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Review: 11.22.63 by Stephen King

Book review of 11.22.63, a time-travel historical fiction novel by Stephen King, based around the JFK assassination.

11.22.63 by Stephen King cover
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Synopsis

Divorced high-school English teacher Jake Epping is marking essays when he receives a strange phone-call from the owner of his favourite diner.

Years ago, Al discovered that his pantry contains a portal to 1958. Over the years, he has made hundreds of journeys into the past, worked out some basic rules of time-travel, and decides to stop the JFK assassination. Unfortunately, he became too unwell to complete his quest and had to return to 2011.

So Jake takes up the baton and makes his own journey to the past. While waiting for that fateful day, Jake takes up a teaching job in Jodie, Texas. In Jodie, he falls in love with beautiful, recently divorced librarian Sadie Dunhill. Their relationship is strained when he moves to Dallas to spy on Lee Harvey Oswald and cannot tell her what he’s doing.

Review

I am usually not a fan of Stephen King. Afterall, his novels are mostly of the thriller/horror type. However, 11.22.63 is more of an alternate reality historical fiction. There is a bit of violence, but nothing too terrifying.

I didn’t like how the author talked about various historical characters as if the reader already knew who they were. This seems perfectly reasonable for ‘big’ characters (like JFK). But who on earth is Frank Anicetti?

The characters were all so realistic and vivid that it made the fantastic things that happen to them believable. Each person was detailed and had their own flaws. I thought this was excellently done; it really helped with the whole suspension of disbelief thing.  

Jake and Sadie’s romance was so lovely. There’s so much honesty and tenderness in their relationship, but it wasn’t at all sappy.

I liked how the book explored time-travel and its consequences. The little details of the past restarting each time someone goes back and each trip lasting two minutes were clever. However, I thought the alternate future bit with reality destroying itself due to the timeline changes was a bit over-the-top.

I loved how both the positive and negative aspects of the settings were shown. The historical time may be exciting and dreamy, but its problems (such as segregation) are included. Even horrible places (like Derry) have little bits of beauty shown (such as those children practicing a lindy-hop dance).

Conclusion

Have you read 11.22.63? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

If you haven’t, you can buy it at Book Depository (they have free international shipping!) or Waterstones (free delivery on UK orders over £25, will ship internationally).

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Review: The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Review of The Fiery Cross, book 5 of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon cover
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This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see our full disclosure for further information.

Synopsis

The Fiery Cross opens at the clan gathering at Mount Helicon. Over the course of a day, nearly everything possible happens: Jamie find lots of new tenants, Claire heals a bunch of people, and Brianna and Roger get married (but not before the priest is kidnapped).  Back at Fraser’s Ridge, Jamie summons the men to join a militia company and sets out to gather more recruits, leaving Brianna manage the new settlers.

Jamie’s aunt Jocasta is finally set to marry Duncan Innes (not having been able to marry at the clan gathering because the catholic priest was kidnapped). On the day, the family has to deal with a murdered slave, regulators and loyalists, sexual frustration, and the appearance of Stephen Bonnet.

Jamie’s militia company is called into the War of the Regulation. Unfortunately, Roger has an incident which robs him of his voice and very nearly his life. This brings Jamie and Roger together, as does a snake-bite and hunting down Stephen Bonnet.

Review

Apparently the publishers announced the release date for The Fiery Cross before Diana finished writing it. As such, she didn’t have as much time to edit the draft as she would have liked. It shows. Some of the scenes seem really drawn out and others are not necessary to the story.

The main story arc is unclear. There seems to be several themes and story-lines that were woven together throughout the book, but there isn’t any one overarching story line. This made the book a bit difficult to stick with.

It was largely focused on the characters’ day-to-day life (as opposed to pushing the story forward). Almost nothing happens, things get a bit repetitious (constant references to Brianna’s breasts, Jemmy’s diapers, etc.). This focus made me wonder how I would cope with living in the 18th century (I like to think not too badly, if I could take my mother).

However, some individual scenes were fantastic. They were the kind of scenes that I go back and read again after I’ve finished. I really loved the parts where Claire was explaining 20th century science and medicine to Jamie.

The surfaces of both lungs were black and grainy; Betty was in her forties, and had lived all her life with open wood fires.

“Anything nasty that you breathe in and don’t cough up again – tobacco, smoke, soot, smog, what-have-you – gradually gets shoved out between the lung tissue and the pleura,” I explained, lifting a bit of the thin, half-transparent pleural membrane with the tip of my scalpel. “But the body can’t get rid of it altogether, so it just stays there. A child’s lung would be a nice clean pink?”

“Do mine look like that?” Jamie stifled a small, reflexive cough. “And what is smog?”

“The air in cities like Edinburgh, where you get smoke mixing with fog off the water.” I spoke abstractedly, grunting slightly as I pulled the ribs back, peering into the shadow cavity. “Yours likely aren’t so bad, since you’ve lived out of doors or in unheated places so much. Clean lungs are one compensation to living without fire.”

This book really starts to show American history. I found this boring and skipped through some more history-y bits. To be fair, I don’t know much American history, and I have even less interest in it; I haven’t ever been to America and it holds absolutely no attraction for me (I don’t know why, it just doesn’t). Maybe it would appeal more to Americans.

I felt really bad for Roger. In this book, he shines in his own story rather than just being a player in Claire and Brianna’s stories. While bad things have happened to him before, bad things continue to happen but I felt worse about them, maybe because I cared about him more.

I enjoyed the development in Jamie and Claire’s relationship. They’ve mellowed slightly and settled into a relatively regular life, but there’s still passion between them. I made my way through these books so quickly that I had barely gotten used to Jamie and Claire being parents, and now they’re grandparents. It took some adjustment (they’re not young anymore).

Conclusion

Have you read this book? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

If you haven’t, it can be bought at Book Depository (they have free international shipping!).