? ...more

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