Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

It by Stephen King

52 reviews

bagonballoon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

This is my favorite book. It means the world to me, and I’ve read it more times than I can count. The audiobook in particular is a treat. It’s a masterpiece of horror for a reason. But it is also a beautiful meditation on childhood and friendship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Alcohol

skylerhill's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Stephen King was almost certainly gifted the uncanny ability to write horrendously shitty people. Like oh my god. 

Also, Stephen. Steve. Why on God’s green earth did you think it necessary to add the kids’ sex scene??? Personally feel as though you just, like, shouldn’t have done that and that it was in no way integral and you could’ve come up with something different but idk.

Anyway, this book is a lot: it’s thick, it’s outdated, it’s disgusting, it’s mentally challenging… but it’s also well-done classic horror, and maybe the most unsettling book I’ve ever read. I don’t think this is as good as The Shining (read the book, the movie’s mid), and there are plenty of modern horror pieces I’d recommend before this, but it’s still very effective at unsettling, for one reason or another. 8.25/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

wickedbastard's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Damn near perfect.

This is my second time reading IT and I think I enjoyed it much more this time through, now that I know the main beats of the story. I'm very tempted to give it the full 5 stars outright but can't quite make myself do it. It is an AMAZING book -- but not perfect, and it's good to remember that, especially a book as enshrined as this one.

This time 'round I found myself picking up more on Stan as a character, and really enjoying him as a character. He's the doubter, the skeptic, the one who clings to brickwall reality even when the impossible is threatening to destroy him. It might seem like he lacks the capacity for faith but the reality is far too simple: Stan has little except his faith -- faith in the REAL, the tangible, the logical, the proven. And during his confrontations with IT, he is able to weaponize his faith in the real against IT and prevail.

Two scenes stand out (arguably the main two Stan is in at all).

One: Stan's account of the drowned boys in the standpipe. Even re-reading that, it gave me such chills and gooseflesh. The detail and pacing is absolutely flawless in that scene. It is a pure legend and captures the soul of the child from whose perspective it is told. The second: When Stan uses the names of birds to repel the attacks of IT. There is something powerful about that.

I believe in scarlet tanagers even though I never saw one. Same with vultures, and the New Guinea mudlark and the flamingos of Brazil. I believe in the golden bald eagle! And I think there really might be a phoenix somewhere! But I don't believe in you, so get the fuck out of here! Get out! Hit the road, Jack!
-- Stan, altered for continuity.

Last thought for this time:

During the final Ritual of Chüd, I think it should have been Beverly who finished the ritual against IT. As it actually happened, Bill attempted and lost his grip; Richie went in and saved bill, but couldn't hold on long enough; and then Eddie, outside of it all, dealt a mortal wound to IT and paid with his life.

Those first two points are all good with me, but I don't think Eddie's part should have happened. I think it would have been much better if, when Richie was starting to lose his grip, Bev entered the fray and kicked its ass, out there in the cosmic drift. Woman-to-woman, nobody fucks with my friends but me kinda thing. Woulda been cool.

Okay, last last thought: The audiobook was truly a stellar experience. Mine was narrated by Steven Weber and he worked his absolute ass off. He did all of Richie's voices, and Bill's stutter, plus the voices of IT, plus many voices/inflections for certain characters. He also has a really good sense of how to read a book and make the cadence sound natural, off-the-cuff, casual. Listening to his style is pure delight. I will happily listen to any audiobook narrated by Steven Weber.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Murder

miw4everaly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

0.25

I absolutely hated this book. It had been on my "to read" list for years and I thought I would listen to it before Halloween. I cannot tell you how much I hate this book without giving things away, but I'll try. The book was clearly written just to shock people. There are aggressive sexual interactions, assaults, racial slurs that made me (a half-black woman) extremely uncomfortable and they were very unnecessary, and the characters were not likeable (except for Ben). I truly struggled to get through this book and, if it wouldn't make me feel like a failure for giving up, I would've stopped reading after the first few chapters. This is one of those rare moments where I would tell people to just watch the movies. The book will make you wish you never started to read it. I don't believe in cancel culture, but I'm shocked this book wasn't canceled during all that craziness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

martamae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, and Classism

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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? No

3.75

I don’t really know how to sum up my feelings on this book. There were some really brilliant aspects of it, but also parts that I utterly hated. 

I’ll start off with saying that in my opinion this was far too long. I’m not opposed to lengthy books, often times I prefer them because you get to spend more time with the characters and story, but this took a ridiculous amount of time to get to the point and often felt like the words I was reading were just there to lengthen the book rather than actually tell the story. There were also quite a few scenes that I found completely unnecessary, such as the sewer orgy at the end. That had absolutely no impact on the story and I think was just added as a bit of shock factor. 

I did like the main characters most of the time, though Richie did irritate me at times. The characterisation of It was also very interesting and I haven’t seen anything like it before. 

I think overall I wouldn’t recommend this book to someone unless they had an interest in reading works that are considered classics in the horror genre. If you’re just looking to get started with horror or want to read this because you enjoyed the movies, I wouldn’t recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

himpersonal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

The only scary thing about this book was the cover. (I’m going to have to find a longer book to read before the end of the year so that I don’t have to look at this cover anytime I revisit my 2024 year in books!).

Book was difficult to read and weird. There were a lot of characters, and time was too fluid. It wasn’t like many books where chapters vacillate between past and present or future. Time actually would switch within the same chapter (at times, even the same paragraph or scene). It made it hard to follow the events.

Also, I failed to see how Beverly’s act of love did anything at all for any of them, especially given how the book ends. And what was up with the Yoda turtle????, especially its explanation of its stomach ache???? Definite two most WtF moments for me.

I kept thinking I was reading an early version of Stranger Things, but Google assured me this book had no contribution to the show, despite a number of similarities.

I’m glad I didn’t DNF it, but neither am I glad I read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

julells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Ein fesselndes, geniales und verstörendes Buch, das mir an einigen Stellen doch schon fast ein bisschen zu viel war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Vomit, Car accident, and Death of parent

brittanylee0302's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

It took me a long time to figure out how I should rate this monster of a book & I'm settling on 3 because it's right in the middle & that's really how I felt about this whole book. Yes, it was super good but ohmygod it was also awful. I should also mention that I read the audio which boosted it in good terms, otherwise I'm pretty sure I never would have made it 50 pages into the book. Steven Weber does a great job narrating & really puts you in the book. His voices vary & he does an excellent job of showing the emotions of the characters. This book was creepy, but some parts were just so gross & unnecessary & I know the kids were young, but King probably could have focused a little less on the farting. The book was just entirely too long, with way too many characters & I found myself spacing out & not knowing what was going on during very large chunks of the book. The timeline was also incredibly confusing, jumping from past to present, back & forth. Honestly, if I hadn't seen the movies, I'm not sure I would have been able to follow the book closely enough to care. Also, after writing this review I feel like maybe this should have been a 2.5, 2.75 star rating, but I'm still unsure how I feel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Vomit, Antisemitism, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Death of parent

aj9moon's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail