who_is_using_all_30_characters's review against another edition
2.25
sooo many mixed thoughts (what other kind?) about this book.
1. every post that makes fun of how dude authors pay a weird amount of attention to describing what boobs are doing when they write women characters is actually referring to stephen king.
2. i don't think he pulls off the white-guy-writing-racism thing very well at all, considering most of the racism comes in the form of gratuitous usage of slurs that don't really add much to the plot, if anything. also, he's like "here! have a black character!" and you're like ok maybe this racist setting will be used in a not-racist way, but then mike feels like not completely a part of the losers club and.
3. the same thing for homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism, and generally other forms of oppression.
4. the characters. out of all of them only ben and mike are likable (and mike's characterization feels flat, idk), and i think - controversial opinion - that main characters should almost always be likable - but! here's the catch: they should also be dislikable. i wanna read a story where the main character is hard to like but you do anyway, rather than one where you CAN'T like the character.
(side note: in my head beverly marsh is [redacted] (sorry [redacted]) and bill denbrough is jonathan from stranger things and that last one especially just feels right.)
5. it's long. i listened to the audiobook so i actually didn't really mind the length and the drawn-out tension, but i can totally see how reading it would be so tiring. i would probably actually recommend the audio form specifically rather than written (IF i was recommending it, which i'm not) because the tiny details and superfluous ministories or bits of info are actually more charming than frustrating. then again, i was reading this book very idly, which probably played a part in my indifference to its length.
6. what the actual fuck.
so far all of these thoughts have been bad but i said i had mixed thoughts, which i do, mainly because the story is intriguing if you can get past the length. i do find myself wanting to know what happens next a lot, and personally i actually liked. i would probably say that reading this made me not buy into all the hype king gets, but not completely write (ha) him off either.
1. every post that makes fun of how dude authors pay a weird amount of attention to describing what boobs are doing when they write women characters is actually referring to stephen king.
2. i don't think he pulls off the white-guy-writing-racism thing very well at all, considering most of the racism comes in the form of gratuitous usage of slurs that don't really add much to the plot, if anything. also, he's like "here! have a black character!" and you're like ok maybe this racist setting will be used in a not-racist way, but then mike feels like not completely a part of the losers club and
Spoiler
his storyline ending is very unsatisfying3. the same thing for homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism, and generally other forms of oppression.
4. the characters. out of all of them only ben and mike are likable (and mike's characterization feels flat, idk), and i think - controversial opinion - that main characters should almost always be likable - but! here's the catch: they should also be dislikable. i wanna read a story where the main character is hard to like but you do anyway, rather than one where you CAN'T like the character.
(side note: in my head beverly marsh is [redacted] (sorry [redacted]) and bill denbrough is jonathan from stranger things and that last one especially just feels right.)
5. it's long. i listened to the audiobook so i actually didn't really mind the length and the drawn-out tension, but i can totally see how reading it would be so tiring. i would probably actually recommend the audio form specifically rather than written (IF i was recommending it, which i'm not) because the tiny details and superfluous ministories or bits of info are actually more charming than frustrating. then again, i was reading this book very idly, which probably played a part in my indifference to its length.
6.
Spoiler
the sex scene???? it was both INCREDIBLY uncomfy and HIGHLY unrealistic, plus it was a stupid plot point. "oh nooo we're doomed the only way we'll live is if you, token girl, have sex with all of us"so far all of these thoughts have been bad but i said i had mixed thoughts, which i do, mainly because the story is intriguing if you can get past the length. i do find myself wanting to know what happens next a lot, and personally i actually liked
Spoiler
the ending including its unexplained parts because having them all go separate ways and there isn't a happily ever after but there also isn't a then everyone died and sadness and doom everywhere seems like the ending that was right for the storynm_young's review against another edition
3.0
⭐⭐⭐
This book is good and worth reading. I enjoyed it but it felt a little lacking. I may recommend it to a certain audience. It gave me mixed feelings, possibly with potential it didn’t quite live up to. It’s a good experience, not amazing, but not bad.
3.5 Stars
I read this because my husband LOVES Stephen King and highly recommended this book. It's one of his favorites. I don't hold that against him. Different strokes for different folks. I'm glad he and others were able to enjoy the story. I have enjoyed other Stephen King books that I have read and do think he is an amazing author. This particular book was just not it for me. No pun intended.
First off, I want to make it clear that I went into this book thinking that it was more of a horror story and less a coming of age one. If you go into realizing that it is a coming of age story with some horror sprinkled in you might enjoy it more than I did.
King did an amazing job with character development. King fleshed out each individual character beautifully (as he always does). That being said I feel like this book was just way too long. In my opinion the story could have been told in a third of time. Some parts had me wondering what Stephen King was even thinking when he wrote them and just seemed unnecessary. Like what the children did to find their way out of the tunnels when they got lost. WHAT WAS THAT!?
There are parts of the story that included fairly detailed violence towards animals, specifically dogs, and animal cruelty as well as detailed domestic violence. If those are sensitive subject matters for you. You might want to either skim over those parts of the story or skip the book all together.
The bottom line is I didn't love or hate this book. I just felt meh about it.
This book is good and worth reading. I enjoyed it but it felt a little lacking. I may recommend it to a certain audience. It gave me mixed feelings, possibly with potential it didn’t quite live up to. It’s a good experience, not amazing, but not bad.
3.5 Stars
I read this because my husband LOVES Stephen King and highly recommended this book. It's one of his favorites. I don't hold that against him. Different strokes for different folks. I'm glad he and others were able to enjoy the story. I have enjoyed other Stephen King books that I have read and do think he is an amazing author. This particular book was just not it for me. No pun intended.
First off, I want to make it clear that I went into this book thinking that it was more of a horror story and less a coming of age one. If you go into realizing that it is a coming of age story with some horror sprinkled in you might enjoy it more than I did.
King did an amazing job with character development. King fleshed out each individual character beautifully (as he always does). That being said I feel like this book was just way too long. In my opinion the story could have been told in a third of time. Some parts had me wondering what Stephen King was even thinking when he wrote them and just seemed unnecessary. Like what the children did to find their way out of the tunnels when they got lost. WHAT WAS THAT!?
There are parts of the story that included fairly detailed violence towards animals, specifically dogs, and animal cruelty as well as detailed domestic violence. If those are sensitive subject matters for you. You might want to either skim over those parts of the story or skip the book all together.
The bottom line is I didn't love or hate this book. I just felt meh about it.
miiasun's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not sure how I feel about It. At the same time I love it, but somehow it left me disappointed. I guess I loved the movie (the 2017 one, haven't seen the 1990 film) so much that I assumed I'd love the book as much, which I don't. I feel like this review is going to sound very contradictory, but that's how I feel, I guess.
At first I couldn't stop comparing the book with the movie. I got over that pretty quickly though, when it became blatantly apparent that the movie doesn't follow the book very strictly at all. In this case, I think that's a good thing; such a long book couldn't be fitted comfortably in two movies anyway. There were also some things I am infinitely glad didn't make it in the movie (the end of their trip to the sewers as kids, for example. Like what the hell was that? Completely unnecessary and disgusting on a whole other level, which is to say something, considering this is a horror book.) Also, Richie was borderline annoying with his Voices and weird jokes, which I was not expecting.
Almost all the other characters had been tweaked more or less for the movie too. I had grown so used to the way they were in the movie, so I felt like I had to get to know them all over again since they were whole different people in the book. A con of watching the movie for like 5 times since it came out, I guess, haha. But, eventually, I was able to read this as a book and not as an extension of the movie, as my mind apparently wanted it to be, and mostly I really enjoyed it.
Some have complained that this book is too long and stretched, but I didn't think so. I didn't get bored with all the ramblings of Derry's creepy history or the almost irrelevant snippets of horror happening to very minor characters, but I understand why someone could. After all, I did get bored with all the backstory in Cujo, so maybe I just got more into this story.
I don't know what else to say without accidentally spoiling anything. It was scary at times and touching at times and written in the typical style of Stephen King that I love. I adored the parts where the story was more about friendship and childhood shenanigans as much as I loved all the creepy stuff. The adult parts were also enjoyable, especially towards the end.
There's a river running through my home town and I caught myself one day imagining it as the canal from Derry. That's how immersed I was in this book. I can't wait for It: Chapter Two, to see how it turns out.
At first I couldn't stop comparing the book with the movie. I got over that pretty quickly though, when it became blatantly apparent that the movie doesn't follow the book very strictly at all. In this case, I think that's a good thing; such a long book couldn't be fitted comfortably in two movies anyway. There were also some things I am infinitely glad didn't make it in the movie (the end of their trip to the sewers as kids, for example. Like what the hell was that? Completely unnecessary and disgusting on a whole other level, which is to say something, considering this is a horror book.) Also, Richie was borderline annoying with his Voices and weird jokes, which I was not expecting.
Almost all the other characters had been tweaked more or less for the movie too. I had grown so used to the way they were in the movie, so I felt like I had to get to know them all over again since they were whole different people in the book. A con of watching the movie for like 5 times since it came out, I guess, haha. But, eventually, I was able to read this as a book and not as an extension of the movie, as my mind apparently wanted it to be, and mostly I really enjoyed it.
Some have complained that this book is too long and stretched, but I didn't think so. I didn't get bored with all the ramblings of Derry's creepy history or the almost irrelevant snippets of horror happening to very minor characters, but I understand why someone could. After all, I did get bored with all the backstory in Cujo, so maybe I just got more into this story.
I don't know what else to say without accidentally spoiling anything. It was scary at times and touching at times and written in the typical style of Stephen King that I love. I adored the parts where the story was more about friendship and childhood shenanigans as much as I loved all the creepy stuff. The adult parts were also enjoyable, especially towards the end.
There's a river running through my home town and I caught myself one day imagining it as the canal from Derry. That's how immersed I was in this book. I can't wait for It: Chapter Two, to see how it turns out.
autumn_marie's review against another edition
5.0
When you reach the final two paragraphs, read them aloud.✨
username_1_2_3_4's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
scostanzo42's review against another edition
5.0
Creepy, so so creepy! I enjoyed the entire story and the end was perfect!