Reviews

It a la réputation d'être LE grand classique de Stephen King qu'il faut avoir lu au moins une fois si l'on apprécie cet auteur.

On y retrouve effectivement la patte de l'écrivain comme les monstres cachés dans l'être humain, la construction de l'univers de l'histoire, ou encore le surnaturel. À cela s'ajoutent les thèmes de l'enfance et du passage à l'âge adulte, la mémoire, l'amitié... Et tout semble une recette idéale pour un excellent livre.
En effet, certains passages fonctionnent merveilleusement bien en nous plongeant véritablement dans l'horreur dont est capable l'humanité. On en ressort avec un profond sentiment de malaise, amplifié par le fait que la ville entière détourne le regard de ces atrocités.

Néanmoins, le roman souffre de sa longueur, son propos finissant par s'alourdir. Si bien, qu'une fois que l'on voit le dernier acte approcher, on ne peut s'empêcher d'être soulagé d'en finir. Paradoxalement, certains éléments se résolvent un peu trop facilement et rapidement. Résultat, ce rythme bancal donne l'impression d'une histoire mal maîtrisée.
On peut tout de même noter l'idée d'alterner entre le passé et le présent qui, au même titre qu'alterner les points de vue, permet de jouer sur le suspense pour rendre l'expérience plus captivante.

bittie_bee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

I know more about Derry than I do my own town.
Superb twists tho.

ktxx22's review against another edition

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5.0

This book. This book, all the characters, the storyline, the writing, the setting; will be with me for a long time. This book is one of the best books I've ever had the pleasure to read. The depth of this story and how it all comes together. Perfection. I love Pennywise and I am deathly terrified of clowns. I love that it's a Dark Tower related book. I literally can't wait to visit Derry again in the future!

mboard's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Sigh. This is hard to rate because this book is a monstrous 1200 pages which means there’s just a lot to digest.

First off, I wasn’t scared basically the whole book. Honestly, the scariest scene was adult Bev trying to escape her super abusive husband Tom to get to Derry to kill It once and for all. Tom being so unhinged stressed me the f*** out. My perspective is that It really isn’t that scary to adults hence why It is only visible to children and preys on them. The only reason the gang is terrified as adults is the memories of being attacked when they were young where the imprints of that trauma are carried with them into adulthood. The idea makes sense but I had high expectations of being scared and It did not deliver.

The characters and town of Derry are so real and lived in you feel like Derry was your hometown and you knew of Henry Bower’s to big bully and the nerds like Bill and Richie that were always nice but on the outskirts. But if I didn’t feel like I grew up with these kids after 1200 pages I would be irate. There were definitely some of the kids I liked better than others. Eddie is my boy. His mother pushing psychosomatic illnesses on him his whole life making him belief he’s weak and fragile. When faced with that fact he decides to stay comfortable and allow himself to be babied instead of essentially throwing away everything he thought he knew about himself. I felt that was so authentic and real I just wanted to hug him.

In terms of plot, I enjoyed the adults storyline over the kids but the way SK weaves the two timelines together especially at the end is masterful. There were times I was just in awe of how perfectly he transitioned between 1958 and 1985. The kids storyline of them just getting bullied wasn’t as interesting to me as the dread of facing It after 27 years and how their lives turned out after such intense trauma. The plot definitely wasn’t perfect though like why in the hell is there a child 0rgy?? Why are we getting descriptions of 12 year old Bev’s tiny t!tties? I don’t wanna hear it. Ew.

I just don’t know how I feel about it but it’s a book that is definitely memorable for it’s characters and atmosphere. Would I say it’s worth the read? Ehhhhh I don’t know.

Content Warnings

bhable's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

overland's review against another edition

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4.0

Everyone talks about that one scene but nobody talks about how this book effectively ends with a cool bike jump over a ravine.

Messy, but has a lot that I think is genuinely worth thinking about. Messy, but at the end of the day, I’m really glad I read and finished it.

Both comforted and exacerbated my existential concerns around getting older, and about what I am losing and gaining as I get older.

I dunno. I might revise this later. I feel like I’ll think about this thing for a bit.

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