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It: A Novel
Summary
Stephen King's terrifying, classic #1 New York Times bestseller, "a landmark in American literature" (Chicago Sun-Times)—about seven adults who return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they had first stumbled on as teenagers…an evil without a name: It.
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 the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city's children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry's sewers.
Fans of Stephen King know that Derry, Maine, is a place with a deep, dark hold on the author. It reappears in many of his books, including Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, and 11/22/63. But it all starts with It.
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Reviews
Confirmed my fear of clowns.
This is the only book of his that I didn't really like.
A tome, but a brilliant read!
What a crazy ride. It took me way too many months to read this book. I picked it up in October with all the best intentions to read it during that month (the perfect month for horror), and here we are in January (almost February) and I finally finished It. This one was a good one. Classic Stephen King writing, and I think my favorite parts were the connects he slipped in to other books (11/22/63 made a lot of connections to It that I was finally able to recognize now that I've read It). While it wasn't as horrifying as you'd expect for a 'horror novel,' it was still full of all sorts of eerie situations and creatures. And if I'm honest, I can't step into my pitch black garage without having a basement moment. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I read a lot of books. I worked at a bookstore for years and we were allowed to "check out" books, and I took full advantage of this perk. I have hundreds of books on my kindle, my book shelves and my audible library. One of the few that I have read more than once is "It" by Stephen King.
It is an epic tale of childhood, friendship, loyalties, love and terror. Stephen King is one of those authors who creates characters that you care about, whether you love them or hate them, you care what happens to them. In "It", you follow a group of kids through a summer of terror in their hometown of Derry, Maine, and witness their grief, love, fear and backbone, all the while dealing with an ancient evil. The friends come back together as adults when the terror starts again, as they knew it would. As adults, they have all gone their own way, and reunite to repeat the process in their adult bodies with their adult minds and beliefs.
This is a tale that shouldn't be missed by anyone. It is so much more than a horror story, and should really have a category of it's own!
It is an epic tale of childhood, friendship, loyalties, love and terror. Stephen King is one of those authors who creates characters that you care about, whether you love them or hate them, you care what happens to them. In "It", you follow a group of kids through a summer of terror in their hometown of Derry, Maine, and witness their grief, love, fear and backbone, all the while dealing with an ancient evil. The friends come back together as adults when the terror starts again, as they knew it would. As adults, they have all gone their own way, and reunite to repeat the process in their adult bodies with their adult minds and beliefs.
This is a tale that shouldn't be missed by anyone. It is so much more than a horror story, and should really have a category of it's own!
I read this book in a month, by listening to it as an audiobook. It was dark, violent, and really well written. However, there was some stuff I took issue with but more as a personal preference than anything else (which is why I gave it 5 instead of 4).
This had some definite craziness to it and I can't wait to see what they do with the upcoming IT: Chapter Two.
This had some definite craziness to it and I can't wait to see what they do with the upcoming IT: Chapter Two.
This is pretty much Stephen King’s Bible, and is almost as long as the actual Bible, coming in at 1,138 pages! I read this in my early teenage days, and I remember it reading in a week or so. Binge reading! It's really good.
group of children in Maine take on a supernatural clown killer; disturbing parts about the one girl in the group; well written in the use of multiple meanings
Hands down one o the best books I have ever read! Though it took me nearly three months to read it, the time I spent with it has been thrilling. I initially was going to read this along with my niece, however I am glad she decided not to venture into it. Much of what I loved about it, besides being terrified, was feeling the wonderment of fear that I felt as a child growing up in the country. Though I grew up in the 80's not the 50's, the magic I felt at that age was rekindled as I read this book. Now that I have finished it, it will be a bit of a mourning period as I leave the characters behind.
This was the first scary book I ever read and it terrified me. I am still afraid of clowns. I would recommend it to others.
Whoa. What a story. This was a perfect chunkster book. Stephen King definitely knows how to make you afraid of clowns and tell a great horror story.
The way I got to meet this book will always be special to me. I was maybe about eight years old. Yes, you read that right. I remember reading a fairy-tale about a man who wanted to learn fear by the Grimm brothers. And, as children do, I decided, I too wanted to learn fear. I asked my father to bring me a scary book. He brought me scary tales for children. They were not scary one bit. I told him those were for babies (pretty sure I used those words), I wanted to find out what it REALLY means to be scared.The next day IT was waiting on the dinner table.That night I slept with the light on.I love Stephen King's writing. I think he paints characters in a beautiful way and he's really great at giving them depth with just a few paragraphs. Most of his stories had a huge impact on me and IT will always be special to me.
I've read this twice before, always thought it was pretty good... maybe a 3 1/2 Or 4 star rating. I just finished listening to Steven Weber's reading of it. Oh my GOSH, was it amazing! There are so many things I hadn't noticed before, so many things I'd forgotten. This is an EPIC story, worthy of every single moment I've spent on it! Yes, it's one of King's longer stories.... I wouldn't change a thing!!!
If you're unfamiliar with the story, here's a quick summary: there's a really bad, scary monster/being/presence in the town of Derry, Maine. Sometimes It appears as a wolfman, or a mummy, or a sore-covered bum; but mostly, It appears as a clown. It comes back to "feed" every 27-30 years, focusing mostly on the small children of the area. In 1955, The Loser's Club actually manages to cause some damage to It, and they think maybe kill It. However, in case they didn't completely wipe It out, they make a promise through blood that they'll come back to finish the job if they need to. In 1985, that's just what they're called to do. But can they kill It, now that they've all grown up?
If you're unfamiliar with the story, here's a quick summary: there's a really bad, scary monster/being/presence in the town of Derry, Maine. Sometimes It appears as a wolfman, or a mummy, or a sore-covered bum; but mostly, It appears as a clown. It comes back to "feed" every 27-30 years, focusing mostly on the small children of the area. In 1955, The Loser's Club actually manages to cause some damage to It, and they think maybe kill It. However, in case they didn't completely wipe It out, they make a promise through blood that they'll come back to finish the job if they need to. In 1985, that's just what they're called to do. But can they kill It, now that they've all grown up?
Rereading this novel, I am still reminded about Stephen King's skills when it comes to the narrative of childhood - he has a knack for making you think about your own, as if his tale(s) could conjure up similar life experience in our own, or an echo of it. This is, of course, not including the horror elements, but distancing between the two is necessary if you think about it. Originally, I had read it in French as a teenager. Horror elements had then a bigger impact on me than the underlying elements of childhood but somehow, they helped me cope with my recurrent nightmares. Now, I probably see the background narrative more with the eyes of maturity and experience, and while I really think King's skills lie more in short stories and novellas, this is one of the few novels which conveys a sense of having been worked on, in terms of characterisation but also in its format and conclusion. It's one of King's novels I'd recommend reading a few times, a few years apart, maybe, because it's a different reading each time.
Scared the crap outta me - I now *highly* dislike clowns.......
This will forever be my favorite book... most likely.
I liked this one. I really have not read a lot of King's work but this book has been one that I have wanted to pick up for a long time. I decided to go with the audiobook since I had heard great things about the narration and I think I made a really good choice. This was a really entertaining story that kept me listening for hours at a time.This book is told in alternating timelines. We follow a group of characters in the childhood and again as adults. The timelines worked really well with each other to tell the story of the events occurring in the town of Derry and there are some very strange events happening in that little town in Maine. I found that I liked both timelines equally and was really invested in finding out how things would work out in each. I really feel like I got to know all of the characters very well. There is no shortage of character development in this book. If anything, I would say that we are given too much information regarding the backgrounds of some of the characters. I mean this is a really long book and sometimes I felt like I spent hours listening to only learn one character's backstory. On one hand I really liked all the details but on the other hand the book felt too long. I liked that the main characters were all flawed individuals that had things to overcome as kids and new things to overcome as adults. I think that this book did a lot of things really well in addition to the characters and use of timelines. I think that it did a great job of painting a truly creepy and menacing portrait of the evil in Derry. I liked the mystery behind Pennywise and his appearances. There were some truly frightening scenes in the book which I really appreciated as well. There were a few scenes that felt so realistic that I found myself cringing as I listened to the book.There were a few things that I didn't care for in the book. The end of the book felt really weird to me. The ending was surprisingly odd and just didn't seem to completely fit. I was also rather bothered by the sex scenes involving kids. It was just all kinds of wrong and the book would have been a lot stronger without it in my opinion. I did feel that the book was too long. I enjoyed the story but by the time I got closer to the end, I was more than ready to be done with it. Steven Weber did an absolutely fantastic job narrating this book. There was a very large cast of characters that he handled very well. I thought that he did an exceptional job with Bill's stutter and keeping all of the voices consistent. He added just enough of a creepy factor to the scenes that needed it. He really did such a wonderful job in bringing this story to life and I often listened to his voice for hours at a time. I would definitely listen to his narration again if given the opportunity.I would recommend this book to others. It wasn't perfect but it was really good and I am glad that I finally took the time to listen to it. I do recommend the audiobook for anyone considering reading this book because I really do feel that the narration adds a wonderful element to the story. I do hope to read more from Stephen King in the near future.
Was hoping to like this one a little more. It just felt so long and drawn out. It was a little hard to keep track of the constant back and forth with flashbacks, too. I think this book could have been cut way down from what it is.
a great King epic, up there with the likes of The Stand and his Dark Tower series.
Genuinely scary and excellently written. It was a pleasure to read.
Genuinely scary and excellently written. It was a pleasure to read.
I wanted to rate it higher than this. It was very well written and kept my attention for its entire huge length. One of my problems is perhaps from a case of unmet expectations. I loved the idea of the clown in the drain and really looked forward to a very rewarding meet-the-monster-at-the-end-of-the-story experience. I didn't want It to change forms, I wanted It to be a clown! I couldn't even walk by a drain without thinking about clowns down there. That maybe a voice would ask me if I wanted a balloon if I listened hard enough. Okay, I'll admit it. Once I actually even stopped and bent over to peer into the drain in front of my house. And, I LOVED his voice! Totally gave me the most delicious creeps. If you ever read this book, choose audio--the narrator is the best I've heard since the Harry Potter books. It was just that, at the end... I don't want to give anything away but I was let down. By a couple of things. If it wasn't for the let-downs, I would easily give the book a good four and a half stars.
Awesome! Classic King, a must read for all fans.
Stephen King knows how to spin a yarn that gets under your skin. Gloomy, creepy, downright scary...these are the things that It may be described. The ending was a bit too strange and out there for me, but the book otherwise is a classic in modern horror.
Great concept, and it was this that sent several shivers down my spine, rather than excitement at the action.The book is undeniably bloated and the themes which are clearly brought out in the earlier parts turn into sentimentality by the end where he actually gets a bit emotional and teary-eyed. It's enjoyable to be immersed in the world but quite frankly it could have been done in far fewer words. He repeats himself a lot.Still, if you like King's voice and you're looking for an unusual and tasteless horror novel, then you've just found the right book
I cannot look at clowns the same way. Pennywise is an unforgettable character and the long struggle of the gang against him are engrossing.
So, finally getting around to this one. It's been on my to-read list forever. In fact, this particular copy is my mother's. It and Eye of the Dragon were sitting on one of the shelves in my house for years, I always saw them there growing up, and when I first started reading King, I asked my mom if I could borrow them some time. She let me have both of them, as she had tried to read them some time ago and couldn't get into them. King is not really my mom's style. Nicholas Sparks, however...Anyway, I feel like this is another case of a book finally getting read at the right time. If I had tried to read this when I first got it, I probably would have found it extremely long-winded, but having read it now as part of the BookTube Reading Buddies October Group Spooky Reads, the timing could not have been better.Yes, the book is long (my particular paperback copy weighs in at about 1090 pages). When you first start, it seems like it is going to be excruciatingly long and difficult to keep a steady pace with (which is probably one reason I put it off as long as I did), but that is so not the case. King structures the story so that questions are answered as they are needed. You are vaulted backward and forward in time as past and present meet and nearly merge. The Losers Club has forgotten what they did in 1958, and now that they have to do it again in 1985 they start to remember. The adult Losers are finding out what happened to them back then at the same time the reader is. It's an effective way of keeping the reader engaged.And, of course, there's Pennywise. Pennywise the Clown, Robert Gray, It; the many names of one of the greatest villains ever written (in fact, I think Tim Curry's portrayal is considered one of the top ten movie villains of all time). It's creepy, It's evil, It has a powerful influence on the entire town of Derry, Maine, and It targets children because it feeds on fear. And what fear is sweeter, more powerful, than that of a child?Along with both past and present events, the book is also interspersed with the diary entries of Mike Hanlon, one of the Losers, and the only one to remain in Derry during the years between. Hanlon has done heavy research on the town, trying to find any rhyme or reason to It. He's worked out the cycle, and through his journal entries, we get to read about the other instances of It's influence, It's feeding. Not only does King present the original and current fights of the Losers and It, he also gives the town history of Derry, because the town is just as much a part of It as everything else in the book.This was such an intense read. The way the story is told, there were nights where I couldn't stop reading. We'd hit a major moment in the past, and King would jump to the present. Something vital would happen in the present, and suddenly we're shunted back to the past! Had to keep reading, had to know what was going to happen, or what had already happened...I know it seems confusing, but it really isn't. Just don't forget, the Turtle can't help you, and you can't be careful on a skateboard.
I loved most of this, but then it gets to the end and it turns out the only way to defeat It is with a truly creepy underage sex scene.
But the Chinese restaurant scene is King at his best.
But the Chinese restaurant scene is King at his best.
This book was a bit like a rollercoaster I've been on. It started off slowly, slowly, until you think, "oh god, maybe I'm wasting my time", and then it gets to the top and starts to roll down and twist about and sometimes seems to throw you upside down, and you're going to be sick, and if you're a braver person than me, when it rolls to a halt, you decide you're going to do it all again right away.
It is a seriously dense book. There's layers and layers of setting the scene, building the characters, placing you firmly in Derry yourself. There's so much background that, like the characters of the book, I think I'm starting to forget a lot of it now that I've reached the end.
I loved it. It certainly has its flaws -- it gets too dense, in parts, goes too slow, and sometimes it's just too obvious. We get told over and over again that Bill Denborough is the big leaderman, that Ben's the one who can build things, etc, etc. But I enjoy really solidly built characters and really deep world-building, so this was really my thing. I thought parts of it, like the Turtle, were really pushing it, but it was worked in, in little bits, throughout the story, so I could go with that.
At first I thought it wasn't going to freak me out that much, but then it did. Ohboy, it freaked me out. And now I have to walk to dinner in the pitch-dark...!
It is a seriously dense book. There's layers and layers of setting the scene, building the characters, placing you firmly in Derry yourself. There's so much background that, like the characters of the book, I think I'm starting to forget a lot of it now that I've reached the end.
I loved it. It certainly has its flaws -- it gets too dense, in parts, goes too slow, and sometimes it's just too obvious. We get told over and over again that Bill Denborough is the big leaderman, that Ben's the one who can build things, etc, etc. But I enjoy really solidly built characters and really deep world-building, so this was really my thing. I thought parts of it, like the Turtle, were really pushing it, but it was worked in, in little bits, throughout the story, so I could go with that.
At first I thought it wasn't going to freak me out that much, but then it did. Ohboy, it freaked me out. And now I have to walk to dinner in the pitch-dark...!
One of King's best books.
I've spent most of my life afraid of this story after watching the TV series as a child. I finally decided to read it and only made it half way through before I decided that it is far to scary for me. What I did read was brilliant and scary, the imagry was fantastic and far better than anything the TV series came up with. I would definately recomend this book, but only to people who are far less wimpy than me!!
As with all Stephen King's work, It is at times unpredictable and unbelievable, which is both the novel's blessing and curse. Part of what makes King a master of his genre is his willingness to press against its limits; in It he plays with the sense of destiny that often infuses horror stories, giving the task of destroying an impossible evil to children. He then follows these children through their lives, as the horror echoes forward, undermining all their future (apparent) successes.