A review by dkonstanzer
It by Stephen King

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

3.75

The plot and characters are great, but the book itself (similar to many of King’s other works) is extremely slow-paced to the point of dragging on unnecessarily. The length allows for a great in-depth exploration of the characters, but there are certainly scenes that stretch longer than needed and add little to the plot. There is also something to be said about the author’s portrayal of women—this is a critique often heard when discussing Stephen King’s works, but while the women are certainly multifaceted and have diverse personalities, the objectification of Beverly Marsh specifically can be off-putting to those uncomfortable reading graphic sex scenes (I’d like to make it clear that I’m not referring to the objectification of her by the other characters, as men treating her as an object and her breaking free of those who hurt her is an incredibly poignant part of her character development—I’m more-so referring to the use of her by the author as a way to write unnecessary (and sometimes gross in the case of a particular scene from before the time skip to adults) sex scenes and the objectification of her body by the author himself). While a longtime tradition of horror in both written and visual media is the inclusion of naked and/or sexually exploited women without any sort of plot relevance, more recent takes on the genre have managed to steer away from it, so this type of content may be shocking to some who haven’t interacted much with older works yet (basically—this was written in 1986 and it shows). Overall, I’d call this a good read, and the author does a fairly good job of representing real-life issues in his characters’ development, but I’d recommend caution before diving in—this book is a beast, clocking in at over 1000 pages, and a number of the scenes can feel a little pointless and are hard to get through. While I’d definitely say reading is worth it (as it genuinely is well-crafted with deep characters and an interesting, well fleshed-out plot) it will take up a significant portion of time to read, and can at times be a bit of a drag. 
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