A review by lordchampion666
It by Stephen King

dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I wanted so badly to like this book more than I did. It has moments and even whole sections that are peak King, raw emotional, intense, and vividly horrifying. The depictions of how It presents itself to the characters are perfect. However, there are three main issues that I have with the book, which are length, pacing, and sex. The book does not need to be more than 1,100 pages long. So many times do we go back to the Barrens with the Losers Club just being kids or remembering ways that Henry tormented them. After the first two or three visits back, I found myself wanting to move on because nothing new was being shared, and my opinions of the characters were not being fleshed out. There is a lot of content, and covering two periods in time does require a large book, but I think it would have been more impactful at 700 pages, which is still a monumental length. The pacing is very inconsistent with the more mundane aspects of their lives, getting a shocking amount of detail and then final confrontations and completions of B and C plots happening in a flash. This felt very jarring and left me feeling unfulfilled with the resolution some characters received. Finally, the biggest reason this book was not rated higher is the amount of unnecessary sex in the book. Sweet moments that could be just that are ruined by a sudden crotch grab or description of a "gleeful erection." Characters that are very clearly villains have a subtext of desired molestation added, which is viscerally unpleasant but isn't needed. The worst offender of this by far is the infamous scene in which six preteen boys run a train on their friend to prove their love for each other. This was the first time that I have ever skipped a portion of a book. I am fully in support of graphic content in media when it is justified. Nothing about this scene was justified because moments later, they have a more connected and loving moment when they make the blood pact to return should It still be alive. King proved that he can write an impactful unification of characters without a child orgy so the inclusion of it after editors and publishers got their hands on the book baffles me. This is a nearly perfect horror book that is dragged into mediocrity by a bloated length and grotesque depictions of children battling with the first confusing emotions of attraction, friendship, and shared trauma. 
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