11/22/63

Came for Kennedy stayed for Sadie.
I started reading this book on the premise of: we are travelling back in time to save the president. Which in paper sounds awesome. But at the end I kept reading because I was more invested in the romantic subplot than actually saving the president.
I had a few problems with how the time travel works and I really struggled to get through the scenes where we stalked Oswald.
Firstly my problems with the time travel. In this novel we have a very soft time travel mechanic. Our main character enters a closet and appears in 1958. When he enters again he returns to 2011 exactly 2 minutes later. This is neat my problem come with the harmony and how fast it escalates.
The concept of harmony in this book is that the past harmonices with itself, or basically that history repeats itself. At the beginning this harmony is just characters with similar names and lifestyles across different towns. Then it becomes repeated actions across towns and it even becomes like a premonition tool. But at the end, all of a sudden it somehow provokes earthquakes. I found this harmony thing a neat part, with references to other towns and as a plot device to make the final chase to stop Oswald more tens and interesting. And then all of a sudden the whole us is constantly being hit by earthquakes because the president lived... there you lost me buddy. I could follow all other events that lead to the world in 2011 being like that, but the earthquakes killed me. I know it is a petty critique and it was not so bad and it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the novel it just bothered me at the end because I had the feeling it came out of nowhere.
Speaking of the past not wanting to be changed, I didn't like the whole amnesia part towards the end. It felt as a cheap way to make the end longer, because in no moment I felt like he was going to miss the assassination because he forgot who killed the president. It was nice because it shows there are no infinite money glitches in time travel. But with the beating it would have been enough, you don't need the whole amnesia part.
Secondly the Oswald plot. I did not like it, the whole stalking sequences I understand their purpose, but felt they were excessive. I understand the whole point of those scenes is to humanise Oswald and to generate a dilemma for the protagonist concerning the window of uncertainty. But they felt boring and excessive. I also got at a point overwhelmed by the amount of names introduced. If these parts where a little bit shorter it would have been a 4 stars for me.
Finally to the good part of the story. At the middle of the book we get introduced to the romantic interest of the main character and surprisingly I loved it. I never thought I could be more invested in the romantic subplot than the actual plot, but it happens with this novel. I loved every single interaction between them and the epilogue got tearing up.
All in all it is a great novel and would recommend it, but not as your first king novel. It is a little bit too long and some parts I had to push through but it was worth it for the epilogue.