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A review by jaycereadss
It by Stephen King
5.0
New favorite book, new fear unlocked.
A fun story about cute birthday clowns. WRONG!!
Hang on for this LOOOOONG review!
“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years-if it ever did end-began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”
“We all float down here!”
Any time that Derry's Dancing Clown (also known as Pennywise) said anything to the members of The Looser's Club I would have chills running down my spine.
Many people: "Well, Stephen King is not scary."
Me: *Hands them a copy of IT*, "Let me know what your thoughts are after this masterpiece of a novel."
4.95/5 OF THIS BOOK IS SPOILER-FREE, AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS REVIEW THERE ARE SPOILERS (THE SECTION WILL BE MARKED WITH A LOT OF SPACING).
This is my favorite book of all time. And it is the longest book that I have EVER read. I had an audiobook on Libby the narrator is amazing. His name is Steven Weber. His audiobook narration was amazing. I recommend having the audiobook and book for a better reading experience. There is a few slow parts of this book and having the audiobook made this book not to be a lower rating than if I was physically reading them. The audiobook experience helped me get past the slow parts, I watched a few reading vlogs of IT and many people recommended having the "Dual Reading Experience" which is having the book, and the audiobook. I will be referencing The Dual Reading Experience through this book.
(At the time of writing this review I am listening to the audiobook at 3x speed, so if you looked at the dates that I have read this from that is why. I also have listed to this book as well.)
I will remember this book for the rest of my life. And yes, I will walk a few yards from the sewer drains. And if you read this book I think that you will keep far from them. It sucks that there is one right out front of my window...
The way that The Master of Horror described this clown made it even more scary. This clown is not an old regular clown that wants to give you blood at your birthday party and have a fun time celebrating your birthday party...this clown wants to feed on your fear. Whatever you fear Pennywise will feed on it. (And yes, I do have a fear of clowns now). The way he described it just made it absolutely scary as the book went on:
"Stupid! There were no things with claws, all hairy and full of killing spite. Now and then someone went crazy and killed a lot of people—sometimes Chet Huntley told about such things on the evening news—and of course, there were Commies, but there was no weirdo monster living down in their cellar. Still, this idea lingered. In those interminable moments, while he was groping for the switch with his right hand (his left arm curled around the doorjamb in a death grip), that cellar smell seemed to intensify until it filled the world. Smells of dirt and wet and long-gone vegetables would merge into one unmistakable ineluctable smell, the smell of the monster, the apotheosis of all monsters. It was the smell of something for which he had no name: the smell of It, crouched and lurking and ready to spring. A creature which would eat anything but which was especially hungry for boymeat."
The first encounter with IT was within the first ten or so pages. Absolute bone-chilling. Anyone who has not read this book, not watched the 1990 mini-series, or the 2017 IT Chapter Two knows Pennywise, hell I was six knowing that something lurks in the storm drains and I did not know who Stephen King, was or what the 1990 mini-series was. I was joking with my friends in the kindergarten that Pennywise would come to school tomorrow and jump out of the storm drain. And I was six! I had never known anything about this. If someone told me, I don't think that I would go to school that day because this book was actually that scary.
The Characters
There are six main characters that we follow through 1100 pages. The characters are the best characters that I have ever read.
The Losers Club consists of five boys and one girl.
Richie Tozier (male), I knew Richie when I was six, and now I know where he originated from. I felt like all of the characters were developed very well. I connected with all of the child characters more than when they were adults.
Mike Hanlon (male), I did not connect to Mike that much, but all of these characters were so well done.
Beverly March (female) is one of my favorite characters as well!
Ben Hanscom (male), Ben! An amazing character, one of my favorites
Bill Denbrough (male) is my favorite character in the novel! He was my favorite when he was a child, and when he was an adult. He is the brother of Georgie who was the first one to encounter IT in the fall of 1957
Stanley Uris (male), I liked him too! Not my top characters in this novel though.
None of the characters in this book are bad in any way. These are some of the BEST characters that I have read in my entire life! I feel depending on the age that you read this book you will connect with the characters in different ways!
This book has five parts with a Derry Interlude!
What is Derry Interlude? You may ask. Firstly, we should know what Derry is. Derry is a fictional town set in Maine, the town is based in Bangor Maine (where Stephen King lives). This story came when he was on one of his walks and he saw a storm drain and built a masterpiece of a story from it. Derry is not real, but it feels like you know this town, like you live there. I feel like I could walk around this town, be put in a random place, and find my way back to my house. This town was built so well, Stephen King knows how to build a town so well. He is an amazing writer.
Now, to get to the Derry Interludes: the Derry Interludes is a short brief interlude (an interlude if you do not know: is when the author takes a break from the main narration: from the characters to the town speaking. This book is told in 3rd place in the main parts, and in where Derry (the town) tells the story it is in first person).
If you do not know what first person and third person is. I have an explanation below:
First-person: I, Me, We, Us
Third Person: Them, They, He, She
The Derry Interludes were one of the best ways to get the lore behind the town to make it feel like it was real.
“Politics always change. Stories never do.”
There are so many amazing quotes that I could put on here. If you want good quotes, read this book.
“Your hair is winter fire,
January embers.
My heart burns there, too.”
The Plot
It is hard to describe the plot without getting into spoilers, so this is going to be very, very vague.
The Losers Club investigates a line of murders to find out that the murders are not done by a human force, it is done by something not human...
This book had plenty of connections to the Stephen King multiverse. If you have not read any other Stephen King books this is a good starting point on a few points, if these are not an issue with you READ THIS!
1) Page length is not an issue: an 1150-page book, might be a problem for you (and that is okay! You should not feel like you have to read this book just because I am raving about it in this review, read what you want!)
2) you will (and want) to read a lot of character development: to get to know and love these characters it is going to take a lot of development of them.
3) a slower-paced book: this book is not action after action after action. This is no Star Wars movie where battle scenes happen every five seconds. There is a build-up to the major events in this book.
4) you have a lot of time to read this book: this will take you a lot of time to read if you do not have much time on your hands. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands: read the audiobook! Everyone needs to know this story
The Moral of the Story
Good friendships are the important key to life, and overcoming fears.
I most definitely think that everyone should know this story! Everyone in their lifetimes should read this book. Make it a bucket list item. Make it now! Read this!
“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered. And the fears locked in small brains are much too large to pass through the orifice of the mouth.”
--'Salem's Lot, Stephen King
TRIGGER WARRNIGS
While reading this some things stood out for me, and I am going to note them here.
- Homophobic slurs, there was A LOT of homophobia in the first one hundred pages of this book, but if you look past it, this book is amazing
- Racial slurs, there is too, too, too many n-words in this book. Way too many. You don't need a character saying the n-word every two words he/or she says to prove that the character is racist.
- Child death
- Coulrophobia (fear of clowns)
- Bullying
- Animal Death
- Decapitation
- Hospitalisation
- Physical injuries, i
- including broken bones
- amputation
If you are subject to a trigger for one or more of the following main trigger warnings, please consider reading this book.
There were many things in this book that were just not right, it was clear that Stephen King was not in the right mind while writing this. And I am going to talk about them.
The amount of racial slurs in this book was a bit too much, it was too repetitive. I don't think that racial slurs should be in books, they should be removed so that everyone can have a nice reading experience, as same with homophobic slurs. BUT: if you can get past that, this book is amazing. It is my favorite book of all time, and it is bound to be my favorite book for the rest of my life.
Thank you, Stephen King, for writing this. Thank you for writing amazing characters.
And THANK YOU for reading this long review of my favorite book.
Here is an amazing YouTube video review of IT by Mike's Book Reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm_DGonIiSrLBGLz0ProiWA
SPOILERS BELOW:
DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS
DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER THIS WILL SPOIL THE ENDING!!!!
DO NOT READ THE TEXT BELOW IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO READ THIS BOOK, READ IF YOU HAVE READ THIS OR IS NOT PLANNING TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!!
--
SCROLL DOWN FOR SPOILERS:
--
I am so sad that there will most definitely not be a sequel to this story. But 27 years have passed and it would be cool to have a sequel.
IT is dead, IT is not coming back to haunt the cursed small town of Derry. The battle scene is one of the most edge-of-the-seat things that I have read. It is dead. The battle scene is amazing! And watching it on YouTube: Chills.
"I told you, Will, I fucking told you, I don't wanna die, it's your fault...you punched me in the face, you made me walk thru shitty water, you brought me to a fucking cracked house...and now... I'm gonna have to kill this fucking clown...WELCOME TO THE LOSERS CLUB, ASSHOLE....!"
Absolute killer of a book. Amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLM-UsuGBuQ&ab_channel=LUCASRENTON
A fun story about cute birthday clowns. WRONG!!
Hang on for this LOOOOONG review!
“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years-if it ever did end-began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”
“We all float down here!”
Any time that Derry's Dancing Clown (also known as Pennywise) said anything to the members of The Looser's Club I would have chills running down my spine.
Many people: "Well, Stephen King is not scary."
Me: *Hands them a copy of IT*, "Let me know what your thoughts are after this masterpiece of a novel."
4.95/5 OF THIS BOOK IS SPOILER-FREE, AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS REVIEW THERE ARE SPOILERS (THE SECTION WILL BE MARKED WITH A LOT OF SPACING).
This is my favorite book of all time. And it is the longest book that I have EVER read. I had an audiobook on Libby the narrator is amazing. His name is Steven Weber. His audiobook narration was amazing. I recommend having the audiobook and book for a better reading experience. There is a few slow parts of this book and having the audiobook made this book not to be a lower rating than if I was physically reading them. The audiobook experience helped me get past the slow parts, I watched a few reading vlogs of IT and many people recommended having the "Dual Reading Experience" which is having the book, and the audiobook. I will be referencing The Dual Reading Experience through this book.
(At the time of writing this review I am listening to the audiobook at 3x speed, so if you looked at the dates that I have read this from that is why. I also have listed to this book as well.)
I will remember this book for the rest of my life. And yes, I will walk a few yards from the sewer drains. And if you read this book I think that you will keep far from them. It sucks that there is one right out front of my window...
The way that The Master of Horror described this clown made it even more scary. This clown is not an old regular clown that wants to give you blood at your birthday party and have a fun time celebrating your birthday party...this clown wants to feed on your fear. Whatever you fear Pennywise will feed on it. (And yes, I do have a fear of clowns now). The way he described it just made it absolutely scary as the book went on:
"Stupid! There were no things with claws, all hairy and full of killing spite. Now and then someone went crazy and killed a lot of people—sometimes Chet Huntley told about such things on the evening news—and of course, there were Commies, but there was no weirdo monster living down in their cellar. Still, this idea lingered. In those interminable moments, while he was groping for the switch with his right hand (his left arm curled around the doorjamb in a death grip), that cellar smell seemed to intensify until it filled the world. Smells of dirt and wet and long-gone vegetables would merge into one unmistakable ineluctable smell, the smell of the monster, the apotheosis of all monsters. It was the smell of something for which he had no name: the smell of It, crouched and lurking and ready to spring. A creature which would eat anything but which was especially hungry for boymeat."
The first encounter with IT was within the first ten or so pages. Absolute bone-chilling. Anyone who has not read this book, not watched the 1990 mini-series, or the 2017 IT Chapter Two knows Pennywise, hell I was six knowing that something lurks in the storm drains and I did not know who Stephen King, was or what the 1990 mini-series was. I was joking with my friends in the kindergarten that Pennywise would come to school tomorrow and jump out of the storm drain. And I was six! I had never known anything about this. If someone told me, I don't think that I would go to school that day because this book was actually that scary.
The Characters
There are six main characters that we follow through 1100 pages. The characters are the best characters that I have ever read.
The Losers Club consists of five boys and one girl.
Richie Tozier (male), I knew Richie when I was six, and now I know where he originated from. I felt like all of the characters were developed very well. I connected with all of the child characters more than when they were adults.
Mike Hanlon (male), I did not connect to Mike that much, but all of these characters were so well done.
Beverly March (female) is one of my favorite characters as well!
Ben Hanscom (male), Ben! An amazing character, one of my favorites
Bill Denbrough (male) is my favorite character in the novel! He was my favorite when he was a child, and when he was an adult. He is the brother of Georgie who was the first one to encounter IT in the fall of 1957
Stanley Uris (male), I liked him too! Not my top characters in this novel though.
None of the characters in this book are bad in any way. These are some of the BEST characters that I have read in my entire life! I feel depending on the age that you read this book you will connect with the characters in different ways!
This book has five parts with a Derry Interlude!
What is Derry Interlude? You may ask. Firstly, we should know what Derry is. Derry is a fictional town set in Maine, the town is based in Bangor Maine (where Stephen King lives). This story came when he was on one of his walks and he saw a storm drain and built a masterpiece of a story from it. Derry is not real, but it feels like you know this town, like you live there. I feel like I could walk around this town, be put in a random place, and find my way back to my house. This town was built so well, Stephen King knows how to build a town so well. He is an amazing writer.
Now, to get to the Derry Interludes: the Derry Interludes is a short brief interlude (an interlude if you do not know: is when the author takes a break from the main narration: from the characters to the town speaking. This book is told in 3rd place in the main parts, and in where Derry (the town) tells the story it is in first person).
If you do not know what first person and third person is. I have an explanation below:
First-person: I, Me, We, Us
Third Person: Them, They, He, She
The Derry Interludes were one of the best ways to get the lore behind the town to make it feel like it was real.
“Politics always change. Stories never do.”
There are so many amazing quotes that I could put on here. If you want good quotes, read this book.
“Your hair is winter fire,
January embers.
My heart burns there, too.”
The Plot
It is hard to describe the plot without getting into spoilers, so this is going to be very, very vague.
The Losers Club investigates a line of murders to find out that the murders are not done by a human force, it is done by something not human...
This book had plenty of connections to the Stephen King multiverse. If you have not read any other Stephen King books this is a good starting point on a few points, if these are not an issue with you READ THIS!
1) Page length is not an issue: an 1150-page book, might be a problem for you (and that is okay! You should not feel like you have to read this book just because I am raving about it in this review, read what you want!)
2) you will (and want) to read a lot of character development: to get to know and love these characters it is going to take a lot of development of them.
3) a slower-paced book: this book is not action after action after action. This is no Star Wars movie where battle scenes happen every five seconds. There is a build-up to the major events in this book.
4) you have a lot of time to read this book: this will take you a lot of time to read if you do not have much time on your hands. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands: read the audiobook! Everyone needs to know this story
The Moral of the Story
Good friendships are the important key to life, and overcoming fears.
I most definitely think that everyone should know this story! Everyone in their lifetimes should read this book. Make it a bucket list item. Make it now! Read this!
“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered. And the fears locked in small brains are much too large to pass through the orifice of the mouth.”
--'Salem's Lot, Stephen King
TRIGGER WARRNIGS
While reading this some things stood out for me, and I am going to note them here.
- Homophobic slurs, there was A LOT of homophobia in the first one hundred pages of this book, but if you look past it, this book is amazing
- Racial slurs, there is too, too, too many n-words in this book. Way too many. You don't need a character saying the n-word every two words he/or she says to prove that the character is racist.
- Child death
- Coulrophobia (fear of clowns)
- Bullying
- Animal Death
- Decapitation
- Hospitalisation
- Physical injuries, i
- including broken bones
- amputation
If you are subject to a trigger for one or more of the following main trigger warnings, please consider reading this book.
There were many things in this book that were just not right, it was clear that Stephen King was not in the right mind while writing this. And I am going to talk about them.
The amount of racial slurs in this book was a bit too much, it was too repetitive. I don't think that racial slurs should be in books, they should be removed so that everyone can have a nice reading experience, as same with homophobic slurs. BUT: if you can get past that, this book is amazing. It is my favorite book of all time, and it is bound to be my favorite book for the rest of my life.
Thank you, Stephen King, for writing this. Thank you for writing amazing characters.
And THANK YOU for reading this long review of my favorite book.
Here is an amazing YouTube video review of IT by Mike's Book Reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm_DGonIiSrLBGLz0ProiWA
SPOILERS BELOW:
DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS
DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER THIS WILL SPOIL THE ENDING!!!!
DO NOT READ THE TEXT BELOW IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO READ THIS BOOK, READ IF YOU HAVE READ THIS OR IS NOT PLANNING TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!!
--
SCROLL DOWN FOR SPOILERS:
--
I am so sad that there will most definitely not be a sequel to this story. But 27 years have passed and it would be cool to have a sequel.
IT is dead, IT is not coming back to haunt the cursed small town of Derry. The battle scene is one of the most edge-of-the-seat things that I have read. It is dead. The battle scene is amazing! And watching it on YouTube: Chills.
"I told you, Will, I fucking told you, I don't wanna die, it's your fault...you punched me in the face, you made me walk thru shitty water, you brought me to a fucking cracked house...and now... I'm gonna have to kill this fucking clown...WELCOME TO THE LOSERS CLUB, ASSHOLE....!"
Absolute killer of a book. Amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLM-UsuGBuQ&ab_channel=LUCASRENTON