IT by Stephen King

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.

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