Review ~ 11/22/63 by Stephen King

TITLE: 11/22/63 

AUTHOR: Stephen King
COPYRIGHT: 11/8/2011
TYPE: Fiction
PAGES: No pages this was audio
SERIES:  no

REASON FOR LISTEN:

I am a case manager that is on the road way too much and need to calm down before and during travel times. I thought it sounded interesting and decided to give it a try.

SUMMARY (from Goodreads):

Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in a Maine town. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away . . . but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke. . . . Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten . . . and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.(

THOUGHTS/OPINION:

First and foremost I do not under any circumstances read Stephen King due to horror and to be honest I just don't do horror. When I found out he did a time travel novel and it involved JFK I immediately yelled SOLD! Also this was my first audio book sort of... I listened to a nonfiction book as a beginner so in a way this was my first attempt at fiction in audio format. I enjoyed the man who did the audio and his attempts at accents as well as pitches. This led to giving each character their own thoughts. It also separated them in my head to help with any confusion that might have occurred. Needless to say that part was very enjoyable. 

I admit that I did and yet didn't realize how long of a time commitment this was going to take on my end. 30 CD's seriously look at that again 30 and each one was at least 45 minutes to an hour long. A HOUR LONG I just gave 30 hours of my life. While the book was good, it wasn't 30 hours of my life good. There were parts where I seriously rolled my eyes, wondering did you just take a hour to describe a 5 minute fight and than turned around and took 5 minutes to describe something I would've been good with having a hour long conversation about?!? That's a Stephen King novel. They are long and very, very, very detailed. Some like that I do not. So I fast forwarded a lot toward the end, which should've been the exciting part and had the first part of the novel moved quicker I'm sure I would not have felt the need to fast forward the latter half. 

The story in general was good. There were a few moments of stunned graphic detail that made me either want to stop or continue but felt dirty afterwords. There were moments where I sat back and thought about it and he did make you think about the cause and effects of time travel. I do like how it all tied in and well needless to say had a lesson to think about that made me go... that actually makes total sense. There were parts where I questioned if he was serious and he had parts in his story that made me want to go and research more of the JFK saga. 

There was a lot of cussing (so be warned if that turns you off) and there was violence (that was described graphically as well). Also there was sex scenes and I can't say it would have matter if a man or a woman wrote it there was a lot of sex involved which of course not shockingly enough was with a *gasp* virgin that makes me mad (why did she have to be a Mary Sue with sex she was divorced seriously?!) anyway that would be a side rant. 

Clearly there were things I enjoyed Mr. King is an excellent writer with a lot of details. The story does make you think and has stuck with me. Those are 2 qualities I look for in a book. 

FINAL GRADE: I would give it a B- (cussing, sex, and violence plus a quick peek at IT another novel involving a killer clown was thrown in for fun).

Would you recommend this story? If you don't mind the above warnings then sure.

Is this a part of a reading challenge? new author and yearly reading challenge.