11/22/63

“The past is obdurate.”

^^^if this phrase and word had showed up far less, I think four stars would have been in order.

My first time reading Stephen King, and there is no denial the man has talent. For 800+ pages, I flew thru reading it (read the first half in January, the second half in April), and it was a fun ride. And the fact I was still engaged—even after seeing the television adaptation first and knowing what happens—are points to King's work.

I will also say reading the notes at the very end, where King explains he had this idea back in 1972 and the research he did, made me respect him more as a writer and this story.

(Fun fact: I had a similar idea to 11-22-63 in high school or college, but stopped all work when 11-22-63 was published. I'm probably not the only one, and I'm also not a career novelist like King. Far from it. :)

That all said—I opted for three stars because the pacing was uneven (chapters upon chapters on tumbles in the sheets with Sadie, less than a chapter on the alternative world of 2011?) and it's overall redundancy (I think the story would have been stronger had it been cut down). And—I'm not the biggest fan of how King writes women characters, at least in this work. I liked Sadie, and was thrilled when she gained more agency towards the end, but I wanted to see even more for her and from her. Less focus on her beauty, her clumsiness (a trope), her virginity-turned-quick-study-in-the-bedroom, her vulnerable innocence—and more time spent on her dreams and ambitions beyond Jake. My favorite moments of Sadie are the day-of the assassination, when she's pushing the action forward because Jake can't do it on his own. I wanted even more of that.

All that said: I love time travel, I love history (and period fiction), I love disassembling conspiracy stories and I love books that offer an escape from the present world. If you love all that in your literature, I recommend this title.