Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

It by Stephen King

52 reviews

cinderrunner's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.0

Please excuse any typing errors as I am too lazy to edit
There are some good things about this book, but the bad significantly outweigh them. This is one of the most needlessly offensive and problematic books i have ever read. The only thing horrifying about this novel is that King had the audacity to include so much needless hatred and is still being praised for it. The level of racism, sexism, pedophilia/sexualization of minors, anti semitisim, etc is FAR beyond anything that is warranted by the plot and its honestly inexcusable. If you took a shot everytime King used the N word with a hard R, you'd die of alcohol poisoning somewhere between the one third and halfway mark. King is constantly using language and scenarios that sexualize Beverly, constantly mentioning the way her 12 year old body is maturing, painting her as a (and im quoting here) "whore" from almost every chatacters POV. Shes even sexualized in her own POVs.

Bill's catatonic wife is literally likened to a blow up doll at a sex store

Richie is known for doing voices and almost all of them are racist stereotypes, his go to one being the charactature of a black child like you'd see in a minstrel show. They are constantly using Stan being jewish as a punchline. It feels intentional that

the jewish character is the one he kills before they even get together as adults

, the female is the one who spends her whole life abused, and

the black character is the one King cast to stay in Derry and remain poor while the others prosper as adults

. And this isnt even the big shit like the ENTIRE CHILD SEX SCENE. With literal 11 to 12 year olds. Which King has never retracted or apologized for (from what I've seen) but only said it aged poorly cause people now are more sensitive....like its irrational to take offense to an adult writing kids having a, for lack of a better term, gang bang. And again, most of this is completely irrelevant to the plot and could have been excluded with zero detriment to the story. I will admit that if you are writing about minorities and setting it in the 50s, a certain level of bigotry is warranted. But the level to which King took it is gross and uncalled for. He could have just as easily NOT written any minority characters if this is his idea of representation. The fact that he, of his own freewill, wrote this level of offensive stereotypes, micro aggressions, bigotry and full on volatil hate and has never apologized for it, or made a statement against it, is sick. And the fact that it got through editing and publishing and is STILL being praised and rated 5 stars speaks volumes to what we are willing to let straight, cis, white men in power get away with. I can't imagine a single POC, female, or religious minority character writing the story the way King did, even in the 80s.
It is also overlong, it could have easily been 400 pages shorter than it was. It dragged on and on. It doesnt genuinely pick up or reach a true climax til around page 950 (in my edition) so like 150 pages away from the end. That's ridiculous. King is constantly overloading the book with lore building and exposition that really isnt needed past a certain point. It took me 4 months of on and off reading to finally get through this thing. Ive never taken more than a month to read a book, even dense ones like the entire Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series, in my adult life. 
Most people I have seen, even those who praise this book, don't count this as a book they would ever reread. If that's not a red flag i don't know what is. I cant think of a single book, even thick and complex ones, that i loved and wouldn't pick up again. 
PROS: King is a genuinely skilled writer on a technical level and the book is well crafted. There are very thoughtful and interesting themes around childhood vs adulthood, the transition between the two, and the power of faith/belief. It really could have been a gorgeous novel if he leaned more into that earlier in the book and cut down on all the unnecessary bigotry and lore building. I likely would have loved this if it was shorter and less hate filled. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Physical abuse, Rape, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Cancer, Cannibalism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Alcohol, Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Gore, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Excrement, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

The whole book is a trigger warning. It is full of violence, GRAPHIC bigotry, and the sexualization of women and especially minors.

averagesparrow's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Very strong start, very interesting characters and themes. Gets a bit muddled towards the end. Could have used another pass of revisions, as there are a few inconsistencies (e.g. Bev’s father is once referred to as her stepfather).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Classism, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Racism, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Sexual content, Excrement, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Hate crime, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Death, Suicide, Homophobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Child death

frankensteinscreature's review against another edition

dark

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Emotional abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Violence, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Suicide, Pedophilia, Rape, and Toxic relationship

chelseachips's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Moderate: Infertility, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Sexism, and Violence

artiiichoke's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Death, Suicide, Child death, Gore, Classism, Self harm, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

zakcebulski's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Reading and finishing this book is hard to describe. It is like reading a cultural watermark- a piece of the cultural consciousness that has had such a vast impact on social and pop culture. This book absolutely impacted the culture in a massive way- from movies, to references in television, to music, this is one of the most impactful works of the late 20th century.
And, after reading it, I found it... fine. I think that my expectations for this cultural phenom were a little too high, and this book ended up falling short.
I have to say immediately that I did not love this book, nor did I think that it justified its over 1,000 page length.

I think that the strongest part about this book was the characters. Bill, Beverly, Richie, Pennywise, Henry- all of these characters are exceptionally well crafted. Each person feels like a fully realized character- a fully realized person who has their own aspirations, desires, fears, and justifications for their actions. I appreciate that you grow to care for these characters, and you almost grow to the point where you are able to understand their reasoning for their actions and which choices they make. The facing of fears feels triumphant throughout this book- we see the characters face fears and run, and, when they face and overcome them, I couldn't help but feel a bit of pride for them. When characters feel real to the point where their complexities of characteristics and personalities come through, that is well fucking done character writing. This book excels when it is more along the lines of the coming of age story- that was more fun to read. It is something we have all experienced, the uncertainty of life juxtaposed with the knowledge that we are growing up. It is fun to read through when the characters are just hanging out and being kids. King absolutely nails the care-free blending in to care-heavy transition of adolescence to adult hood.

While on the same topic of character, I do have to say that I feel like King always has a character or two that is just so fucking over the top where it is completely unbelievable that someone would act like they do. This book is full of some of the worst B tier characters that are seemingly only there just to be evil or show how bad Derry is. Good god, we get it, everyone is hellacious and racist, can there be a decent b-tier character?

I found the villains in this book to be one of the most demanding presence throughout the book, and throughout many of King's works. They are absolutely compelling and truly scary. Pennywise being the embodiment of primordial evil, Henry being a sociopathic unhinged killer, Patrick being a vicious near animalistic psychotic type, and the apathetic evil of discontent from other parents and adults- they are all brought to fruition in a big way that I think was one of the strongest parts of this book. The villains are hellacious, they are abhorrent, they are despicable, and they are very uncomfortable to read, and they are well written in that regard.

The two mending plot lines between the adults and the kids is a hard thing to do well, I am sure, and I think that King dies a great job of writing this converging plot to the point where he is effortlessly able to swap back and forth between the two.
This book was clearly a labor of love for King, and I think that it is well done, but, it does, in my opinion, suffer from the constant divergence to plot points to reaffirm or solidify in things about characters which we already know. I understand- Bill's parents are distant, Henry's dad is a piece of shit- as is Beverly's. It gets to the point when I feel that the badness (yep) of characters is so overdone to the point where it becomes silly, campy, unbelievable- which, if that is what King aimed for, then good on him! Overall, King is very good at making you hate a character- Henry, Belch, Tom, holy shit fuck these characters so much.
I thought that the plot tying up like it did was fine, though I do understand the critique of King being that he doesn't know how to end books off. This one ended off so... deus ex machina esque that I could only roll my eyes and think, yeah, that is what it is.
I also fucking hated, and I mean hated the sex scene- we all know what I am referring to. It just was so out of fucking nowhere. I understand that Beverly's sexuality had been weaponized against her, and this was a reclamation arc, but it was so fucking uncomfortable to read, and am I really supposed to believe they found their way out because of post nut clarity? Disgusting.

I cannot praise enough the setting of this book, or, rather, the settings. I thought that Derry, the sewers, the Barrens- they are all fully realized and well imagined. I think that this is one of King's strengths within all of the books which I have read by him- he is able to make each setting feel like it is always being lived in, regardless of if the characters are there or not. We are able to feel the palpable changes which occur throughout Derry because the townspeople talk, they gossip, they interact. I think that this was the most fun part of this book was the way the town feels like a place that is actually being impacted by something that it does not understand. It reminded me heavily of the book 11/22/63 wherein the areas as well felt very realistic and fully fleshed out.
I think that King's exploration of trauma and facing past trauma is very well handled and done in a mature way. He confronts it in a way that I truly appreciate. It is not a pleasant thing to face trauma, and the fact that he does take it seriously is commendable. Recognizing it as a process to surmount that can take decades to work through is the reality of trauma. 

Over-all, I am glad to have read this book. I thought that the characters and the setting work of this book were the best parts. I found the plot a little too convenient for my liking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Sexual content, Infidelity, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexism, Racism, Gaslighting, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Grief, Gore, and Fatphobia

kamirose1's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Bullying, Racism, Ableism, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

wildbagels's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

This book is really, really good.  Very creepy and truly makes your skin crawl at times. It is an extremely long book and is so detailed in every little thing. You’ll feel like you grew up in Derry with how descriptive King is throughout the book. The only reason this book doesn’t get a higher rating from me is

The strange child orgy at the end.  I don’t feel like this was necessary and was really creepy- not in the good way

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Suicide, Gore, Blood, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Child abuse

ajeanx's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Whilst reading It, I witnessed a thing live and die. From childhood through to it’s drawn out and somewhat painful death, It was... a lot. Too much, really. But it was 1067 pages, so what was I really expecting? Having been my first Stephen King novel, I’m in awe of King’s writing and his ability to create a world and it’s characters so clearly and realistically (even if his interpretation of a female perspective is so amusingly off). The enthusiasm for what he’s writing is somewhat headstrong, as descriptions and fine details drew on and on... and on (dare I admit I skimmed quite a few of the last pages). Yet, you’re so deep in by that point when you hit the 200/300 pages-to-go mark that you just kind of have to push through. Worth it? Er, maybe it’s because I watched the films first, but... eh. Complicated answer. Amazing, disturbing writing and story building, but just as the Losers’ memories fade into nothing but a vague, groggy sort of question mark over time, my mind is doing the same. In the end, It is truly an entertaining read, if you’re prepared the face the viscerally f*cked up content within. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence, Antisemitism, and Sexual content

Minor: Incest, Suicide, and Alcoholism

Content warning for just about everything imaginable... I mean it.

izzettl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Antisemitism, Alcoholism, Child death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, and Biphobia