Reviews with content warning for Incest - It

Please excuse any typing errors as I am too lazy to edit
There are some good things about this book, but the bad significantly outweigh them. This is one of the most needlessly offensive and problematic books i have ever read. The only thing horrifying about this novel is that King had the audacity to include so much needless hatred and is still being praised for it. The level of racism, sexism, pedophilia/sexualization of minors, anti semitisim, etc is FAR beyond anything that is warranted by the plot and its honestly inexcusable. If you took a shot everytime King used the N word with a hard R, you'd die of alcohol poisoning somewhere between the one third and halfway mark. King is constantly using language and scenarios that sexualize Beverly, constantly mentioning the way her 12 year old body is maturing, painting her as a (and im quoting here) "whore" from almost every chatacters POV. Shes even sexualized in her own POVs.

Bill's catatonic wife is literally likened to a blow up doll at a sex store

Richie is known for doing voices and almost all of them are racist stereotypes, his go to one being the charactature of a black child like you'd see in a minstrel show. They are constantly using Stan being jewish as a punchline. It feels intentional that

the jewish character is the one he kills before they even get together as adults

, the female is the one who spends her whole life abused, and

the black character is the one King cast to stay in Derry and remain poor while the others prosper as adults

. And this isnt even the big shit like the ENTIRE CHILD SEX SCENE. With literal 11 to 12 year olds. Which King has never retracted or apologized for (from what I've seen) but only said it aged poorly cause people now are more sensitive....like its irrational to take offense to an adult writing kids having a, for lack of a better term, gang bang. And again, most of this is completely irrelevant to the plot and could have been excluded with zero detriment to the story. I will admit that if you are writing about minorities and setting it in the 50s, a certain level of bigotry is warranted. But the level to which King took it is gross and uncalled for. He could have just as easily NOT written any minority characters if this is his idea of representation. The fact that he, of his own freewill, wrote this level of offensive stereotypes, micro aggressions, bigotry and full on volatil hate and has never apologized for it, or made a statement against it, is sick. And the fact that it got through editing and publishing and is STILL being praised and rated 5 stars speaks volumes to what we are willing to let straight, cis, white men in power get away with. I can't imagine a single POC, female, or religious minority character writing the story the way King did, even in the 80s.
It is also overlong, it could have easily been 400 pages shorter than it was. It dragged on and on. It doesnt genuinely pick up or reach a true climax til around page 950 (in my edition) so like 150 pages away from the end. That's ridiculous. King is constantly overloading the book with lore building and exposition that really isnt needed past a certain point. It took me 4 months of on and off reading to finally get through this thing. Ive never taken more than a month to read a book, even dense ones like the entire Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series, in my adult life.
Most people I have seen, even those who praise this book, don't count this as a book they would ever reread. If that's not a red flag i don't know what is. I cant think of a single book, even thick and complex ones, that i loved and wouldn't pick up again.
PROS: King is a genuinely skilled writer on a technical level and the book is well crafted. There are very thoughtful and interesting themes around childhood vs adulthood, the transition between the two, and the power of faith/belief. It really could have been a gorgeous novel if he leaned more into that earlier in the book and cut down on all the unnecessary bigotry and lore building. I likely would have loved this if it was shorter and less hate filled.

Content Warnings

chelseachips's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Content Warnings

bahyreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense slow-paced

3.0

Content Warnings

gayla's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense slow-paced

1.0

Really horrible and disgusting in pretty much every way. The one female character is horrifically over-sexualized despite being around 12 years old for most of the book. She is the only character to not be introduced in her own perspective - instead, she is introduced by a man that gets immense satisfaction out of abusing her. The scenes where “it” describes how her father felt about her were so sick that I had to stop eating. It gets so bad that he somehow manages to include a completely unnecessary

child orgy

scene towards the end. Insane amounts of racism (not just depicted as a bad thing, but used by the main characters as a comedic device). The entire set-up of the book is basically just an excuse for King to write awful things about every type of minority.
Finally, the end just does not make sense at all. King was definitely high out of his mind when he wrote this. The whole book felt like an excuse for King to write all of his sickest thoughts into a poorly executed story.

Content Warnings

ajeanx's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Whilst reading It, I witnessed a thing live and die. From childhood through to it’s drawn out and somewhat painful death, It was... a lot. Too much, really. But it was 1067 pages, so what was I really expecting? Having been my first Stephen King novel, I’m in awe of King’s writing and his ability to create a world and it’s characters so clearly and realistically (even if his interpretation of a female perspective is so amusingly off). The enthusiasm for what he’s writing is somewhat headstrong, as descriptions and fine details drew on and on... and on (dare I admit I skimmed quite a few of the last pages). Yet, you’re so deep in by that point when you hit the 200/300 pages-to-go mark that you just kind of have to push through. Worth it? Er, maybe it’s because I watched the films first, but... eh. Complicated answer. Amazing, disturbing writing and story building, but just as the Losers’ memories fade into nothing but a vague, groggy sort of question mark over time, my mind is doing the same. In the end, It is truly an entertaining read, if you’re prepared the face the viscerally f*cked up content within.

Content Warnings

yeuniversse's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

More...