11.22.63 / Book Log / spoilers maybe?

How bloody long has it taken me to finish this book? it became a burden after a while, but soon enough i got interested in it again. 8 weeks it took me, not just because it is such a big book, but because i wouldnt be able to sit and read a couple of chapters in one sitting. So much information!!

Everyone is a fan of conspiracy theories, i know i am, for many'a reason, its what makes things interesting, especially history. Every historical incident has a good amount of conspiracy theories with it. This book is based around a conspiracy theory, and the butterfly effect.

The Butterfly Effect is a concept in chaos theory, its the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a determinilistic non-linear system can result in a large difference in a later state. Now this may sound all complex and scientific, but it is extremely easy to understand.

This book contains history, science, mystery, fiction, and indeed horror, i mean it is a stephen king book, it wouldnt be one if there wasnt some type of extestential crisis going on inside it. Ive been a fan of King for quite some time now, although ive only recently got into reading his books, ive read Pet Semetary (well as much as my scarediness could handle), and Carrie, and have a few more to get through till i fully have an opinion of him as a writer, but this book was magnificent, it was alot different to his others, although its based in Maine as most (mostly all) of them are, and contains the general idea of his writing, but its just so different to the two ive read.

Before i go on, this book has been made into a TV show with James Franco as the lead character, i havent watched it yet and im planning to, but decided to read the book before hand, my boyfriend, he watched the tv series and we compared differences, and although it was pretty much on the same line there was many a difference to the book, as there always is. But i still want to watch the tv show just to see what its like as i love the book.

The story is based around a man called Jake Epping, who is an English teacher, he has a failed marriage, and is pretty much getting no where in life. Throughout the story there is so many types of lines of stories that are included and again brought up throughout the story. But a couple of main ones; The story of Harry Dunning, an older gentlement in Eppings English class, who wrote a story about the night his father killed his whole family, it was gruesome (just like stephen king likes), and ugly and horrible to read, but gave Epping an initiative later on to see what would happen if things were to change, i will get to that soon though. And the story of course of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on the 22nd of November 1963, this in itself is a conspiracy theory, many have thought that Oswald wasnt the one who did it, it was the CIA because JFK was initially a naughty boy as a president and got himself into a lot of trouble because of his opinions of things, because he was the president, he was allowed to do so, and put actions towards his opinions. Many thought it was the Mafia, many even thought it was his drivers in his car. But in the end it always comes back to Lee Harvey Oswald, and his rifle. Although he was shot with a fatal wound shortly after the death of JFK, by Jack Ruby, so he could not speak upon the matter, so i guess no one knows but the government or the people with the paperwork. I dont know much about the subject, nor the history but this book has ALOT of information in it that adds up extremely well whether its been made up or not. I know Stephen King had to study and fork out alot of information before writing this book and i think it makes sense to why he has done, so he had every bit of factual history in order for it to come across as completely true.

Down the lines of this film, Epping has a friend Al Templeton who shows him the 'rabbit-hole' to the same date and time of a couple of years before JFK was shot, no one knows why but its there. Templeton asks Epping if he can go and do what he couldnt, because cancer caught up to him, and try and save JFK. Templeton was in Vietnam, and was indeed scarred by it, as alot of soldiers were, but thought that if JFK was saved, there would be no Vietnam. Who knows what caused Vietnam? who knows if JFK caused it, but in this story a big change happens, when Epping finally gets his way.

The story gets on, and Epping goes to save Harry Dunning, from his drunken abusive father, the past works against him, it doesnt want to be changed, it does everything and anything to stop Epping from changing it, such as giving him a bad stomach, giving him an accompliss who attempts to stop him, trying anything in the strength of the world to stop him from saving Harry Dunnings family because it will cause a serious problem in the Land of Ahead, if he changes things in the Land of Ago. The first time it doesnt work, but the second time it does, this in turn has caused a butterfly effect in the Land of Ahead, a serious one at that. Once this is done he moves on in his life.

The way he started getting his money was betting, obviously coming from 2011 Al wrote down all of the football games, baseball games, boxing matches and every other sport you could think of that could be bet on just so he could get some money during that era on gambling. Alas this got Epping into trouble because he didnt bet safe, he bet stupid amounts of money on the games and in turn got one of his houses burnt down, and later on in the film got himself nearly killed by a beating. But sooner or later he started to notice that gambling wasnt an easy income, he couldnt gamble all the time it was near impossible and unsafe for him to play that game, so because he was an English teacher in the Land of Ahead, he decided to become a subsitute one in the Land of Ago, in a school in Jodie.

During his time in Jodie, he was also living in certain houses which could easily keep an eye on Oswald when he shortly arrived  back from Russia, and then from Cuba later on. He always went back to his houses just to keep an eye on him, listen in on his conversations although most were in russian, witness the beatings that Marina got off him, and seen how he acted when it got closer to the important moment in history. He watched him constantly on and off when things were going well in Jodie, he saw June, Oswalds daughter grow, he watched Marina get comfortable with some russian neighbours, and he saw Oswald get close to, what Epping thought, was an accomplis. Epping didnt want to make a move, because of the amount of conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of JFK, he didnt know if Oswald was a lone gunman or not, he wanted to make sure, hense the secretive mics in the lamps, and living close to him to watch his actions, he wanted to see if it was just him.

In Jodie he met Sadie, sadie was a beautiful woman the way King described her, she was tall, blonde, extremely clumsy but all in all a lovely girl. Epping obviously fell in love with her, the way their love unfolded was beautiful, it was such an amazing relationship they had going on, and alas because its a King book, it didnt last very long, there was lots of problems, the major one being Sadies ex-husband, or was still her husband but was seperated from him, he was psychotic, he never slept with her thought she was disgusting hated the thought of even looking at her, Sadie recalled to Epping that he actually put a broom between them in the bed because he was disgusted by her. Epping was worried, he had a feeling that the husband would come back and hurt Sadie but no one would listen to him, until he obviously came back and threatened to kill Sadie unless Epping would turn up so he could kill them both, at the end he disfigured Sadie cut her cheek wide open, and left some serious hospital bills and facial reconstruction to be done from it, then slit his own throat. Throughout this Epping decides to confide in Sadie about his mission, the fact he was from the future and proved it with his gambling skills, and the fact that he knew JFK was going to come into town and through the street he was killed on before anything was even decided, that proved it for Sadie, although Epping didnt tell her everything, he didnt want her to get attached or invovled because the past works against itself and has already got him in to trouble before, he didnt want her to get hurt too.

So pretty eventfull relationship i say, then Epping gets beaten up by gambling thugs, and is partially brain damaged, in a coma for a while and can barely remember what hes in that country for, he gets the Land of Ahead confused with Ago, he gets Sadie mixed up with his ex-wife, he believes he has something important to do but cant remember what and the last stages of the book it is all about him remembering, going to the places that will help him remember, and doesnt tell Sadie what he is actually remembering but Sadie soon finds out. Epping goes back to the house he lived below Oswald in, and then stays in Junes old bedroom the day before the incident, he wakes up to Sadie, there are the right time because if she wasnt he would of more than likely slept through it.

So both him and Sadie fight against the past in order to get to the Book Depository where Oswald was working and shot JFK at the time, and was faught against majorly, first by his Chevy's wheel completely breaking off its axel, then by a truck majorly crashing in to the bus they were attempting to take, they then stole a rusted busted old car into as close as they could to town and walked half the way until he found his old car, well not his but exactly like his in a different colour and thought it was the past harmonizing with itself, they stole the car and drove the rest of the way they could to the depository. They climbed the steps and low and behold Oswald was sat on the 6th floor left hand window with his rifle aimed at the car JFK was riding through the street, Epping and his .38 police gun missed twice whilst trying to aim for him, and unfortunately as Epping fell over whilst Oswald had his rifle aimed at him the shot went through and through Sadie, and unfortunately, it was only a consequence of the past not wanting to be changed. Sadie passed away because they changed an initial and most likely important part in history that shouldnt have been changed, as Epping soon found out when he went back to the land Ahead. Before doing so he got a call from the president and Jackie Kennedy herself thanking him for saving their lives, although for Epping it wasnt worth the fact that he lost the love of his life, it wasnt a fair trade, and he knew what to do.

Before heading back to the Land of Ahead, a man who was introduced in the first moments of Ago, the 'green, yellow, orange, and black card' man, was there waiting, the cards sooner or later were found out to be his psychosis, the way his mind was handling being on these different 'strings' of rabbit-holes in history. Two different men, one at the beginning was trying to stop Al and Epping when he got there to change the past, as it was tangling the strings of history and sooner or later those strings would snap, as the man at the end of the book told him, he told him that if he continued to change the differences in time, whether that be talking to a certain person, buying something from a shop, the likes of saving Harry Dunning, or saving JFK, whichever change, big or small it all has an effect, and if there is alot of changes in one timeline the effect it has on the Land of Ahead is excrutiating, and dangerous. When Epping goes back into the land of Ahead the world is completely different, the amount of differences there actually is, is ridiculous. Most of the world is radiated by the bombs that have been dropped by America, there are earthquakes on a daily basis, and weird sounds in the sky that could only be what the card man said, the world is being destroyed because of the different strings. He meets Harry Dunning for the last time, in this new Land of Ahead, and Dunning continues to tell Epping what the world has come to since the saving of JFK, and it was major, major enough for him to want to go back,  not just to save sadie but to save the world in general. The card man had told him he needs to come back and break the circle, but he didnt know which route to go down yet.

He chose that the only way he could do it was to break the circle, did he want the world he was living in now be destroyed just because a president had been assassinated? would it be the same with Lincoln? or Martin Luther King Jr? or any important person that was killed. All because an old chef, Al, didnt want Vietnam to happen. Vietnam had to happen, all the wars in my opinion had to happen or we wouldnt live in the country we lived in today. Epping did think that was someone else on other strings changing the world, hense 9/11 or the many terrorist attacks, or any of the world wars. He went back to the Land of Ago, a complete reset of that time, and did nothing but write the book i have read, he then buried it next to the river he threw his phone into, wrote a letter to sadie then ripped it up, wrote a letter to the school and deke warning them about sadies husband, but then burnt it. Many things he did in that time back in the Land of Ago, but not one thing changed the world that he had to live in, he let Harry Dunnings father kill his family, he let JFK die just as the history was supposed to happen, then went home.

As he was home he got his job back as a teacher, tried his hardest not to find Sadie, but in the end he did his research and found out that her husband did what he had to do, and scarred her for life, but she became citizen of the year in Jodie in 2011, and Epping soon found out they had a dance on, in which he attended, and met Sadie for the first time in the Land of Ahead. She had no idea who he was, but she felt as though he knew her from somewhere, but to Epping it didnt matter if she was 80, or scarred, she was alive, and thats all that mattered to him.

This book guys honestly, i know ive just ruined this story probably but you need to read it, it is a must read. Even if you dont like Stephen King i feel as though this book doesnt match to the other horrors hes wrote, its history at the end of the day. And after reading it its made me want to research the assassination, buy a bunch of books about it and study it, historical fiction makes me do that.

11.22.63 is a brilliant book and i advise anyone that loves history, fiction, horror, mystery, romance, any type of genre ever to read this book. Bring on the TV series! in my next blog i will be commenting on it once ive finished it!

At the moment im waiting for the new Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to arrive so i can read it, although im sat wondering if i should just start Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, ill decide if it arrives tomorrow.

The other amazing thing thats happened, my FAVOURITE and i mean FAVOURITE book at the moment, American Gods by Neil Gaiman is being made into a TV Series also, ive already seen the trailer that was aired at Comic Con this year, and i nearly cried, im so excited it looks exactly what im expecting it to be but i doubt theyll put every story into it that is included in the book but the main story is enough for me, i really hope it turns out to be what i expect!!
The picture next to this paragraph is of a shot from the new TV series, it includes Shadow, Mr Wednesday and Mad Sweeney when they first meet eachother.

Stay rad!

MKM x

The Girl on the Train, and in the wrong place at the wrong time... ~ Book Log | spoilers maybe???? ~

I read this book in 4 and a bit days... 4 days people!!! That is the quickest i've ever read any book, and i swear it. i was obsessed. Can i just start off by saying that i didnt start the black dahlia, i apologise.

Secondly this is the most fucking fucked up fictional book that i have EVER read in my life. but it was so intriguing, the different lives and stories all conjoining into one.

It starts with one girl, on the train, literally as the title of the book says it begins with a girl on the train, the same trains she takes daily to a job she doesnt actually work at anymore, whilst drinking a hell load of alcohol (what a life aye). Rachel, but it isn't a great life, her life, later on in the book, when her memories come back... eventually, you find out that she was abused by her husband, who put the blame on her all the time after getting blindo drunk, telling her lies of the stories that happened the night before when it was really the other way round. It ruined her, he had an affair, with a girl he then moved in and got pregnant and married and closely fell in love with, which broke her. So she became more of an alcoholic than she planned to be, lost her job for coming in half cut one day and now lies to her 'friend' and landlord that she goes to work, takes the train to London every day.

Anyway... going back to the beginning Rachel takes the train every morning and evening, and the train stops at a specific stop right infront of the old street she should still be in, her ex-husband and now wife/old-mistress lives in, and another two faces she see's everytime she stops. She makes lives based around what they look and act like, and is witness to a suspect that may have been involved in the murder of Megan, the girl who she watches, and her boyfriend Scott. Megan goes missing, and is found a few weeks later buried in the forest just near to where she lived, she was pregnant as autopsies found out.

There are many chapters, i call them chapters but they are more like the storyline seperated into certain paragraphs, but each 'chapter' is a different persons version of the story, and it goes between Megan, Rachel, and Rachels ex husbands new wife Anna. They all have different aspects of the crime that was committed, especially closer to the end, the explanation and description of how megan died was horrendous both from Megan's perspective, and her killer, Rachels ex-husband Tom's perspective as he confesses infront of his two wives. Anna's story is based around the fact that shes terrified of Rachel, after the night Rachel visited her house and took her baby and stood in the back garden with her for no reason. Anna had no idea that Tom was having an affair, just like he had done with Rachel, right under Anna's nose, as Megan was a babysitter for their child for some time.


Anna's story concludes that after Anna started thinking about Tom's lies, she started to be suspicious, checked his computer, but nothing was on it, checked his phone, nothing. But as an argument occured between the two of them, Tom left to 'go to the gym', Anna found his gym back shortly after under the bed with a phone, in which had no battery left, after a brief moment of charging, she found that the harrassment call logs she kept in which she thought Rachel was contacting him didnt add up, and so she decided to ring the number calling that specific found, to soon find out it was Megan's voice. Meanwhile in Rachel's story, after a brief argument and fight with Megan's husband Scott, after trying to help him with the other man in Megan's life and lying to make it easier, she got home and that argument caused her to get some drunken memories back of the times with Tom in which he made up stories to make her feel bad, she also in that moment, remembered what happened to her on the fatefull night of Megan's death, she was there, and saw Tom walking up to her and smashing her head with something hard, (explaining the massive lump and blood on her hands), and then getting into a car with which at first she thought was Anna, but was actually Megan, in her red top and jeans (which she was found in), these memories coming back on the sofa of her apartment made her rush to Tom's house to confront Anna about the situation. A conversation starter really, 'did you know that my ex husband, your husband now, who cheated on me with you, may have had ANOTHER affair with your babysitter and also may have possibly killed her?' With a child on her lap, and Rachel flustered over the sudden rememberance of the past, Anna didn't know what to believe. Tom walked through the door and all hell broke loose. At first he tried to lie through his teeth, tried to make Anna believe in what he was saying, heck i think he even believed what he was saying but soon after Rachel tries to run the true Tom comes out, abusing Rachel again, chucking her back inside the house and basically keeping her prisoner. He soon confesses over what had happened with Megan, that she was pregnant with his baby and that Megan was not letting it go, and was not going to be a single mother again after what happened when she was younger, as she lost a baby by drowning in the bath by accident when she fell asleep, she was distraught to find that he didnt care and flipped out on him, he lost it, threw a rock at her it went badly, extremely badly so bad he had to 'finish it off', anyway as he was confessing this, Rachel soon tried to escape again, and Tom attacked once more, this time badly, he told Anna to go upstairs with the baby and stay there till he called back down, it flashes back and forth towards both sides of the story, Anna's and Rachels, Rachel soon got the better of him and attacked him back, and again tried to make a run for it but briefly got the hand on a corkscrew, she stabbed him, right there and then stabbed him, whilst Anna secretly rung the police and ambulance, and came back out and made sure the job was well done, she continued to screw the corkscrew in even more. The two wives, working together to defeat this inhumane man with the pain and suffering he caused many people.

I loved this book, it brought to light a lot of the things people dont speak about, domestic violence, alcoholism, loosing babies, affairs, and eventually murder, it brings alot of truths into a small book with a great story, and it hit hard when reading through it to think that women, and men, go through their lives in situations similar to the book, not so much the murdering side although it does happen to wives, ex-wives, ex-husbands mistresses and the like. I definitely 100% put forward this book for anyone who is a fan of mystery, murder, interested in people's lives and stories and can sit and read a book and not want to put it down because i didn't want to put it down at all. If it wasn't for me being busy at some points this weekend, i would have finished it earlier, but alas i was busy and finished it in 4 days, its a record for me in all honesty!!!!

Half of what ive wrote in this blog isn't even the full story its the briefest of briefts i have ever written about a complex story line, and i dont think i could of explained it any better, its the best individual book ive read in a while.

I've seen the trailer for the up and coming film, it has an amazing actress as Rachel in it, i hope she lives upto the role, i hope the whole film lives up to my expectations i know films made from literature dont sometimes, i just really have enjoyed this book and i hope to enjoy the film just as much. Just remember, the films are never as good as the books!

Hope you enjoyed my review, next is the biggest one yet. 11.22.63.

Stay rad!
mkm

I finished it... ~ Book Log & minor life information ~

After at least 2 years with the Rick Riordon Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus books, I have finished the series... I should start off by saying if your not interested in reading reviews of books, dont read this... and also its going to seem all over the place as im explaining my favourite parts of said series... back to the scheduled viewing.

I don't even know what to say, or to put into words how emotional and exciting and warming the whole series is.

I started reading the percy jackson series when it first came out, as i noticed it was wrote upon my favourite mythology, greek, not only that but it was a YA book, and everybody knows a YA book is so worth it 100%, its a guilty pleasure. So as i was saying, i picked up the first one and started reading it not realising how good it was until i re-read it a couple of years later, i lost my copy, so borrowed a friend of mines copy, and she had a couple of the next ones... i read them in atleast 3 weeks, 3 books in 3 weeks... i was obsessed, i had to buy my own set. Eventually i gave my friends copy back and bought my own Percy Jackson set, and re-read the books a third time just to get myself into the jist of it. As i came to the last book, my heart was out of my chest there was so many different types of cliffhangers, and heartache and parent-child relationship problems, and a massive amount of mythology, i felt my brain was going to explode! but allas i got to the last book, and had no more to read, i wanted more, i bought 3 textbooks of greek mythology afterwards and spent 2 months studying it (again, from being a kid) and studying it until i, myself, thought of moving to greece just to learn more and worship those gods, im not even religious! i believe more in the greek mythology and gods than i ever have done my own religion. They brought out the PJ films, and even though i do enjoy watching them, they aren't quite the books, they dont give the information needed, but they did slightly include thalia, although she was a tree at the time, and at the end of Sea of Monsters, she came back.. cliff-hanger in the film yet they haven't made another one??? annoying. Trust me folks, read the books!!!!!

As soon as i heard that Rick Riordon was writing another series of the Percy Jackson world, named Heroes of Olympus, at first i was skeptical as i was worried that it wasnt going to be the mythology i enjoyed, alas i bought the first two books read them wasnt interested in them until a couple of years later, and i was again obsessed with the series, the fact that it had a bunch of new characters in it, and the fact that they included the Roman sides of the gods, and thus their demi-god children, Jason, the son of Jupiter (Zeus' roman form) and is originally from Camp Jupiter, a very Roman version of Camp Half-Blood, Piper (soon found to be daughter of Aphrodite, completely different to other Aphrodite kids), and Leo (son of Hespheastus, found the hidden camp 9, with Festus, his bronze dragon), Hazel (a daughter of Pluto, Hades Roman form, died in the past, and brought back to the present by brother Nico), and Frank (son of Mars, Ares Roman form, and can also turn into animals, and is also half canadian half chinese, a brilliant character) what a great concept! I was so excited on where he took it, and thats when i met my favourite character of the series.. Leo Valdez, what an absolute babe, he was my favourite out of the HoO series, along with Nico Di Angelo. I wasn't a fan of Nico in the PJ series, he was extremely problematic, and i felt as though he wasn't explained enough, but in HoO he was included a lot more he was definitely an important character, and Rick Riordon introduced him half way through the series as gay, or bisexual, or confused.. I think definitely gay though, Cupid forced him to speak about his secret, his crush on Percy (HOW CUTE B T W ?) and how Percy broke him by promising to keep his sister, Bianca, alive by puttin her into the Hunters of Artemis, alas Bianca was killed, and Nico hated Percy for it, although he loved him alongside that, when Percy got with Annabeth, Nico was jealous, had a problem and throughout the HoO series there was that speculative problem (up until the Cupid encounter, when Jason found out) that he was in love with Percy, in the last book he confronts percy with this secret hes been keeping and walks away saying 'youre not my type', to a could be lover Will Solace, son of Apollo, again there was some serious dialogue and hints between them in the last moments of the battle... So Rick Riordon made a character i wasn't pleased about, to a character i loved, to even more loved by then continuing to describe him as a gay character! what a writer. Anyway moving on from that (i get distracted when talking about my favourite characters im sorry). The last book ended (before the last chapter) of Leo going up on Festus and destroying Gaia, whilst a comet mix of Octavian, explosive and Imperial Gold also hit the dragon, the earth mother, and my favourite character. I was devestated, both Nico and Hazel (who can sense death, i mean their dad is hades, theyve both been to the underworld... come on) agreed and put forward that Leo was dead, it was a different death as nico explained, but he was dead... The last chapter showed that Leo was dead, came back to life with the Physicians cure from Apollo and his Son, and was on his way to Calypso, like he promised. How romantic...

Another favourite part, maybe not for the characters but when Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, what an explanation of the worst place in mythology, the gods and titans and monsters they found there, the pain and sorrow they went through, and the fact that they met Tartarus face to face, the explanation of the whole scene, the chapters that are wrote about their times in tartarus, the imagination it created in my mind, i wish my art was as good as it used to be, i would have drawn it, or would i even be able to. It was intense.

Both series are amazing, but i have to say after finishing HoO, it is by far my favourite series, the different types of characters with their different parents, the Greek/Roman gods fighting with eachothers sides, the insanity Gaia caused in some minor gods, and everyone else. It really brought up some different stories of the mythology i fell in love with, and stories and minor gods id never heard of before that i soon searched up to read about.


Well i apologise that after so long of NOT writing a blog, i wrote one completely out of the blue about a book series, but i feel as though this is what ill do with this blog now, there isn't anything interesting going on in my life at the moment but in this brief moment i have out of 'book lover mode'.

I finished college, my crminology course of 3 years is sadly over, and hopefully if i get the grade i need to, i will be taking it to University this september, my doctors (heart) have said that after 11 years, i can be on an appointments basis by only needing to see a doc when i need to, meaning that they trust my medicines and me enough by letting me live my life, basically given me permission on a golden platter that im atleast at my healthiest, but unfortunately technology isnt ready for me yet... Meanwhile being on a SlimFast diet for 2 weeks (upto my docs appointment) and walking a mile every morning, i lost a stone, for the first time in 3 years, ive gotten out of the 16 stone bracket, and now nearly in the 14 stone bracket if i keep working hard enough, which im pretty darn happy about, 2 good news in one day. Nothing else has happened recently, getting stuff ready for my brother Ciaran and his fiancé Aislings wedding, on the 2nd of July, their stag and hen dos are in the next couple of weekends, so thats going to be super fun, other than that nothing major has happened, nothing i can explain deeply enough for it to be interesting.


For people who are obsessed with books, i hope you enjoy this confusing and all-over-the-place review of the series i have finished, my next book is The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, and i will be writing reviews of every book i read now. I have plenty to get through i tell you that.

To everyone else reading this hoping there was something interesting to find out about my life, nope, i apologise, nothing new here, but i hope you enjoyed the review to(soz).


STAY RAD HOMOSAPIENS. \m/
mkm