Book Review: It

I did it! I finally finished IT! 🎉 Out of the many Firsts I’ve had in 2017, reading IT by Stephen King was not something I thought I’d ever do. I can’t take horror or gore on TV but it’s apparently not too bad if I read it and don’t think about it too much. 😆

So many people have told me IT is so much more than just a horror novel and I totally agree! I loved the strong theme of friendship in this book and how it touched on childhood and the power of believing. It was also very complex in a sense that it focused on the lives of 7 kids with their own struggles (family, racism, abuse, bullying, etc) and King touched on those issues in an organic way. I also appreciated the great character development that came out of that and how their experiences shaped the adults they turned out to be.

IT’s a massive book though and could have been 200-300 pages shorter while still being as good. King sometimes reminded me of Tolstoy in his tendency to go on and on. 🙊 He also wrote many things in detail that weren’t very interesting or didn’t do anything for the story.

Another issue I had was how King wrote female characters in IT. I felt like one character in particular was very sexualized because everyone seemed to point out something about her body which was then made even worse by one disturbing scene near the end of the book.

Overall I liked IT for the Losers Club and Pennywise the clown 🤡 I’m curious enough to see the movie so we’ll see how I do with that. 🤞

Rating: [star rating=”3″]