Publishing date: September 15 1986
Publisher: Viking Press
Rating: 3/5
Book
Description:
Welcome to Derry, Maine…
It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar
as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real…
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled
upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the
big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the
force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end,
and the evil without a name.
My
Review:
It is an eerily creepy book written about seven
children who make up the hysterical and loveable group known as the Losers
Club. The omniscient presence of It plaguing the children throughout most of
the book is portrayed to the reader in an uncomfortable and terrifying way due
to Its knack of taunting each child (then later as adults) according to their
individual fears and anxieties.
Overall, I highly enjoyed the main plot and idea of
the novel and the development of the characters and their relationships with
one another. However, there were some other important, and smaller, aspects of
the novel which were extremely uncomfortable and difficult to read through.
The seven main characters of the Losers Club and
Henry Bowers and his friends, were all very well developed. All characters were
uniquely created with individual characteristics, and King presents their past
which has developed them into the person they are, both as children and adults.
I love the quirky friendship King developed and his ideas portrayed on
friendship. One quote I love on friendship from this novel is:
“Maybe, he thought,
there aren’t any such things as good friends or bad friends – maybe there are
just friends, people who stand by you when you’re hurt and who help you feel
not so lonely. Maybe they’re always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and
living for. Maybe worth dying for, too, if that’s what has to be. No good
friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who
build their houses in your heart.”
I really enjoyed the style and method King used
when constructing this novel. The array of point of views we experience the
story from made me feel like I was in the story. King’s writing style had me
engrossed and unable to put the book down. Similarly, the switching of timeline
when unfolding the events, was delightful and helped give an all-around
understanding for each of the characters and how It has affected them.
One main issue I had with the story was the way the
children ‘came together’ when they’re lost in the pipes. I felt highly
uncomfortable reading this scene, and was confused as to why King thought this
was necessary to add to the novel instead of them all ‘coming together’ in a
different way that would be more suitable and appropriate to the age of the
children, as it would be unusual for 11 years’ olds to behave in this way.
However, as uncomfortable as I feel reading this scene and others like it,
where there are young children involved, I can somewhat appreciate the horror
that these scenes bought me, as I felt genuinely disgusted and thus can see how
this adds to the horror factor of his novel. So, whilst I felt disturbed
reading these scenes I, at the same time, am impressed on how King wrote these
scenes to horrify the readers.
Overall, if you are in for a gory, disturbing and
horrific scare, Stephen King’s It will provide just that. However, beware of
the constant uncomfortable feelings that you will feel with the many disturbing
scenes King has skilfully written.
(✿◠‿◠)
