I Loved It. I Hated It. Here's My Review of Stephen King's "It."

I finished it! Rather – I finished "It." 

I am honestly not sure where to start with this review...

I guess that the first thing is: I can see why this book is a classic and still popular enough to have multiple film iterations of it. King really knows how to build atmosphere and tension. He also has excellent character development. There are times when you can really FEEL like you are in Derry.

I like that. 

Yet, he is long-winded. Perhaps VERBOSE is a more proper term for a writer who writes too much. His 1,153 page book could have been written much more succinctly and gotten to the same conclusion. He spent two pages telling the reader about the contents of Eddie's medicine cabinet and chapter after chapter telling us the life stories of random side characters.

I don't like that. 

Also, the chapters are...SO...LONG! Some chapters were nearly 100 pages!!

I don't like that, either.

Plus, he tells the story from so many points of view! From a third-person narrator, a first-person narrator (Mike Hanlon), the members of the Losers Club, adult Henry Bowers, adult Stan's wife, adult Ben's bartender, It, adult Beverly's abusive husband – and on and on. 

I might like that. 🤣

He decided it was a good idea to add a very controversial scene involving the young members of the Loser Club in the last 100 pages. 

I don't like that.

I won't go into detail about the controversy, but the information is readily available if you Google it. Just know – it was uncomfortable, and I barely skimmed those pages. Thankfully, it WAS only a few pages. 

Finally, the ending was....meh. I won't include any spoilers – that's no fun. But I will say that the story DOES have an ending – not a cliffhanger. The ending was just...meh.

I don't like that, either.

After I got to the end, I remembered that it was kind of a running joke in the film "It: Chapter Two" that Bill's novels were well-liked, but people hated the endings. I imagine that is criticism that King himself has gotten on multiple occasions, so it is funny now to look back on that knowing the ending of this book.

I like that. 

Stephen King was in that film and was one of the people who told Bill he hated the ending of one of his books. Haha.

I like that, too. 

Overall, it's (no pun intended) a good read!

FINAL VERDICT:

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ✨

4.5/5 Stars

Do I think people should read it? Yes.

Will I read it again? No. 🤣

Get your copy of "it" and read for yourself.