Scan barcode
A review by dark_reader
It by Stephen King
5.0
*this review contains mild spoilers without details*
This is at least my third time reading It, the last being over 20 years ago. I first read it at age 13-14, mostly at bedtime, and I recall being frequently so frightened that I would simply keep reading to try to stop on a less-scary part before I could go to sleep. (Of course, I just kept reading through to another scary part and just had to keep going). I was entranced. In the 9th grade I loaned my copy to a girl in school that I had a dire crush on; her name was Marie and she had the softest-looking skin. She returned it with a sticky note that read something like, "Thanks for lending me the book, I liked it a lot." I treasured that note for a long time. Ah, youth. So, I have a lot of good memories associated with this book.
Now, as an older, wiser, and more discerning reader (shut up, it's true), I find that It has lost none of its appeal. So many moments have stuck with me over the decades since I last cracked this open. I have never been able to hear Fur Elise without thinking of this book's opening and defining scene; the story of the Kitchener Ironworks Easter events, adult Ben's account of how he lost weight, and others have never left my memory, and I was surprised to see how little page-space these stories actually took up. I was also surprised by how much I had forgotten; Mike's bird, Paul Bunyan, the sweat lodge, more... every time I came across one of these forgotten passages, it triggered more memories of the book, similar to what the adult Losers go through, which was disconcerting. Several months ago, a friend posted an update for this book reading simply, "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts" and I genuinely felt chills.
Is It a perfect book? Not quite. It is quintessential King, certainly. It's length is appropriate; there are no tangents that are completely off the rails, all provide valuable character information and most will be referenced again. The structure of the book was perfect, unfolding the child and adult Losers' stories. The characters are terrific; I love these kids. The horrors of domestic abuse, bullying, racism, and general toxic masculinity are given as much gravitas as the otherworldly threat. The only parts that I felt dragged were a couple of the later interludes; in particular, the tale of the Bradley gang was underwhelming in horror, especially given its late placement. I can only think that it, and all of the interludes, were there to build an understanding of the influence that It had on the town as a whole to support the failure of adults to react or intervene in later events.
Of course, these days no consideration of It can go without mentioning that part of the ending. To be honest I did not remember this scene at all until I started reading about it in the past year, although that it must have been titillating to my 13/14-year old self when I first read it. If you haven't bothered to read the whole damn book, it's easy to dismiss this event as "hurr, pedophilic gang bang, hurrrr". If you did read It, you may have picked up on the thread of burgeoning sexuality among these 12-year old characters. It starts early, on the last day of school, with a poetic passage about love and desire at that age,
For this go-around, I read the Signet paperback edition, 27th printing from 1990 or later (first printing was 1987), which includes "Now a terrifying new miniseries from ABC-TV" on the cover and for some reason, the miniseries poster credits on the back cover. 1090 thin pages, yellowed across the top and down the outer edge. Smells like a nice old book. The glaring clown head on the cover doesn't look particularly evil, just a little sinister (still, my kids required that the cover image was kept out of view at all times). The front cover was progressively tearing off over the course of my reading, requiring some tape to keep it all together. This is a sign of a good read, when the book is demolished in the process.
This is at least my third time reading It, the last being over 20 years ago. I first read it at age 13-14, mostly at bedtime, and I recall being frequently so frightened that I would simply keep reading to try to stop on a less-scary part before I could go to sleep. (Of course, I just kept reading through to another scary part and just had to keep going). I was entranced. In the 9th grade I loaned my copy to a girl in school that I had a dire crush on; her name was Marie and she had the softest-looking skin. She returned it with a sticky note that read something like, "Thanks for lending me the book, I liked it a lot." I treasured that note for a long time. Ah, youth. So, I have a lot of good memories associated with this book.
Now, as an older, wiser, and more discerning reader (shut up, it's true), I find that It has lost none of its appeal. So many moments have stuck with me over the decades since I last cracked this open. I have never been able to hear Fur Elise without thinking of this book's opening and defining scene; the story of the Kitchener Ironworks Easter events, adult Ben's account of how he lost weight, and others have never left my memory, and I was surprised to see how little page-space these stories actually took up. I was also surprised by how much I had forgotten; Mike's bird, Paul Bunyan, the sweat lodge, more... every time I came across one of these forgotten passages, it triggered more memories of the book, similar to what the adult Losers go through, which was disconcerting. Several months ago, a friend posted an update for this book reading simply, "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts" and I genuinely felt chills.
Is It a perfect book? Not quite. It is quintessential King, certainly. It's length is appropriate; there are no tangents that are completely off the rails, all provide valuable character information and most will be referenced again. The structure of the book was perfect, unfolding the child and adult Losers' stories. The characters are terrific; I love these kids. The horrors of domestic abuse, bullying, racism, and general toxic masculinity are given as much gravitas as the otherworldly threat. The only parts that I felt dragged were a couple of the later interludes; in particular, the tale of the Bradley gang was underwhelming in horror, especially given its late placement. I can only think that it, and all of the interludes, were there to build an understanding of the influence that It had on the town as a whole to support the failure of adults to react or intervene in later events.
Of course, these days no consideration of It can go without mentioning that part of the ending. To be honest I did not remember this scene at all until I started reading about it in the past year, although that it must have been titillating to my 13/14-year old self when I first read it. If you haven't bothered to read the whole damn book, it's easy to dismiss this event as "hurr, pedophilic gang bang, hurrrr". If you did read It, you may have picked up on the thread of burgeoning sexuality among these 12-year old characters. It starts early, on the last day of school, with a poetic passage about love and desire at that age,
...and (for some reason this last caused another wave of feeling to sweep him so powerfully he had to grope for the railing again; the feeling was huge, inarticulate, mercifullly brief; perhaps a sexual pre-signal, meaningless to his body, where the endocrine glands still slept almost without dreaming, yet as bright as summer heat-lightning) a bright golden ankle-bracelet she wore just above her right loafer, winking back the sun in brilliant little flashes.There are multiple instances of children inaccurately describing sex, like a boy rubbing his wang on a girl's butt then peeing into her belly button. Beverly is on the cusp of puberty; this is fodder for horror in her relationship with her abusive father, and it is no accident that her key horror scene involves a fount of blood. The entire book portrays the group as children on the brink of sexuality, feeling without understanding. When the event in question takes place, it is not written gratuitously or graphically; rather it highlights and seals the love that the characters have for each other. King could have been more explicit about the purpose for this scene at that point in the adventure, reinforcing the group's bond at a crucial moment and tying together their past (child) and future (adult) selves as a force against It, but I did not find it out of place from the book as a whole. In his Great Stephen King Re-read, Grady Hendrix ties this scene into the themes of the book more effectively than I ever could (link here)
For this go-around, I read the Signet paperback edition, 27th printing from 1990 or later (first printing was 1987), which includes "Now a terrifying new miniseries from ABC-TV" on the cover and for some reason, the miniseries poster credits on the back cover. 1090 thin pages, yellowed across the top and down the outer edge. Smells like a nice old book. The glaring clown head on the cover doesn't look particularly evil, just a little sinister (still, my kids required that the cover image was kept out of view at all times). The front cover was progressively tearing off over the course of my reading, requiring some tape to keep it all together. This is a sign of a good read, when the book is demolished in the process.