Reviews with content warning for Vomit - It

audiobook with stephen weber is FANTASTIC, absolutely hard to get through some parts content wise, i was spoiled going in and still cringed at all that stephen king had to say

the tom shit in its entirety and the INTENSE sex scene with the kids at the end

and

the spiritual alien eternal pain in my ass twist with finding out what pennywise IS, and it is a she and SHES PREGNANT, and sorry a turtle made the universe and gave bill a pep talk to kill a clown like what was that

. absolutely gripping

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tacochelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Putting my thoughts into a list because I have plenty. All the spoilers, because I need to rant.

- The opening chapter with Georgie's death is so good, it's just so frank and brutal, it shows the bond between Bill and Georgie before he dies.

- So damn long. Really needed editing, cut out a lot of repetitive scenes, extra details that only confirms what we already know, etc.

- I love the cosmic horror of what It is, its true form as the Deadlights, how it warps the town of Derry around its existence.
I even enjoy the cosmic turtle encouraging the Losers, it just furthers the idea that what they are dealing with is so beyond human understanding that it drifts into the absurd.

- I actually like the details on each of It's victims, it shows what it's capable of, the sort of kids that fall on the wayside only to end up it It's path.

- I liked the friendship between the Losers, King does a really good job of making (most of) them likable, and showing how they become a sort of found family for each other. They help each other with their broken family life and trauma, remind each other that their feelings are valid and does not make them crazy.

- But good lord, Ritchie sucks. He's so obnoxious, with few redeemable moments.

- I didn't mind how sadistic the bullies were. It gave more variety to the sort of prey It feeds on. And part of what made Henry so fucked up was both his racist abusive father, and the influence of It pushing him to madness. It made sense to me.

-Bill's wife Audra feels underused. The ending with her was so weird and feels out of place.

- The gangbang scene was unnecessary. Sure maybe in the mind of a preteen sex can unite them, give you clarity and make you an adult, but for it to actually give them the knowledge of how to leave It's lair is stupid.

-The Losers Club's strong friendship is what ultimately guve them the power to defeat It once and for all. It makes sense when they forget each other the first time because they didn't actually kill It like they thought. But for them to forget each other at the very end when they do kill it feels antithetical to the story. And if they do forget each other, how do Ben and Beverly hook up after that? It doesn't add up, and doesn't make for a satisfying end.

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craighead_the_wolf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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kyliemeyerman's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

After just finishing this, I really feel like I’m leaving a whole real world and want to restart the 1200 pages all over again, which is saying most of what you need to know. It isn’t perfect. There’s things I wanted more of (idyllic childhood fun and maybe some clarification on the supernatural elements) and some I wanted less of (backstory on every side character although kind of fun and stuff I never want to read about children doing). But overall, and awesome, epic, deeply emotional work. And I never got bored, which is a massive feat in such a large volume. There’s some amazing themes here tightly interwoven with an absolutely cracking horror story. I love the characters and would crawl headfirst into a spider’s abdomen to protect baby Ben Hanscom. I would recommend this to everyone - I think anyone CAN find something to love here even if it’s not their thing.

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