11/22/63

By: Stephen King

Plot: Jake Epping's friend, Al, shows him a portal that goes back in time and gives him the mission to save JFK. A mission Al was unable to complete himself. Will he do it??

My Thoughts: This is my first Stephen King book! I think. I'm pretty sure I've never read a book by him before. I couldn't decide what book I wanted to read next and so I had my husband pick one, and this is what he picked. I've wanted to read this but was a little intimidated by the size, so I never really picked it up. It didn't feel like the book was so long once I was reading it though, so that was good. 

At the beginning I really liked some parts, and others not so much. Honestly whenever Al was there I really liked it, and when it was Jake by himself I wasn't as into it. I just really liked Al for some reason. I liked that there was someone who found the 'wormhole' first and was able to tell the main character about it, and give some direction. Jake was not really my favorite character I've ever read, but he was likeable enough. I was worried about how much I would enjoy it when he was off by himself, but I did. 

I was annoyed by the senseless warnings, like he made some huge mistake, but don't worry because you won't find out why it was a mistake until 200 or more pages later. It just seemed overly dramatic for no reason. I also thought it was weird that King included characters from his other book, It. I never read the book, obviously, but it is popular enough that I recognized it and confirmed with Wiki. I could overlook that, if it was just the one scene, but then he kept bringing the two characters up over and over and over again. It was weird. And totally unnecessary. I could also do without reading about all the 'pound cake' they were eating.

I've never been that fascinated by the JFK assassination like some people are. Before my time I guess. So all the spying he did on Lee and his family I didn't care for as much. I was more interested in him trying to fit into the past as a teacher and everything that happened in Jodie. *Spoiler* I liked the ending, even though it made the whole book seem pointless. He wasted years of his life working towards this one goal, only to realize that by achieving his goal and saving JFK, he actually just makes everything worse in the future. He did find love, which would have made it worth it, but it was with someone that he could never be with, without screwing up the future again. So would it have been better for him to never have gone back to the past at all? Maybe I don't like the ending...

Favorite Quotes: "But stupidity is one of two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances."

"I'm one of those people who doesn't really know what he thinks until he writes it down."

Rating: 3/5 I liked it. 

THE AMBER SPYGLASS

By: Philip Pullman

Plot: This is the third and final book in the His Dark Materials series. The end of Lyra and Will's wild ride through worlds.

My Thoughts: I read the first two books in this series a loooong time ago. Years, even. I read somewhere online (Reddit, probably) that the ending to the series was sad, so I just kept putting it off. It's been hanging over my head though and I decided I was ready to finally find out how it ended, even if it was sad!

I really enjoyed reading this book, I like the worlds that he has created. The book was pretty long and there was probably some stuff that could have been left out, but I didn't mind it too much. Lyra's and Will's story was the best part of course, but I didn't hate the stories following everyone else. I thought Mrs. Coulter was interesting to read about. I never was really sure what she was up to, but I guess she was looking out for her daughter the whole time. Her baby daddy on the other hand, I didn't care for so much.

Honestly, I wasn't that depressed by the ending! It was sad, sure, but I was imagining worst case senario. They are so young anyways, like they said in the book, in ten years they'd barely be twenty! It'd be more unbelievable for them to plan to spend the rest of their lives together and live happy ever after. I thought they both got pretty good endings. I feel like Lyra's was a little more developed, than Will's. I wish there would have been more details on what he was going to do for the rest of his life. And how was his mom??

The whole big prophecy about Lyra and her "temptation" though, I admit I thought it'd be something more. All she had to do was realize she was in love? That seemed like kind of a let down after all the buildup to it. I guess it should have been obvious because that whole story line was Biblical but still I was expecting more, so I didn't catch on.

Favorite Quotes: “When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed.”

Rating: 4/5 I really enjoyed it but man, the author does NOT like religion, does he?

DARK MATTER

By: Blake Crouch 

Plot: A man is on his way home when he gets kidnapped at gunpoint and ends up in some alternate universe. He's trying to figure out what is going on and how to get back home.

My Thoughts: This book made me realize that I haven't really read many science fiction books. The whole theory of alternate universes just makes my head hurt when I really start to think about it. It's like thinking about eternity, or infinity, it's just hard to comprehend! I liked the way that concept was used in the story though. I mean it's totally unbelievable to be able to travel through different realities but he made it seem possible in the book. 

I liked that his wife knew that it wasn't him. Because there couldn't be another Jason that was exactly the same. I didn't like how things ended with Amanda. What was the point of her even being there? I wish her story was more conclusive rather then she just peaced out. The ending got crazy and it honestly made zero sense to me how there could be more than one Jason there! I thought every single little choice made an alternate reality? How could all the Jasons that made it to that world all be so different? If they were the same up until a certain point and there is only one tiny choice that makes them different, wouldn't they almost all be the same? I don't understand. And how do they know that no one will follow them into a new universe? Apparently anything is possible now. A lot of it didn't make sense to me but I guess it made the ending more dramatic.

Rating: 4/5 I enjoyed it.