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Stephen King’s 11-22-63

December 28, 2013 By Kellie 6 Comments

I’m not a big Stephen King fan. At least, I wasn’t — until I read Stephen King’s 11/22/63.

What if John F. Kennedy had never been shot? What if — YOU got the chance to go back in time and prevent the tragic event from happening? In fact, what if you could go back in time and prevent any tragic event from happening? This is exactly the premise that King’s 11-22-63 is built upon.

The story opens and introduces us to Jacob (Jake) Epping– a divorced high school teacher who has lost meaning to his life. One of his GED students — the school janitor named Harry Dunning — writes a story entitled “The Day That Changed My Life”. The story is about Harry’s alcoholic father who murders his mother and siblings and leaves him permanently brain-damaged. The story was so good that Jake gave Harry an A+.

Eventually Harry earns his GED. To celebrate, Jake takes him out to dinner at Al Templeton’s diner. Al’s diner is a place where Jake visits often. Although he is certain that Al has to be using rat meat for his famous hamburgers because the cost is so low.

A couple of years later, Al asks Jake to meet him at the diner. He then tells Jake that a few years ago, he found a time portal in the pantry. He used the portal to transport himself back in time to September 9, 1958 and that no matter how long he stays in the past, when he comes back to 2011 — he finds that he has only stayed for 2 minutes. Also, past events can be changed.

Jake decides to use the time portal to prevent the tragedy that befell Harry Dunning and his family.

King takes his readers on a wild ride with this story. You won’t believe some of the situations Jake ends up in.

Just because you can change the past, doesn’t mean you should.

My Rating For Steven King’s 11-22-63:

The Good House

December 27, 2013 By Kellie Leave a Comment

What would you do if you unleashed sleeping evil? The Good House: A Novel by Tananarive Due is a fast-paced and scary tale about a boy named Corey who unknowingly unleashes evil that had been resting and waiting for another chance to wreak havoc on a small town in Washington. This is the same evil that Corey’s great grandmother — Marie Toussaint unleashed decades before with her Voodoo magic. It’s a race against the clock for Corey’s mom — Angela Toussaint, to put a stop to the evil that cursed the family years ago. This story will pull you in and not let you go until the last page has been read. The main character Angela, is a strong female who faces adversity and heartbreak while she puts the pieces of the mystery together to find the answer as to what has destroyed her family. You will be rooting for her the whole way through. There is a little bit of history, a lot of Voodoo and many scary / action-filled moments to keep you up at night!

The Good House is one of those stories that I have read more than once. In fact, it was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. When I did put it down…. all I did was think about it. It was one that I stayed up and read into the wee hours of the morning just to get to the resolution. The plot is completely original and Due has written her characters so well, that you feel connected. If you are looking for a good horror story with a lot of tension and terror-filled moments, The Good House by Tananarive Due does not disappoint!

My Rating for The Good House:

Bold Tricks by Karina Halle

Bold Tricks is Karina Halle’s thrilling conclusion to The Artists Trilogy. Javier, Ellie and Camden are reluctant allies on the run from Travis Raines and his cartel. To say that things didn’t go as planned is the understatement of the century. Now that Travis knows who Ellie is and that Javier is involved, he will […]

Gone With The Wind

At various moments in my bookish life, I have made strides to read some of the classics. You know, like George Orwell’s 1984 or Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Somewhere in that exhaustive list, lay Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. Now, I think I should mention that I watched the movie first. In fact, Gone […]