Audiobook Review

11.22.63

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By
Stephen King

2011

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LENGTH

30 hrs and 38 mins

READ BY

Craig Wasson

Performance
Overall
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Excellent, Unforgettable, Best of the nest

Very good, thoroughly enjoyed, 

Good, Solid, Enjoyed many aspects

STAR RATINGS GUIDE

If Stephen King Wrote Back To The Future... Oh, Wait.

THE BIRDICT

🧡 When I think Stephen King, I think horror (Pet Sematary, IT, The Shining) or epic sci fi (The Stand, Under the Dome). This has elements of both, but it is also an incredibly detailed alternative history that imagines and reimagines the assassination of John F Kennedy. It’s a history deep dive and a thriller and a love story. It’s Stephen King, but not as I have ever known him.

💚 I was immediately hooked by the creepy undertones and likeable main character, English teacher Jake Epping. The tension began to build almost immediately and just kept ratcheting upwards. In fact, I’d call this one of the most suspenseful books I’ve ever heard. Like many of King’s works, it is longer than it should be and prone to rambling, but is still a masterpiece.

💜 Like the much lighter Back to the Future, there is the question of the impact of changing the past. But this is a far grimier, darker viewpoint.

💛 Warning for some very difficult subject matter, particularly domestic abuse.

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SQUAWKING THE TALK

🎧 Anyone who’s listened to a Stephen King audiobook is familiar with Craig Wasson’s gruff, amiable voice. He is undoubtedly a brilliant narrator. He’s expressive and likeable and portrays a variety of characters brilliantly. Which is good as he’s there for the full 30-hour plus stint. I do think his voice is a bit too deep to portray female characters over such a long period.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: SIMILAR AUDIOBOOKS

No spoilers for this one. Maybe next time!
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11.22.63

THE BLURB

What if you could go back in time and change the course of history? What if the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless....

King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, 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.

With extraordinary imaginative power, King weaves the social, political and popular culture of his baby-boom American generation into a devastating exercise in escalating suspense.