Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - 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.

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mousey's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It is a book that has captivated me for years. I fell in love with the characters the first time I read It and never fell out of it. They’re relatable, well written, lovable characters that I laughed with, cried with, and cried *over*. The plot is interesting, of course, but the main draw of this book to me is the characters.

This book is fundamentally about trauma, about growing up, about self-hatred. But it’s also about love, about family, about childhood, about unlearning your deepest self-loathing. This book is devastating, it’s a tragedy at its heart, but that’s what makes it so good. The characters are so loved and none of them know it and all of them suffer and that is the tragedy that draws me in.

I love the stupid clown book. I love it.

Content Warnings

m0usey's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I love this book. I am a sucker for found family and the Losers embody that for me. I love their individual characters as well as their dynamics with each other, and I love the exploration of where their bonds lead them. I laughed and I cried over them, I could write essays about them, they’re really, really good characters and they draw me into the book in a way very few other characters have.

Not only are the characters phenomenal, but the horror is amazing as well. The dread and confusion surrounding Pennywise is amazing, and the individual traumas of the losers (home lives, bullying, homophobia, etc) really add to that horror. At its heart, this book is about trauma and about love and about pain and about hope, and Pennywise is just the facilitator of some of that trauma.

Now I’m going to rant about this book with spoilers:

The losers club are a group of people who all thought they were unloveable until they found each other. All of them felt like mistakes, like burdens, like they were disgusting or wrong or gross, but all of them looked at each other and accepted all that pain and loved each other anyway. And ya know what? That love? It lasted for one. Summer. They were never all together again, not ever. And they forgot that they were ever loved because of it.

They grew up and forgot their friends and their hometown and forgot that they could be loved, that they were loved, and most of them self destructed for their entire adult life. And even after defeating Pennywise, even after killing It, they forgot again. All that love, all that hope, it was all washed away again. They forgot Eddie existed, they forgot they ever had anyone to grieve and remember for who he really was. They never got to meet adult Stan, and they never got to grieve that lack of knowing. Literally how am I supposed to deal with that.

This book is so fucking sad it’s insane. The losers were so, so loved, and they couldn’t remember any of that at all. And thats what make this book stand out to me, what makes it stick with me. It’s a tragedy and it hurts so much and I love it.

Anyway I love the stupid clown book.

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