Wow, obviously I’m in the minority here. I’ve read a lot of reviews that I completely agree with and a lot that I feel we must have read a different book. Without stealing anyone else’s thunder of their thoughtfully, wonderfully written review, I’ll try to add something new to this highly rated novel.

I don’t get it. 

I was talking to my friend who also read (and loved) this book and said, “it’s just so much worthless detail.” She replied, “ have you ever read a Stephen King novel before?”

Which to be fair I have read a handful(ish). Nothing as thick as It. I’m not against large books or even large amount of detail in a book. I mean, I five star’d Lord of the Rings not because it’s a classic but because I actually enjoyed every moment of it. In this case, I felt the detail was worthless, overwhelming and unnecessary.

There is absolutely nothing that really goes on. It feels like there is a solid plot that is presented to the reader and when you pick up this book, you are expecting to follow it. Then there’s all these side quests that who cares about? All of these characters are added on with their own stories and their own drama almost as if it’s filler. Then we finally get to the end of what we wanted to explore the whole time reading and we start over (eyeball, time travel) and we get all weird and creepy (trying not to give too much away here, but if you know, you know). Is this a time travel book or is this a romance novel? I’m not sure and I think it should be defined as such.

For me, there is just nothing outstanding about this book that made me enjoy it. Maybe 750 pages in and we finally got to some action, but it was so late in the game, I was so exhausted from reading this far and I was just hoping for a payout. No spoilers here, but the big moment at the end did nothing for me.

I did finish the book which is how we got two stars, but really this is a one star book and I wish I never read it. Harsh, but my own truth. 

Amazon Link – 11/22/63 By: Stephen King

Stats: 866 pages – First published November 8, 2011