A review by miw4everaly
It by Stephen King

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