Reviews with content warning for Torture - It

The King among horror books - IT is a 1376 page long novel about the Losers Club's two-time stand-off with IT, otherwise known as Pennywise the Clown, or Robert Gray.

Wow. This book was exactly the wild ride I imagined it would be. It is scary. It is fucked up. It is funny. It is timeless.

This story surprised me in so many ways, but let me just try to summarize why I love this book (more precisely, King's writing):

1. The world building is superb. King does such a good job visualising the world of Derry as it was in '58 and '85, introducing side characters and backstories to all of them, without making the reader forget the red line of the story, it feels like you've lived the story yourself. And though living through the Age of Pennywise would be awful, reading this story is a delight.

2. The characters are so well-thought out, and not a single one of them is uninteresting to read about. Ben, Richie, Bill, Eddie, Mike, Stan, Beverly, Pennywise/IT - you get to know every one of them so intimately, you almost feel like the 8th member of the Losers Club.

3. The story itself! Man, this story is mad crazy brilliant. To fuck up generations of adults into being terrified of clowns because everyone knows this story is insane. But it wouldn't have happened if the story wasn't so insanely awesome.

Ok, so I can conclude by saying that I appreciated the book a lot. HOWEVER. It is not my favourite King. I can't exactly put my finger on what it was (maybe it was THAT scene that ruined it for me), but 11.22.63 and The Stand both resonated with me more (though the ending of The Stand is way inferior to IT).

But if you're looking for a challenge that will be so rewarding you'll want to send me a thank-you note, or if you're looking for the ultimate Spooky Season read, IT is it.

Content Warnings

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

cinderrunner's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

frankensteinscreature's review against another edition

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dark

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amicamerlo's review against another edition

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zakcebulski's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

bosque's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

2.75

Content Warnings

izzettl's review against another edition

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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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