A review by arvaive
It by Stephen King

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

look. there are many problems with this book. i don't like the way the story treated bev (or any of its women, for that matter). the racist voices were annoying. the number of slurs used at times (particularly the n-word) made me feel like i was reading tarantino. The Scene, as we all know, was pretty weird and unpleasant to read as an adult. there's a lot of random filler that could have easily been cut and taken at least 100 pages off the thing. it's absolutely a book written by a man who was zoinked out of his gourd. 

BUT. but. no book that can make me cry this hard can be worth any less than 4 stars.

i wasn't even particularly scared of pennywise, man– the truest horror for me in this book

comes from the last last couple of chapters, in which the losers forget each other

. that's the scariest shit in the world to me. when, in the final derry interlude,

mike ends his notes by telling the other losers, whom he can at this point barely remember, how much he loves them

, i genuinely felt sick to my stomach. this book had me sobbing for an hour after finishing it and i'm still crying a little bit even now. holy mother of god. worth every bit of discomfort in the end, even though this end has left me feeling like i'm about to throw up and/or fall to pieces any second now. i'll probably look back on this and think i'm being overdramatic, but right now that's exactly how it feels. jesus.

if i may leave you all with a quote:

You don’t have to look back to see those children; part of your mind will see them forever, live with them forever, love with them forever. They are not necessarily the best part of you, but they were once the repository of all you could become.

and remember: you can't be careful on a skateboard, friends.