It: A Novel
Stephen King's classic #1 New York Times bestseller and the basis for the massively successful films It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two as well as inspiration for HBO Max's upcoming Welcome to Derry--about seven adults who return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they had first stumbled upon as teenagers...an evil without a name: It. Welcome to Derry, Maine. It's a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real. They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city's children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry's sewers. Readers of Stephen King know that Derry, Maine, is a place with a deep, dark hold on the author. It reappears in many of his books, including Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, and 11/22/63. But it all starts with It. "Stephen King's most mature work" (St. Petersburg Times), "It will overwhelm you...to be read in a well-lit room only" (Los Angeles Times).
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Community Reviews
Stephen King definitely has a way with words. I enjoyed majority of the book and characters, as well as the world King had created. There were a lot of sections in the book that will always stick with me because of how it was written. For example, Stanley and the concept of feeling offended, King's comparisons on how the world is viewed differently between children and adults, and the way King uses imaginative language to describe scenes and/or experiences.
The book had me up until then last few 100 (give or take) pages. While an overall good read, the last parts leading up to the final "showdown", as well as the end itself, felt sort of anti-climactic and rushed.
The famous scene in the book, that everyone apparently knows about, left me so confused - why was this necessary? Did it actually carry value or was it just a gross fantasy that somehow made it into the book? And if a scene like that is added to the story, atleast make more use out of it.
While there were some obscenities and vulgar language used throughout the book, I did not object to its use as it carried a weight throughout the story telling. The particular scene mentioned above, however, did not. While not everything has to have a meaning, this scene could definitely have been left out of the book.
Overall, IT by Stephen King is definitely a catching story and you can see throughout the book that the author is a great writer. This type of story-telling, however, is not for everyone and can take quite some time to get through.
Possibly on one the best novels by Stephen King yet. Sure it gets weird towards the end, and it is one hell of a long read. Inspired by the fairy tale Billy goat gruff 7 kids must face their fears (the troll) by whatever Pennywise’s the dancing clown takes form of. (The setting being the bridge and the characters’ live from childhood to adulthood being the journey across the bridge) it will be up to the group known as the Losers club to bond together to conjure the unimaginable horror that everyone in town refuses to acknowledge. Will they grow up and defeat IT once and for all, or will they become troll food in the next 27 years?
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