It
Ratings839
Average rating4.1
How to rate.... I wouldn't call this book Horror. I'd call it Fiction with elements of fantasy and horror.
The book starts with adults, with memories of their childhood told through flashbacks. This made it easier to connect the adult to the children. That is a part I struggled with during the 1990s movie/mini series.
I loved the variety of characters and how they dealt with different issues. Beverley has an abusive father, Eddie has an overbearing mother, Bill deals with the guilt of his dead brother, Ben deals with obesity, Mike deals with racism, and Stanley deals with hatred towards Jews. Even the secondary and third characters have such complex backgrounds. I love how Mr. King mentions a character in the beginning, then ties back his character later on in the story. It may be a minor appearance, but essential to create the “small town” feel.
The horror is more gore and unknown. Yes, IT is scary, but the town bully, and Bev's father are much more frightening than the monster. They are monsters based in reality. Much more frightening.
IT, the novel, does a fantastic job recreating childhood emotions and desires. The desire to have fun. The fear or doing something wrong. Having people expect you to act one way or another. Now the controversial topic about Beverley. Mr. King has even expressed regret over this scene. The entire book emphasizes how she's just out to have fun with friends for the summer. Then her effort to save them from the monster, she crossed the line from child to adult. I knew it was coming, but didn't expect how it happened. One after the other? I found that a bit repulsive.
tldr; not as scary as I thought. More a reflection of childhood and standing up to your childhood monsters/demons.
A legjobb Kingtől, ez vitathatatlan. A horror műfaj nem kifejezetten az újraolvasós kategória, de ezt – akarom mondani, Azt – simán akárhányszor érdemes ismételten elővenni.
Beleolvastam a többi értékelésbe (a molyon), és sok újat nem tudok mondani. Valóban moziszerű a regény történetvezetése, teljesen át lehet érezni a félelmet, a barátságot, a reményt.
A mostani újraolvasás alkalmával egyszer futottam bele abba a hibába, hogy sötétedés után még olvastam, de hamar rájöttem, hogy ez nem jó ötlet. King egyszerűen annyira félelmetesen képes leírni még a kevésbé ijesztő dolgokat is, hogy az ember a legkisebb zajra szívinfarktus közeli állapotba kerül – nappal ez még aránylag elviselhető.
A karakterek zseniálisak, szépen kidolgozottak, és bár valóban kissé lassan indul be a cselekmény, jól megalapozza a későbbi eseményeket. Nagyon szeretem a végén a párhuzamos vonalvezetést, ahogy a múlt és a jelen egymásba ér.
ez talán kicsit spoileres
Kedvenc részem, amikor először bújunk Az bőrébe, először látjuk az ő szemével az eseményeket. Érdekes módon kicsit emberivé válik arra a pár pillanatra (elvégre a regény terjedelméhez képest elég nyúlfarknyi, és valószínűleg éppen ezért hatásos, az ő szemszöge).
Kedvenc részem kedvenc mondata pedig így hangzik:
„Az nagy felfedezést tett önmagával kapcsolatban: már nem akart változást, meglepetést. Az soha többé nem akart új dolgokat.”
This was a reread for me. A formative novel of my youth and one that captures all the wonder and awkwardness and beauty and closeness of childhood and growing up in a small town and then wraps those in a fantastic and epic horror tale. I do love this book. It was as good as I had remembered, and that is saying something.
Another time through, always exceptional.
Was it scary? That's what makes a good horror novel work and for me, it just wasn't. To say the book is bloated is an understatement. I believe the setups are warranted to a certain extent but the simple story underneath is severely heavy handed. There are points within the first 500 pages that flow along but with every new chapter or time change I found myself scratching my head as to why I was not given more. The ending was satisfactory but you would think after all this buildup I would have cared more about the characters than I ultimately did.
I didn't feel like I was reading a five-star King novel for most of my time spent with It, even up to the 80% mark. Sure, It is a horror novel, and a damn effective one at that. But to call it just a horror novel would be a disservice. At its core, It is a story about friendship, and that truth doesn't fully hit until the final stretch.
The last 10% absolutely wrecked me. I was sobbing. If you'd told me I'd be crying my eyes out over It, especially after having seen the films and knowing pretty much exactly what was going to happen, I would've laughed in your face. But when this book hits, it really hits. The ridiculous length finally feels worth it by the end. The emotional payoff is huge, and the heart of the story, something no adaptation has truly managed to capture, hits you hard.
In that moment, like the characters, you forget about the monsters. You forget about the weird stuff (yes, that scene, awkward, maybe unnecessary, probably a mistake, but I don't believe King wrote it with any twisted intent). What you're left with is a reflection of your own life: the friendships you've made, the ones you've lost, and the realization that while friends may fade from memory, they're never truly gone.
Absolutely insane to think this isn’t even King’s magnum opus. Solid novel with great world building and character development.
The reputation of this book flatters the actually quality of it. Super cool concept and world building of the town Derry. Was absorbed in the first 1/3 of the book but it dragged on big time. Could have cut at least 300 pages out give it more of an impact. Theres no way these kids are 11 years old and the infamous drain scene is beyond disgusting and the most vile material I have ever read in a novel that serves no purpose to the story at all. How “IT” was resolved was dull and anti-climactic. That being said, I enjoyed the originality of the story and the characters.
Wanted to love this so much more than I did, but doesn’t deserve the high acclaim it receives.
Final Rating: 3.0
The scariest part of this book was the egregious amount of times King decided to write straight up child porn. This book wouldn't be half as bad if King had had an editor. “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” headass. Why don't you apply the same logic to your adjectives. Why don't you apply the same logic to your thousands and thousands of pages. It's a shame that this story had to be written by Stephen King, of all authors. I think the average student in a high school English class could have written this book in far fewer pages. King's writing isn't all too bad, when there aren't any children, people of color, women, girls, children, animals, or CHILDREN involved.
Really liked this book after finally reading it.
I know Stephen King is known for fleshing things out, but my only criticism is that I think I would have liked it more if it was just a little bit shorter, like 100 pages or so.
This may just be because I have adhd, but I did struggle to focus in some of the more “dull” sections and I didn't really feel they added much to the overall story.
I read (listened to) the last few chapters of this while walking laps in the park, a very odd thing to do given the really weird concluding chapters.This is a genuine, bona fide, 1980's King book. I haven't read anything from Stephen King for quite a while, maybe not since I finished up my first read of [b:The Dark Tower 5091 The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7) Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1372296329l/5091.SY75.jpg 6309701], unless I'm forgetting something. There's a lot to love in this book. We've got a ka-tet, a horrible villain, and genuine fear wrapped up in places and things that few writers get to like King.There are some really bizarre things in the book. Most of them are just fine. I think I probably would have left the orgy between the kids on the cutting room floor.That said, fantastic book and a fantastic narration by Steven Weber. It has me wanting to read [b:The Gunslinger 43615 The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554220416l/43615.SY75.jpg 46575] again!
Most people say The Stand is King's greatest work but I think I will have to disagree. IT is scarier and has fantastic character development. I loved Richie. His accents and personality were a great comedic relief although his Mexican accent missed the mark pretty good.
I'm a huge fan of the movies and I think the movies are better although it's definitely nice getting a better backstory on the creation of this universe, and the characters, and understanding what IT is. The movies don't explain very much and I've always wondered what that “bright light” was.
My only issue with this book, surprisingly not the length, was the cringy homosexual child porn scene as well as the child gang bang...what the F was that about and why wasn't it edited out?
This book is a masterpiece, you feel like you get to know all the characters so, so well. Seeing their childhoods and parts of their adult lives really builds that connection to them, even the ‘bad' guys. Then there is the story itself, while surprisingly for me I didn't find it as scary as I thought I would, don't get me wrong will walk away from clowns forever, it was gripping, horrific, exciting and lots of other great things!
Some of the best character interactions I've ever read and for a horror book, moments that were so funny I spat coffee or food everywhere.
For a book thats over 1000 pages there is not a single one that felt redundant or wasted. This is by far the best King book I've read and has cemented him as an author I must work harder to read more from.
This book is not perfect or near perfect; the 5 stars just reflect my enjoyment of it. This book has every good and bad writing tic that you might find in any Stephen King books, and it's way too long, and it has stuff in it that doesn't need to be there (anyone who's read it knows). But it's nevertheless beautiful, and if you like King (if you can see beyond his glaring flaws), then check this out.
That said. I'll never read/listen to this ever again (but that's just because of how long it is).
I hope to one day write something half as scary as this.
⭐⭐⭐
This book is good and worth reading. I enjoyed it but it felt a little lacking. I may recommend it to a certain audience. It gave me mixed feelings, possibly with potential it didn't quite live up to. It's a good experience, not amazing, but not bad.
3.5 Stars
I read this because my husband LOVES Stephen King and highly recommended this book. It's one of his favorites. I don't hold that against him. Different strokes for different folks. I'm glad he and others were able to enjoy the story. I have enjoyed other Stephen King books that I have read and do think he is an amazing author. This particular book was just not it for me. No pun intended.
First off, I want to make it clear that I went into this book thinking that it was more of a horror story and less a coming of age one. If you go into realizing that it is a coming of age story with some horror sprinkled in you might enjoy it more than I did.
King did an amazing job with character development. King fleshed out each individual character beautifully (as he always does). That being said I feel like this book was just way too long. In my opinion the story could have been told in a third of time. Some parts had me wondering what Stephen King was even thinking when he wrote them and just seemed unnecessary. Like what the children did to find their way out of the tunnels when they got lost. WHAT WAS THAT!?
There are parts of the story that included fairly detailed violence towards animals, specifically dogs, and animal cruelty as well as detailed domestic violence. If those are sensitive subject matters for you. You might want to either skim over those parts of the story or skip the book all together.
The bottom line is I didn't love or hate this book. I just felt meh about it.
3 stars
and here's the thing... this book has a lot of amazing things and i absolutely loved reading these characters' childhood and their fears and relationships with each other and the world, but there were a lot of unnecessary parts. this book made me feel very uncomfortable a lot of times and after a while i really got tired of all the discrimination it has.. i mean it discriminates black people, the lgbt+ community, jews, asians and those are the ones i remember.. stephen king probably wrote mike as a black character just to be able to write all those insults and say the n word how many times he wanted. it was way too much. and then didn't focus enough on the story telling itself, and even though i loved some parts of the book, there were a lot that i couldn't despise more. so i'm pretty sure this is a an exact 50%, very balanced out... would love to reread certain parts, but i don't think i could ever read it in its entirety again...
i love the it movies and the loser's club so much so going into this book i was wary because ik stephen overwrites and uses tons of racism and homophobia in his books which i still couldn't stand. i had a good time reading this book but i do think the movies are better for me personally with the timeline splitup and with the actual time periods and because i constantly am comparing this to the movies and thinking how the movies are better, i couldn't full enjoy this and i don't think that's the books fault but i still had a good time as i said it just wasn't my favorite book every because of those elements and i don't always click with stephen kings writing and characterization all the way
This was so good. Not perfect, had some things I could have done without but overall so so good.