Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - It

this was a hell of a ride, honestly it was my 3rd time trying to read this book and I finally did it! I'm happy that I did because the plot and the character and the world building, also the writing, is amazing, i specially love how SK makes the transitions of present to past.

I only rated 4 starts bc of the amount of unnecessary stuff SK put in this book, honestly the amount of times he mentioned Bev's breast its just disgusting AND that scene with all of them, omg I can't even-- also the amount of slurs he slipped on there, and i felt like he used the decade where the book is set a little too much and what I mean is that he throw a lot of offensive stuff, and probably did to correspond the decade but there is no excuse.

The characters tho, THE LOSERS <3 honestly all of them now have a place in my heart, especially my beautiful Eddie, that sweet little thing. this characters really made the book even better, they made me feel warm inside and made me feel welcomed. they are so sweet and im happy that they came to life.

Now about Pennywise, SK really went deep creating it, huh. It story is very well constructed, even tho it doesn't have soooo much "building" behind. It has so much depth but at the same we don't have THAT much depth about it background, but that's ok because it actually suits the characters, since It is no suppose to be this character with a very rich in detail past - that's what makes it more appealing and interesting. I liked how well constructed the character was.

With all of that being said, this was something that I enjoyed reading and overall was a very good reading. It really hooked me up until the very end and the end was not bad at all.

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brookey8888's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I finally finished this.
This was just waaaaay too long. Also the slurs used was just not it. Also the racism. There was a chapter were the N word was said like every other word. Also don’t even get me started on the sewer scene disgusting. I felt like a lot of this was pointless. Honestly watch the new movies because they were really good.

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strayedthoughts's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book was truly exceptional. It is so detailed, which makes it a challenging and long read, but it is so worth it. This story shows what true friendship and loyalty are. It is haunting and disturbing, yet wonderfully heartwarming.

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gemmawelton's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

!!BIT OF A RANT REVIEW!!

So this was a tough read for me. I started it last year and got to about 600 pages in before it lost me, and honestly I felt the same struggle to read it this time as then.

I’m not going to comment on just how deeply disturbing this book is, because I do understand that that is the entire point of this book - it’s a horror. You’re not going to get flowers and rainbows.

But I am going to single out the extreme emphasis on child sexuality.

I skipped the scene with all the losers at the end of the book, when they’re trying to get out of the sewers and apparently all have to have sex with Beverly because there’s NO OTHER WAY to resolve it AT ALL, because it literally felt too close to child p*rnography and it made me feel sick.

My second point on this subject is the encounter between Patrick and Henry in the junkyard. They’re twelve. Just because they are bullies/murderers doesn’t diminish that, and I’m not entirely sure why Stephen king included this as I don’t think it actually furthered the plot at all, it just drew more attention to the tones of homophobia.

My third point regarding this is the general theme throughout the book - all of the loser’s experience a ‘s*xual stirring’ when around Beverly or any of the girls who are mentioned in the book and Beverly herself expressed the same feelings a couple of times, one of which is in the junkyard. There’s also the fact that a few times there are mentions of children turning up dead with their s*xual organs mutilated or completely gone.

Edit: just a quick fourth point, the scene between Beverly and her father when he asked to ‘check’ she was still a virgin.

Another thing I wanted to touch on was the amount of homophobia featured in this book. Again, I understand that this was meant to contribute to the theme of the book and of Derry, and there is the whole different eras argument, but I also feel like it cropped up more often than was ‘relevant’ to the plot. I’m not even sure how it was actually relevant, it didn’t really have a lot of influence over the plot, and unlike the films, we didn’t get any characters that were part of the LGBTQ+ community (aside from Adrian and Don (I think)).

I know that Stephen king himself and a some people who are devoted to this storyline have defended these choices, with king citing that times have changed and it’s different millennia, but this was written in the ‘80’s. It wasn’t ok then, it’s not ok now, and it never will be ok.

I’ve seen people say that the scene in the sewers between the losers was each of the boys showing they’re love for her and Beverly herself reclaiming her self/‘sexuality’ after what happened with her father, but there were plenty of other ways for the boys to show they loved her, in fact they did throughout the book multiple times, and Beverly was 11. You can’t tell me she was even fully aware of what exactly sexuality is, let alone that this was the best way to reclaim it.

Overall, I’m not sure this will be something I pick up to read often, if again, and if I do it would probably be just to skim through some parts rather than have an actual read of it. If I get the urge for a story with an awesome bunch of kids who defeat a murderous otherworldly clown, I’ll watch the films as I feel they did the story and the characters much better.

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