It

Rating:
Summary: Good story about friendship but not as scary as could be.
Review: This is a great book, a modern classic, but I have some reserves about it, namely the actual monster which is pretty much just derived from the "Return of the King" in a certain lair and Pennywise the clown is not frightening enough. So in terms of scares this book is not really the scariest King novel, in fact far from it, but then again IT tries to be more than just a horror novel and this is where it works best.

IT is actually best described as a "coming of age" book about a group of young adolescence who are bound by one common dominator - IT and how this thing has infected their town and their lives. The story is told in "Stand By Me" fashion, moving between various timelines in the past and the future as the gang remember their past and the horror that lurked in the sewers of their home town. So what you get is multiple characters, fully fleshed out and this bonding which is along the lines of "Let's kill the beast and save the day".

IT was actually written by cocaine fuelled Stephen King in his early days and even he admits that this one just appeared next his typewriter by the time he sobered up and it reads like it to. This book is massive and very thick but that does not mean it rambles on. There is a lot of substance to the story and the character development is first rate for this kind of literature. I recommend IT to teenagers especially because the story of friendship is a powerful one and adults will like it just as much as homage to their youth.

In short you can not go too far wrong with IT but remember you will be reading this book for the long haul but the pace is somewhat good. It is a unique book for its kind but again I have reserves about just how scary it really is. It is scary enough but not as much as it could have been and the actual monsters in this book are little bit undernourished in the frights department.

Rating:
Summary: The best horror book ever!
Review: this thing is an opus, man. Unlike a lot of wimps out there, I'm not afraid of a whole lot of pages. I feel jipped if it's under three hundred. At the same time, I hate when I get a meaty thousand page book and it's full of hot air, like those Robert Jordan books. This book filled my every requirement. Nice and long, and chock full of story. It wasn't even the horror that made me love it so damn much. It was the kids he created and the adults they turned into. I wish I could remember my childhood the way King obviously remembers his, but I still recognized the thoughts and games those kids played. And that last line killed me. About how in the early dawn he almost remembers his childhood and the kids he shared it with. I feel the same way. Sometimes when I'm half asleep I almost remember and then it slips away. That last line almost made me, a grown man (and then some), cry. Man, this was a good book.

Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: There is no book like It which combines horror, suspense, thrill, as well as deep psychological reasoning and intense character development. This book is everything you would ever want in a novel. Just don't read it when you're alone.

Rating:
Summary: The Difinitive King Novel
Review: I would not say that this is my favorite King novel. But it really is what King's novels are all about. As all of the king work marches toward the Dark Tower, I think we'll find that this story is infinitely important to what goes down. IT is so reflective of the themes we find in every novel. It is about the monsters of our childhood. It is about what scares us. Similar in theme to Straub's Ghost Story in that the monsters are only a reflection of ourselves. We make them. It is a brilliant work. It loses a star only because I found it almost silly at times, but nonetheless, if you read one book over a thousand pages long this year, make it this one. IT is what King is all about.

Rating:
Summary: King becomes lost in his own story - as do we!
Review: This is the only novel by Stephen King I could easily reccomend to anyone looking for that "truly absorbing" read.

I have read almost everything he's had published, but then I've read a great many books in my lifetime (I'm sixty-two years old), so that's not saying alot. Frankly, I've felt let down by King on many occasions, most recently with Dreamcatcher.

With IT, the story seems to tell itself. Nothing seems forced to drive the plot, and the characters become vividly alive (something King often has a serious problem with accomplishing).

When reading this masterpiece, I am utterly charmed by the lack of King's presense. It is as though he himself is so lost in the story that one can imagine he might have looked down at his typewriter on many occasions while writing it, surprised to find his fingers were typing out the words.

This book simply pulses with life.

DW

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Works of 20th Century Literature
Review: Yes; you read the title right. Even though I am twelve, I have read many works of literary fiction, including many classics including Dickens (Oliver Twist, David Copperfield.)Many dismiss Stephen King because he is a horror novelist, but he surpasses so many writers of literary fiction in so many ways. In IT, King's 'magnum opus', his greatest book (Dark Tower counts as seven!), he comes out swinging, displaying all the talents that brought him recognition by book lovers with taste and an open mind. THE FIRST CHAPTER OF IT is the most beautiful single chapter I have read in a book. The fourth part of the chapter, which describes the two brothers' boat (but really it is more than that), is one of the most beautifully written paragraphs in modern literature. KING KNOWS HOW TO CREATE REAL CHARACTERS THAT YOU CARE FOR. I found myself caring for every single of the Losers. King even creates pity in the reader for Henry Bowers, the bully. The characters act as you would think they would; they act true to their characters.KING UNDERSTANDS AND RECREATES THE ESSENCE OF CHILDHOOD. I am a preteen myself, and King has captured beautifully the essence of childhood; he creates kids that are not stupid idiot kid stereotypes, but at the same time are not miniature adults. He is a master at the craft. KING CREATES INCREDIBLE EMOTION. I found myself caring for all of the main characters, crying about Bill's brother Georgie. Absolutely brilliant.I highly recommend IT to anyone who can appreciate a good book and is not easily offended.Probably suitable for ages 12 and up. ADVISORY: Pervasive language, violence and some gore, and brief sexual content. King is a master of the craft; not only horror but of literature.

Rating:
Summary: Way cool!
Review: This book rocks, plain and simple. As a "loser" myself," I was rooting for the characters all the way. Some people have complained about the length, but as far as I'm concerned, the only problem with the length was that it wasn't long enough! There were several areas of the story I wouldn't of minded seeing fleshed out a bit more. I dunno. I'm thinking that the modern attention-span has shrunk, and that's a shame.

Anyway, ignore the movie version and go straight to the book. You won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: good,scary,gory, LONG
Review: I thought this book was great, just that it was overly long. I mean the was tons tons of description. But besides the massaive amount of reading this book was really good. Gory, foul , and entertaing. What more could ya ask for?

Rating:
Summary: More to this novel then just horror
Review: I mostly write reviews on cds and albums but this novel was such a masterpiece i had to write a review on it, now as you read this book ( which is quite long for most novels put out today)some may grasp the point others might. This book is a vert good horror novel and it kept making me pick it up if no to just read 1 more chapter. There is more though, if you read a review here and a review there about this novel you might think, ok its about 7 kids in a small town and a clown who turns into your fears, how dumb is this!! Not at all, this novel also deals with many things, friendshps,facing your fears, many different emotians The only downfall is the end for such a great novel he could have found a better ending, i would have really enjoyed seeing the remaining kids ( now adults) take on IT a second time and not IT being transformed into the spider overall an amazing novel very gripping and eomtinal a must buy for any horror or S.K. fan!!! I hope this review has helped you in deciding to purchase this novel.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest novels of all time
Review: "It" is so often regarded as a horror novel that it's hard to get a lot of people I know to read it. This is a shame because Stephen King's masterpiece is so much more than a cheesy gore-fest with cheap thrills. It is a story about growing up more than anything else, how we all believe in silly things as children and how we lose this as we become adults (of course, in this story belief in It actually makes It real). There are stories of racism faced by one of the main characters and his father. In many ways this is a story of how the times have changed between the 1950s and now. There are so many elements running through this novel that it would be a waste of time to label it as belonging to any one genre. While this is indeed a scary book at times, King's strongest talent is in developing believable characters. How he does it I may never understand, but he has successfully created dozens of characters in this book that have believable personalities.

"It" belongs in the list of the great classics of the 20th century.