Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - It

It took me a long time to figure out how I should rate this monster of a book & I'm settling on 3 because it's right in the middle & that's really how I felt about this whole book. Yes, it was super good but ohmygod it was also awful. I should also mention that I read the audio which boosted it in good terms, otherwise I'm pretty sure I never would have made it 50 pages into the book. Steven Weber does a great job narrating & really puts you in the book. His voices vary & he does an excellent job of showing the emotions of the characters. This book was creepy, but some parts were just so gross & unnecessary & I know the kids were young, but King probably could have focused a little less on the farting. The book was just entirely too long, with way too many characters & I found myself spacing out & not knowing what was going on during very large chunks of the book. The timeline was also incredibly confusing, jumping from past to present, back & forth. Honestly, if I hadn't seen the movies, I'm not sure I would have been able to follow the book closely enough to care. Also, after writing this review I feel like maybe this should have been a 2.5, 2.75 star rating, but I'm still unsure how I feel.

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roman_castavet's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

This is a long book and one which I would maybe say could due to be a few hundred pages shorter. This book took me over a year to read particularly due to the extensive "Derry history" parts and boomerangs between very fast pacing and aggressively slow dry parts, but in the end, I loved it. This is my second King read after The Shining, which I did love more in the moment but this book is less horror than it is adventure and a really beautiful coming of age story. At points, this read was a slog, but the character development is so special. I don't know if I would ever return to this book, but I am so glad to have finally finished it after a year, and the world building and character study is genuinely impressive and has truly loveable people to relate to. I think I maybe love this book? Despite being one of the reads that has taken me the longest to finish.

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directorpurry's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

2.5

This book is actually immensely sad and I need to lie down for a while. It also could have been shorter and less racist and antisemitic. But it was immensely compelling - there was absolutely no point where I considered putting it down.
I had a really excellent time comparing the overlap of Dark Tower and IT, thinking about all the Easter eggs and crossovers that I've already read about or seen in King books and adaptations. My favorite part of this experience was honestly slotting in a new piece of the SK puzzle.

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