A review by saram
It by Stephen King

dark mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
So, people didn't lie when they said Stephen King is a great writer; this book is definitely very well-written. The way it slips between the two timelines is really interesting, and the descriptions are vivid and detailed. Did this book need to be over 1000 pages long? Probably not, but the details are also interesting, so I won't criticize it for that too much.

There is definitely a lot of disturbing content in this, and obviously that's what you sign up for with intense adult horror; however, my actual problem is that there's also some stuff that's just weird and unnecessary. The infamous scene, for one, but also weird sexualized descriptions (especially of women), and a frankly excessive use of racial and homophobic slurs. 

All in all, I'm pretty ambivalent. It's good writing, but it also made me deeply uncomfortable sometimes, and not in the way that I would look for in horror. *please note that I have named a number of content warnings but the list may not be exhaustive. this book is A LOT.*
Expand filter menu Content Warnings