11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63

by Stephen King

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)

Reviewed by Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews on

5 of 5 stars

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If given the opportunity to travel back in time would you risk changing history and its potential future, or would you let sleeping dogs lie? This is the question Jake Epping is faced with. After finding a portal into the past Jake is transported into September 1958, with a mission-- prevent the JFK assassination. Easier said than done. Jake spends the next five years as George Amberson as he tracks Lee Harvery Oswald's every move with each step changing the course of history.

Jake tests the waters by saving the family of the high school's janitor, and after his success feels he is given the go-ahead to bigger and better dealings. I was surprised that the time portal (which felt a lot like Alice's rabbit hole) did not emerge in 1963 but the five year gap was thrilling. The majority of the first half was taken up with the Dunning family who if Jake didn't save would be beaten to death by Mr. Dunning with a hammer. I could not read fast enough to find the ending to this fate and let a sigh of relieve after learning their outcome. After his job is done he moves to a small town in Texas and begins to teach (his profession in 2011) and while killing time for Oswald to return from the Soviet Union he falls for the school librarian. Personally, I thought that Sadie added nothing to the story and was really just a distraction from Jake's tailing Lee Oswald.

The main event, 11/22/63 was thrilling and to use the cliche, I was on the edge of my seat. Jake/George and Sadie racing to the Book Depository Building was like an episode of The Amazing Race, literary a race against time. When Jake and Sadie raced up the stairs to the sixth floor my heart was pounding, meeting Lee Harvey Oswald was chilling, it was a compelling read.

After all is seemingly right in the world Jake Epping returns to 2011 only to find the world as we knew it not to exist, turning Bedford Falls into Pottersville.

Unfortunately, I found the ending to be lack luster, although I think it would have been a difficult feet to "tie up lose ends" considering the subject matter but does an acceptable job. Instead of a happy ending leaves us thinking the past is obdurate.

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  • Started reading
  • 2 January, 2012: Finished reading
  • 2 January, 2012: Reviewed