11.22.63 - Stephen King

Jake Epping is an English teacher in Maine. He is one of the good ones. A teacher who genuinely cares for his students and loves his job. Other than that there is nothing really special about him. Apart from one thing. The owner of his local diner has asked him to do a special favour. He wants him to go back in time and prevent the Kennedy assassination believing it will correct everything that is wrong with the world. Epping is disbelieving of his friend until he steps through the portal at the back of the diner and finds himself in the 1950's. Jake accepts the task but what he doesn't expect to find is love, friendship and a town that he would love to call home.

I picked this book as my one and only Halloween read this year. I would loved to have picked out more but with the readathon and other things I left it too late. I was a tiny bit dubious about this one having been very disappointed with Under The Dome. Despite so many people raving about this one (including my non-horror loving friend) I still had a wee niggle of doubt.

Thankfully I had no reason to worry. True, the book didn't quite match up to all the raving but I still enjoyed it. It wasn't just a simple time travel story. It was a story of friendship, a story of morals and a story of love. Like all King books there are some lovely characters in there and some not so lovely ones. All of them had one thing in common though and that was depth. It's one of the things that keeps me going back to King is his ability to characterise.

I wouldn't exactly call it a horror story. It had some horrible characters, as I mentioned, but it didn't quite follow the supernatural element that King is famous for. There was references to some of his other books mind you. When he does that it always leaves me with a chill. There is a certain town mentioned in this one that all veteran King fans will recognise (I am saying no more).

The only down side is that it dragged a little. I liked the sections of Epping making a life fore himself in a small town. When he would go back to stalking Oswald I felt I was reluctantly dragged with him as I wanted Epping to stay in the town and be happy. Of course that wouldn't make for much of a story. It does pick up again and eventually both lives lead by Epping collide.

If you are like me and haven't been quite so enamored by some of King's newer books then set those doubts aside and read on. It won't be like his classics but it's still a good read.