It

Wow

So at 43 years of age I decided to start taking reading seriously this year. After completing about 10 books that I mostly enjoyed, I decided to really put myself to the test and tackle this one.
At over 1000 pages, I didn't really think I'd get through it.
But now I understand. I understand why people fall in love with this medium. When you find an author that can make to you physically feel, smell and hear the story, then it all comes together.
It took me about 7 weeks to get through this, but only because I'm time limited. Not once did I actually want to put this down.
Now it's over, I feel a loss. I'll miss these characters. I never understood what people meant when they talked about books this way.
Mr King, thank you for finally showing me the power of storytelling.

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I love this book. I loved it when I was 12 and I love it now that I'm 42 and I guess you can't ask a book for much more than that.

Eh. I decided to give this a try because I heard the audiobook was amazing, and I started it around Halloween so I was looking for something spooky. I had just finished Misery which I thought was great, and revitalized my interest in Stephen King novels.

On the plus side, the narrator is great! But also, the audiobook is 40 hours long! So you really have to be committed, or like me, scale the speed to 1.75. There was a lot I enjoyed about the novel, the main characters are wonderful. I enjoyed the way the adult and child perspectives coincided throughout the novel, as opposed to parts one and two of the movie where they are separate. The themes of friendship and banding together against adversary were wonderful.

IT's many personifications were appropriately terrifying, but gets a little repetitive. Here's another reference to a giant bird, or eyeballs, or leprotic hobos. Henry Bowers, budding psychopath, was terrifying. But by far the award for the scariest thing in the book goes to Eddie's mother. The one who tells him he's frail and has asthma even though his aspirator is full of water. The way the narrator does her voice is chilling.

And yeah, the notorious child orgy scene was weird, unnecessary and gross.

Also, does Stephen King really think women are hyper aware of their nipples at all times? You shouldn't described Beverly's emotional state by describing what her nipples are doing.

Actual rating 3.5

Okay so I've digested this book enough that I can talk about it now.

I'm going to separate my review into two parts the first half and the second half of the book because it feels almost like two different books.

The first half of the book is the story many of us are familiar with. Seven fifth graders, or summer, and one terrible monster. The first half scared me so bad I would go outside at night by myself or walk past storm drains or hang out too close to any sinks for very long I was afraid I might hear IT.

It of course is a shapeshifter of sorts and comes to the kids all as different things and each iteration is a terrifying and fucked up rendition of a nightmare plus a clown. What makes these things so scary is when you remember that all the protagonists are children and how vividly children see things especially things that scare them, your bones will chill.

That being said, this book is bulky. It tops the list of longest book I've ever read. And it really doesn't need to be that long. Like really doesn't. You could cut the pages from 1400 to 700-800 and it would actually be better. There is a lot of repeating of thoughts and scenes and even more rambling like King didn't know where he wanted to go but he had a word count to meet so he just wrote a bunch of nonsense.

One of the other issues I have with the book is the character development. There are 7 protags and 1400 pages and at the end of it I feel like their still fairly generic, especially Beverly. Like there really didn't need to be a girl in the book if she was just going to be an abused love interest. She has so much potential to so much more she's spunky and playful and smart and I wanted more out of her but in the end her role is that of a convenience.
But more or less I enjoyed the first half of the book, it was scary and funny and all around fun.

It's the second half that got me. Plot holes and lack of climax and lack of resolve and just in general not enough.
Our protagonists are now adults and have returned to Derry to defeat It a final time. The first few chapters into this part of the book are some of the more horrifying in the whole story. But after and the further the story progresses the more jumbled and incoherent it becomes, at first you feel like you're in a rapid free fall towards an insane conclusion, and at first you're like “yeah okay cool this is getting crazy let's do this shit” but then it plateaus again and gets boring, but then picks up and is not longer scary because it's so insane and nothing makes sense. The climax of the story makes literally no sense. The author threw in bits and pieces from earlier in the book into the conclusion and none of it worked. It felt a lot like climbing Mount Everest but before you reach the summit you decide to BASE jump about 5,000 lower or to put it another way it's a long running joke with no punch line. King had too many things going at once and none of them got wrapped up properly so it's just chaos and leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth and overall disappointed.

I wanted so badly to love this book and some of it I did truly enjoy, but I would have enjoyed it more had it been shorter, with deeper characters, and a well thought out conclusion.

A perfect book in so many ways.

this was so much more than i ever anticipated, and i simply don't have the words to tell you how unforgettable this book is

I love Stephen King but it took me months to read this. It's just too long. It felt more of a chore at the end than enjorable. Good book just far too long. 

Is there such a thing as “so good it's bad”?

We're all familiar with the inverse, usually in the form of a movie which is so clumsy and inept that it becomes entertaining, in a “laughing at you, not with you” kind of way. What would the opposite—”so good it's bad”—mean? I believe that I had this experience when I read the legendary It by Stephen King.

There is no doubt that I enjoyed reading this book. I formed a real connection with the characters. My favourite scenes are when the kids are just being kids, joking with each other, building a dam, or running from bullies. I felt like I grew up with them, and when they are reunited in adulthood, I was fascinated with how they ended up and what they've done with their lives, just like I would be if I was reuniting with real people from my real childhood. How did King make me bond with the characters? He did it like any great writer: by giving the characters detailed characteristics and personalities, so that they feel like real people.

This attention to detail extends beyond characters, and into the setting as well. The town of Derry is treated to a series of “interludes” that separate the main sections of the book. The interludes serve as a history lesson of the town, and also as a way to build the myth of the monster called It. They have the feel of an origin story in a comic book, where the monster and the town itself became linked as a character of its own. By presenting the interludes as the personal journal of Mike, a black man, King even manages to tell an inspirational Civil Rights tale about a military nightclub called The Black Spot.

The level of detail is staggering, and it is a strength of the novel. But as I kept turning the pages, I came to see it as a weakness too. To put it bluntly, there is simply too much of a good thing. For example, I wrote down a note to myself at around page 300: “Eddie and the lobsters.” After finishing the book, I flipped back to that section to find 4 pages of backstory about Eddie meeting a hobo on the tracks, and obtaining a box of lobsters, and then eating (or not eating) the lobsters, and then being chased by a hobo or something. I had no recollection of this part of the book, because really, it had no bearing on the main plot. After some more flipping, I saw that the lobster/hobo episode is embedded in the middle the story of Eddie's encounter with the It monster, which is itself bookended by the story of Bill telling Eddie and the others about his encounter with the It monster.

This form of recursion, flashbacks within flashbacks, backstories within backstories, is a technique that gets used over and over in the novel. King seems to want to leave no gaps; every memory triggers another, as if the characters need a reason for every feeling and recollection that they have. I admire the skill that it must have required for King to pull this off, but the result is that the book became structurally predictable. I felt like I always knew what I was going to get, especially in the second act: this chapter is where Ben sees the monster, and we'll get some backstory about his life; then, the next chapter is now where Stan sees the monster, and we get some backstory about his life. Don't get me wrong, all of the pieces and stories themselves are compelling and enjoyable to read, but in the end, it felt like an album filled with good songs, but they all have the same time signature and chord progressions.

One of the plot devices of the book is the fact that the characters in their adulthood have forgotten what happened to them when they were kids, because of the psychic powers of the town and the monster. Given the mystical amnesia, I would have accepted some fuzziness in their memories.

You have a great imagination, Mr. King, but please leave some things to ours.

I'd been waiting to read this since I was a kid of about 11, and now I'm 38 and I've finally read it. Isn't that funny?

This book shows Stephen King to be more than the “master of horror,” as this book goes way beyond a simple monster tale, but a rich fantasy in a complex, familiar and yet puzzling world. It is a tale of the power of children, their beliefs, their bravery and so much more, as the cast of characters get to the root of the evil below their town in Maine. This book is told in an omniscient voice that has a classic monster story sound, but goes deep into the characters' lives. As this book can be enjoyed on so many levels, I can't not recommend it. Yes, it's long, but every page is filled with anticipation.

Aunque este es una novela de terror, para mí el tema principal es el poder de la amistad, la inocencia, y los lazos inseparables que formamos en la niñez...con una estructura que solo puedo describir como alucinante, saltando del presente al pasado y al presente nos cuenta 3 historias, una cuando los personajes son niños, otra cuando son adultos y por último la historia de Derry/It, y esto lo hace magistralmente...es un libro muy extenso me tomó mucho leerlo pero solo por falta de tiempo porque es largo pero no pesado.

En cuanto al final, que he leído reseñas que lo destrozan, a mi me pareció bien, creo que es una buena forma de terminar y no desmerece lo logrado en el resto de la novela.

Lo recomiendo a todos por qué es muy disfrutable

Real rating- 3.5 stars.

I did enjoy this but it took me so long to read! King's writing style does take a bit of getting used to and he does tend to be very descriptive in this one, so it's takes a while to get to a point. That said even his ramblings are enjoyable. I think if I was to reread this later I would probably enjoy it even more on a second read.

I enjoyed IT but unfortunately I was still left a little disappointed. This was probably due to having seen the great mini-series, which unlike other adaptations of Stephen Kings books was pretty true to the book leaving me wanting it to speed up a bit and get to the culmination a lot quicker. If I came to this book fresh I can imagine I'd be gripped throughout but even knowing the end the last act was still pretty amazing.

Simplemente excelente

I'm happy to report that I've finished my second reading of IT! This is still my favorite King thing (of the 20 odd King things I've read so far) and likely my favorite novel period, but this reread took me ages. I started on Stephen King's birthday in late September, devoured the first half in a week or so, and then life decided to drag my mental health deep into the gutters to visit Pennywise for a good, long stay. Not quite 27 years, but there were days when it felt like it would be! Through it all, I chipped away at this very slow and painfully unsteady reread for months; it's now early April and I've been feeling much better lately, allowing me to finally lurch across the finish line. I'm glad I got there.

I honestly think that I fell back into this story at a time when my brain somehow knew I would need it the most? The first time around I found the Losers Club and their brutal, seemingly endless heroes' journey to be super inspirational. I felt that it really changed me for the better as a reader and even just as a person on some levels? I needed to feel those feelings again and I was immensely grateful that when I slipped so far down into the depths of my mind I already had the Losers waiting around in there to help me keep on keeping on when I really, truly needed it.

Beep beep, Richie.

The fact that I started It at the beginning of the summer and finished at the end is just perfect. Ties in perfectly with the book. Just perfect. This book was oddly scary and hard to get through sometimes. I loved it so much.

So I don't think this is exactly going to end up as a review. By which I mean that normally I sit back, try to assess the good and the bad, and then attempt to write it up in a coherent fashion. Nope, this is all rambling. This is stream of consciousness. I tried to sit down and write an actual review, but I this book is just too full of feelings for that to happen. I didn't know it was going to hit me this hard this time around.

I read this book in my teens. I might have been thirteen, or fifteen, I don't quite remember. What I do remember is thinking that the best part was the fact that friendship was what slayed the beast. How many stories out there are all about one person who, against all odds, fights back? This story is about how a group of friends, of outcasts brought together by fate, of completely terrified children, that believe enough in their bond to fight that evil. I still think that's my favorite part, but more than that I see how much I miss that bond. Friendship as an adult is so much harder. It comes with barriers, and judgments. Childhood friendships are so pure.

Look, I'm not going to lie. I all out bawled at the end of this book. That didn't happen to me the first time I read it. It might not happen to me if I read it again. But this time around it just hit home so hard. The concept of slowly forgetting who you were, of losing the special bonds that you thought would last forever, well I guess I'm just at a point in my life where that is especially true. These characters were like my best friends. I was devastated to have to let them go at the end.

Gah. Rambling, I know. I'm a big sappy, mushy mess right now. But damn did I love this re-read. It was what I needed right now, without knowing I needed it. It was cathartic. And I have a book hangover that might last a few days, because it's sticking with me.

More of a 2.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous.

This could have been a damn good story if it had been....less. If I had been reading it rather than listening to it I doubt I would have made it to 30% (my cut-off point - if I'm not into a book by 30% I ain't gonna be). As it was, listening to it I drifted a lot.

I made it through a good portion of this book before I decided to call it quits. After ~20 hours of this audio book without anything drawing me into the story, I figured it was time to move on.

Reminded me of Girl with a dragon tatoo. Great story, some of the charm of which is ruined by endless rant. Not bad at all.

Wasn't scary, AT ALL! Is that weird or what? I've been sitting by myself, reading it at the dead of night. Fright is in the nerves of the reader, I guess.

Audiobook version. This was incredible. Scary as all heck. I'll never look at a clown without suspicion again.

It took me long enough but this book is AMAZING. Stephen King made me cry like a baby and scared the living daylights out of me, all on the same page. The movie may be good, but this book is a journey all of its own. 1500 whopping pages of psychological drama, action, childhood memories and one of the scariest villains ever.
Full review at: http://sffbookreview.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/stephen-king-it/

One thing that puzzled me as I read It was, Why wasn't it scary? I finally came to the conclusion that the problem is that It is meant for kids or at least teenagers. When Pennywise makes his first appearance, he entices his young victim with the promise that once in Pennywise's realm, he will have lots of cotton candy and games and won't ever have to grow old. The echo of Peter Pan and Pinocchio's Pleasure Island is clear, and I think It makes much more sense when you consider it along those lines.

I have to admit that while some people find Pennywise completely terrifying, I thought he didn't quite work. Part of it is the way King structures the story. Our first sighting of the clown is when he murders someone when he's clearly some sort of monster, so there's no frisson, no ambiguity, when he starts showing up in his various guises. His habit of changing into cinematic villains to stalk the young protagonists also struck me as counterproductive, a postmodern sort of move which served mainly to remind me that Pennywise, like the Wolfman, the Mummy or the Creature from the Black Lagoon, is just another pop cultural artifact.

King also errs in going Lovecraftian, as he doesn't really have the temperament to pull it off. It is closer to Smaug than to Cthulhu, though I wonder if it would be possible to write a horror story that encompasses King's humanistic approach when dealing with its characters and Lovecraft's cosmic approach when dealing with its outer beings.

Anyway, I give it four stars because I acknowledge I'm not really the audience for it but still think it's good at what it sets out to do.

Interesting, but dear lord, so wordy.

A long book (> 1000 pages). At one moment the reader isn't sure if it's about a group of people, a town or something else... But I got hooked and couldn't let go of the damn thing. It's pretty scary at times and there's a touch of gore (as in the old King days). Still, I enjoyed it a lot.