For the past few years I have read each and every new piece of writing that Stephen King has released, and this time around it was no different.  As you can guess from the title of the novel, this one has to do with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but more importantly it is about time travel and why the past is obdurate.  There is a reason, and that's what King explores in his latest offering.

"On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force.

Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.
Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, 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 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

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. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.


A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best." ~ Amazon

Hundreds, if not thousands, of novels have been written on the subject of one of the most infamous assassinations in history, and millions of books have been written on time travel, so many that it's almost become lackluster, but Stephen King takes these overdone topic and twists them just enough to create something that could not be more original.  It is this ability that got the book contracted to be turned into a film before it was even released!  After having finished it I have to say that it isn't my favorite King novel, but it was good enough to read all 800 pages.

The biggest highlight of the novel are the characters.  In the last few years I have noticed that King's novels have been much more focused on the characters rather than the supernatural or the serial murderers, and it has gotten to the point that they feel like they are real, breathing people.  I have never read a book where I have felt like the people were so real that I was in the story living with them.  It is a huge feat for any writer.

The biggest downfall of the novel had to be its length.  Some of King's most incredible and most critically acclaimed works have been his thousand pagers, but in this instance the overwhelming length was a pitfall.  The book simply had too many dull moments that stretched on for far too long.  The novel spans almost ten years, and King spent too much time relaying every detail of George Amberson's "adventures."  The novel could easily have been reduced to five or six hundred pages and it would have been a better read.

Overall it was a great read, and King once again reinvents an overdone story.  The aftermath of the future change was something unique and made for a thrilling ending.  If you're a King fan or a fan of JFK's or a time-travel fan then this is definitely one to check out.  I'd give it 3.5 stars when compared to his other work.