Stephen King’s IT is one of those books everyone’s heard of in some shape or form – hopefully! – and recently, I finally got round to reading the beast of a book that it is. If you’re not aware, IT follows the past and present storylines of a group of friends who end up confronting the monster – otherwise known as IT (and occasionally Pennywise the clown) – that lurks the sewers of Derry. It’s been described as an “epic” and is thought to be one of the scariest books around. King is undeniably a writer of great talent and imagination, with there being some truly spine-chilling scenes in IT, and a fantastic idea for a plot. However, with a book the length of IT, there needs to be more than some brilliant scenes and a brilliant idea.
While I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy IT, from the very beginning I was filled with curiosity as to what exactly It was and how they defeated It, but all in all, the book is just too long. While all the background information is interesting and helps towards character development, it resulted in the plot being slow and a little stagnant. At times the book did really get going, and it was times like those that I literally flew through it, but following each character through their childhood got a little tedious and made me almost want to give up reading. Despite this, I’m very glad I didn’t as the ending was worth it – and extremely strange.
The complexity of the different characters was really what kept me going through this book, as although the plot was a little stagnant at times, the characters were always amusing and lovable, while simultaneously being complex and interesting. However, there were moments that it felt a little like they were fitting a stereotype. Although in hindsight, I wonder whether that was the point, to find a group of normal, stereotypical kids to defeat the hidden terror of Derry.
Being such a big book, I feel like there’s not much more I can say without giving something away, and while it wasn’t for me, I don’t want to sway anyone’s opinion of it! So let me know – what did you guys think of it?