Review: IT

[radlilim]

A Book that Scares You: It by Stephen King

Welcome to Derry, Maine...

It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real….

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.

I have actually never read anything by King, so this is also sort of a bucket list thing. I've seen a few movies, but never got around to his books. Generally I'm not a horror fan, so that is probably why. I didn't know there would be any anti-gay attitudes in it, but parts of it take place during that back lash. Not that King is anti-gay, just that some of the characters are. The build up of all the early deaths was creepy for sure. It did seem like these people were haunted by their home town a lot more than most people are. Their feelings seem a bit extreme. The slow reveal of the summer it all happened was very intriguing. The way that one story would lead to another event at a different time was a bit hard to follow, sometimes. There was a very clear feeling, half way through, of hopelessness for the protagonists. I very much felt like quitting the book, unsure if I will like the ending at all. I think part of the problem is I really don't like any of the characters. Finding out the origin of It was a bit of a let down. I realize that wasn't the purpose of the tale, but I think a better reason could have been found. Having the climatic ending from both times of the story overlap in the end was a fun way to discover the ending. The wrap up seemed to take longer than necessary. All in all, a good story. Not sure I'm going to read a ton more of King, but I'm happy I read this. Not sure it actually frightened me, but there were some gross out moments.

Rating: B-

2014 Reading Bingo

A book with more than 500 Pages Storm of Swords	A Forgotten Classic Dragonflight	A Book that Became a Movie The Maze Runner	A Book Published this Year Battle of Will	A Book with a Number in the Title Thirteen
A Book Written by Someone Under Thirty The Lies of Locke Lamora	A Book with Non-Human Characters Shards of Time	A Funny Book Let's Pretend This Never Happened	A Book by a Female Author Highfell Grimoires	A Book with a Mystery Carnal Sacraments
A Book with a One-Word Title Coraline	A Book of Short Stories Carniepunk	Free Square The Wise Man's Fear	A Book Set on a Different Continent Shattered	A Book of Non Fiction The Definitive Guide to Order Fulfillment and Customer Service
The First Book by a Favorite Author If We Shadows	A book you Heard About Online Meeting on Mars	A Best-Selling Book A Feast for Crows	A Book Based on a True Story	A Book at the Bottom of your To Be Read Pile A Light In The Dark
A Book Your Friend Loves The Graveyard Book	A Book that Scares You IT	A Book that is More Than 10 Years Old Ender's Game	The Second Book in a Series Ghost Train to New Orleans	A Book with a Blue Cover The Name of the Wind

Links in the table go to the reviews for that book. The cover links to the Amazon page. Link to the original post for the challenge is here.