It (Signet)

Stephen King

Surprisingly enough, King dedicates this book to his children. It is a horror(??) novel whose...more

Surprisingly enough, King dedicates this book to his children. It is a horror(??) novel whose underlying topic involves growing up and nostalgia and the magic that surrounds childhood friendship... all backdropped against a force of evil that "feeds" of those unfortunate enough to cross its path!! hahaha You can find several recurring ideas in this book, most of which are reminiscent of at least 1 other Stephen King Book/movie (Dreamcatcher, anyone?) None of the protagonists generate much empathy, after all, they are angst-ridden children... But the villains, in true Stephen King fashion, go well beyond the antagonist...Pennywise, the Clown...for whom you can feel a complete sense of revulsion..(the bastard). The real evil in this book is not IT, but mostly the degenerates (adult and children alike)... the women-abusers... the lying overprotectin mothers... the gaybashers...the racists... if this book fails to create empathy for the protagonist´s plight, it does heighten your sense of loathing for every single one of those degenerates... and true to King, they all get their just desserts in the end...    hide

It started out strong. I was hooked and expected another great book, and suddenly and rather...more

It started out strong. I was hooked and expected another great book, and suddenly and rather quickly, it became really wordy and overly detailed with some rather useless action. It was drudgery to get through. Like someone reviewed before, I questioned if It was edited. The book could truly be brought down to an easy 700 pages, not the 1093 that is turned out to be. I love Stephen King, and he is at his best when he is concise, curt, and short (Carrie, Cujo, The Girl who loved Tom Gordon) but in It he took a potentionally great story and burdened it with lengthy prose that was endless. And the misogynistic element of the story can not be overlooked. It rears its ugly and senseless head in the last hundred pages, where something happens that not only makes me cringe (because of its oddness in the story), but it didn't build the plot at all. It made no sense. "It" is scattered and lengthy. I don't say this very often, because its not always true, but the movie (in my opinion) was much better than the book. The book was slow at times and not as good as I expected. But if you are a fan of Stephen King's and you don't care for the book It, then see the TV movie directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. And if you're really into it, then listen to the commentary on the DVD which features Richard Thomas (Bill Denbrough), Tim Reid (Mike Hanlon), Dennis Christopher (Eddie Casbrack) and the late, great John Ritter (Ben Hanscom).   hide

The most epic of all Stephen King's horror novels and certainly the scariest book I've ever read or...more

The most epic of all Stephen King's horror novels and certainly the scariest book I've ever read or will ever. A tale about childhood and the power of imagination, had me afraid to turn over in bed some nights for fear of a yellow balloon waiting behind me. The story is incredibly paced, and segmented by Derry's elaborate town history of tragedy presented in Mike Hanlon's journal entries as well as the indepth insite into the characters brings this novel into something that feels more real and less forced than some of King's prior and later endeavors into the macabre. In this story he surpasses all previous creations and brings a character and force of evil hidden by grease paint, that is nothing short of the epitome of evil and all that you fear. Both curse and cure, the power of imagination is no less this story's message than it is a reason for appreciating this well written masterpiece.   hide

The characters in this book stayed in my mind for a long time when I was just a teen. I love the...more

The characters in this book stayed in my mind for a long time when I was just a teen. I love the dense descriptions as it felt as if King was starting to get literary. This made the scenes powerfully atmospheric and memorable. The monsters in here are creepy and gets under the skin of the imagination, resurfacing later when one least expects it. Like The Stand, It did not try to be accessible by simply being hard-and-fast. For this, I was glad.    hide

Only gripe I can think of is the (not uncommon) exploration of sexuality in minors. It was just a...more

Only gripe I can think of is the (not uncommon) exploration of sexuality in minors. It was just a really weird choice for King to make for that story element. It easily could've been anything else, like the glass shard "ceremony". Weird. I think he wanted to develop more sexual anxiety in her, having to do with her Dad (and the encounter years later with It in her old house), but couldn't commit to it, so we just get a confused picture of adolescense. Although it's a really great book, like someone else said, even of just what it was like to be a loner in those days and to find out that there are people not so different from you.   hide