IT by Stephen King

It by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - dipped in and out over 6 days

Pages - 912

Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton

Blurb from Amazon

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live.

It is the children who see - and feel - what makes the small town of Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurks, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reaches up, seizing, tearing, killing . . .

Time passes and the children grow up, move away and forget. Until they are called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirs and coils in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.


My Review

This is a re read for me, I read it as a kid (yes I had no place reading such a book at a young age but it began my love of reading and horror), re read it seven years ago and again in prep for the new movie. There is a killer in Derry Main, supernatural and targeting kids, killing them in vicious and terrifying ways. With the killing of young Georgie it kicks starts something IT (the monster) could never have foreseen. Georgie's brother Bill and his friends go on a journey of terror and with a beautiful childlike innocence to confront IT and make a pact for the future, if IT comes back they will too.

The book is split over two timelines, back in the 50s when it all first happens and in the 80s (present day) where the group are now adults and called upon from their pact they made when kids. The killer takes the form of many, Pennywise the clown being one of the most that we readers and fans of the movie know best. But IT has many forms and has gone unchallenged for a long long time. Bill, Ben, Eddie, Bev, Stan, Mike & Ritchie are brought together in friendship and fear to form the Losers Club, they are uniting against the local thug and unknowingly IT. A tale that covers so so much, yes it is a horror and yes there are some claustrophobic gut churning moments of absolute terror but there is also so much more. Friendship, loyalty, innocence, love, racism, marriage, violence, abuse, supernatural and that is just scratching the surface. I loved this book as a kid although I was caught up in the horror side of it. As an adult the other themes really stand out, the racism is horrific and really strong through a huge portion of the book.

I only got to read this in snippets as I have had work and other things on, but I found myself sitting at 3am not realizing how many hours had passed as you just get absorbed into the story. I know some folk have mixed views on how the book turns and wraps up, I think because this was pretty much one of the first books I ever read it will always have that power for me. Clowns are particularly frightening for so many folk, I never had issues with them but Pennywise is indeed something else. I have this book in hardback and ebook and it is absolutely a keeper for me, master King has long been one of my favourite authors and I still have a few of his I haven't gotten to yet. 5/5 for me this time, absolutely not for the faint hearted of easily offended and it is a huge book at almost 1000 pages, if you like King or horror I think you will love this one!

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Happy birthday to me

Today is my birthday, I am just home after gallivanting around - I went to Amsterdam with the girls and then off for two nights with my o/h around Scotland.


The buildings in Amsterdam are beautiful, some squint and tipped forward, apparently this is because they use pulleys to get heavy goods up to the flats and by tilting the buildings they reduce the risk of damage to the building and furniture.





I found a few bookstores there but only one that sold books printed in English, I ended up buying three, I was restricted as I only had hand luggage with me. I bought The Fireman by Joe Hill, The Rivals of Dracula by Nick Rennison and Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry.





The view from the plane was stunning.








Then driving around Scotland for a wee road trip with the o/h. There was some stunning views, I took my wee TripFiction postcards with us. If you haven't heard of them please check out their website HERE. TripFiction matches up readers to books by locations, it is such a great idea and they have a FB/Twitter account and do giveaways.


This one was in Loch Long




This one was in Amsterdam




We stayed overnight in Oban and I found a Waterstones, they had some great book displays out, the new Rebus book by Ian Rankin with the crime scene tape, small things can be so eye catching. I tweeted the piccy to Rankin, I think authors must miss so much stuff and I love things like that and I am just a reader.





I also bought some wee bits and bobs from Waterstones, I had been given money for my birthday and saw some bookmarks, who can resist. I also found a Star Glider, you remember those Styrofoam aeroplanes from the 80s? If not see the picture, this is a mini one and I thought Princess Trixie (the kitty cat) may enjoy it. Wonderwoman magnetic bookmarks and a wee metal one with my initial. I think I did pretty well not to buy any books, o/h pointed out buying a book would have been cheaper, just no pleasing the non book geeks!





I spent the last night in a deep bubble bath with my book relaxing and then we traveled home today, stopping off at a castle where we found a birds nest with four babies in it, you can find loads of piccys from the trips on my Instagram, click HERE.








So after all that travelling tonight is chill, I am re reading IT by Stephen King and finally got a reason to break out the new bookmark to match it. My book is one of the older ones, 1987 I believe and published by BCA Hodder & Stoughton. I wanted to reacquaint with the book before the movie comes out, I have re watched the old one, love Tim Curry as Pennywise, totally freaks you out. Hope you guys are having a great night and chilled Sunday.