It Kindle Edition

When I was on a school field trip in the seventh grade, I took Stephen King's "IT" with me to read. The trip was going to be two days in Virginia, and was an example of staying overnight on a school trip. It should have been an adventure. The trip was frankly a waste, but the book was sublime.

I'd gotten into reading Stephen King two years before by way of a trip over the previous summer to my uncle's house. He had a collection of Stephen King novels and I'd started reading them with Pet Sematary, which had been adapted to the big screen two years before. In the intervening time, I'd devoured Salem's Lot, Carrie, Firestarter, and Misery, and The Shining. I found a copy of the 1990 TV movie adaptation and watched it. I recognized just how much I figured it had to have been toned down, but it was a decent primer (or so I thought). I felt warmed up and ready for the brick-like tome I'd acquired. I was wrong.

Reading the book was like a marathon, and I was prepared for a sprint. I easily identified with the younger versions of the characters, but had trouble with identifying with their adult incarnations. I appreciated the story and the implications of both eras, but entirely missed out on how well crafted the story was. In the end it took three weeks, but I completed the book, considered myself proud for conquering the nearly 1200 page tome, put it on the shelf, and...proceeded to put it out of my mind for nearly twenty five years. Almost, and entirely unintentionally, like the characters in the book...

Twenty five years later, I was on a kick of re-reading books I'd read as a kid, and then I approached Stephen King again. In the interim I'd devoured his books and probably thousands of other books by many dozens of different writers of differing skill levels, and when I thought "I should re-read some Stephen King" I thought about it, and it came down to either reading "IT" or "The Stand" and to be honest I felt "IT" was the better book. I remember it being a mountain for an adolescent. I wondered how I'd do this time.

It was SO MUCH better than I ever thought it would be!

I felt ACHINGLY nostalgic in the sections with the characters as kids. Whereas as a kid I identified with those elements as mapping directly onto my friends and setting, I did it unconsciously. Now I was (at times painfully) aware of it. I longed for the good times and friends of my youth. I appreciated how well King encapsulated the distance between childhood and adulthood and all the roads we travel in between. I reveled in how little we remember accurately about the past and how mutable it can be. I realized that IT was in fact two predators...both the eponymous monster who will kill and devour you, and the predator that robs us of our memories and the clarity we remember having as a kid.

The prose is wonderful. King doesn't use mere words to tell stories, he uses meanings themselves, woven seemingly seamlessly into shades of context and pigments of innuendo and occasionally bright, obvious splashes of unobfuscated emotion that jar you because...hey...in real life that's how it works. And in getting that right, King manages to make the impossible elements like the supernatural nature of IT and the relationship IT has with the town of Derry and the inhabitants there...normal. This could have happened. It could be happening. And it's that esoteric dread that King wields masterfully. The implications. The possibilities. Even in the fact that both eras are now, as of 2016, dated (the earlier phase was in the 50's, and the later phase was in the 80's...eerily we would be neck deep in the middle of the next cycle were it coming) was delightful. It was an added layer of nostalgia woven over the rest of the tapestry.

If you haven't read this book, read it now. Enjoy it. If you have read it, by all means read it again. It will thrill and delight and horrify and frighten you all over again.

I first read this book my sophomore year of college over Thanksgiving break. My employer would not give me time off to go home for the holiday and I had to stay in my off campus apartment. If you've ever been to a college campus over a holiday break, you know how deserted and creepy it can be. I made the mistake of reading this book and was so afraid that I slept on the sofa rather than venturing into my bedroom. I kept hearing noises outside my apartment door and the light bulb in the vestibule was burnt out! I don't scare easily, so the fact that I was completely terrified should tell you something about this book.

I won't go into the plot as I see there are plenty of reviews that do so we don't need another. I will say this: If you've seen the movie, please don't NOT read the book because you didn't like the movie. Stephen King's books go so much deeper than what Hollywood is able to carry over onto the big screen. There's so much character development and what's going on inside the character's heads that there is no way a movie adaptation could EVER come close to one of his books.

I just reread the book after 30 years and it's still just as good as it was back then. Only now I'm a constant reader and caught the Dark Tower references.

I don't know why I haven't read IT sooner; Stephen King is the master story teller. The story changes perspective and time seamlessly. The Kindle version was nearly 1500 pages, but it never once felt long, even the narratives talking about Derry back in the day tied into the violence and horror perfectly. Another surprise was how much I loved these little kids, the bravery (and ignorance, if we are being honest) and love these kids possessed was heart warming, even when I was ready to poop my pants scared.

If you like horror and good story telling, this is the book for you.

This is simply my favorite horror novel. I thought I already reviewed it, but here it is in my list. I bought this and reread this, after reading it many years ago when it came out. It is very long - 1400 pages. It has great character development, which is a Stephen King trait, and many layers of plot development. I never found it draggy or boring. Quite the opposite. For such a long book, I went through it rather quickly. Some readers have a problem with the final resolution, and think it is silly. I accepted it as more of analogy and completely accepted it. I did have a problem with a sexual scene with the 11-year olds and I think that King should have left that out, or changed it. On the whole, I really loved this novel. It really spooked me and that is one thing that few horror novels do. Most, even with monsters, vampires, zombies, etc. just don't spook you. This one stays with you.

Read this 30 years ago and it scared the crap out of me. Ordered this copy so my daughter could read it before the movie comes out. King is properly named as he is a master of horror. This has always been one of my favorites as I think everyone can relate to it.