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What it's about
Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Maine, learns that the local diner holds a portal to 1958. The diner's owner, dying of cancer, gives Jake a mission: live in the past for five years and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating John F. Kennedy. Jake settles into life in a small Texas town, falls in love, and discovers that the past doesn't want to be changed.
Why it's worth reading
It was a #1 New York Times bestseller and became a Hulu series. Many readers who don't usually read King call it their favorite of his books, a time-travel thriller, love story and portrait of America in the early '60s.
You'll love it if you liked
The Stand, Doomsday Book or The Dead Zone
Good to know
It's not horror. It's long, and the middle is a slow, lovely stretch of small-town life.
By the numbers
- Readers93 out of 100 · counts 40%+42
- Critics0 out of 100 · counts 14%+0
- Bestseller69 out of 100 · counts 32% (its stronger lane)+25
- Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 15%+0
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero.
#1 New York Times bestseller (5 weeks at #1). 4.35★ from 717K Goodreads ratings.
Where it ranks
- #11 of the 140 science fiction books we rank
- #34 of the 251 historical novels we rank
- #61 of the 666 modern books we rank
- #146 of the 1,404 books we rank
Bestseller
- #1 New York Times bestseller (5 weeks at #1)
Reads as
Dark, Adventurous, Gripping
More by Stephen King
The Stand
It
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Different Seasons
