Review: It

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It by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3/28/13

This book became my constant companion at work and in the car for a few months and I was sorry (yet a little grateful) to hear it end. It really is a roller coaster of a book. I’ve read the book (with my eyes, don’cha know) more than a few times, but like The Talisman, I knew there were parts I was skimming just from poor reading habits and an over-anxious drive to see what comes next). Steven Weber makes this long, terrifying book so compelling I need to meet this man and give him kisses. Many, many kisses.

Yes, this is King in 1986 and his background into Derry can sometimes feel like padding, but when finished, one can take a step back and see all of the broken parts of that blackened little town and understand the whole of the wrongness that existed. It’s worth the journey and the side trips and circle loops, and it’s certainly worth the uncomfortable squirming.

I know the reasons King wrote some of the scenes the way he did, but knowing doesn’t make it any easier to listen. Horror is supposed to make you uncomfortable, to take you out of that place you feel safe and show you things you’d rather not see, make you think about things you’d rather didn’t exist. Yes, it’s necessary and it might make you a little sick, but without that visceral response, it wouldn’t be as memorable. The itself story has the usual King foibles – detailed, weird jumps in time, “interludes” however in a case like It, they’re necessary. If written today, maybe this would have been serialized like The Green Mile, but it would not have had the same impact.

No sense in going through what the story is about, just know that the audio version is top notch and Steven Weber is an amazing narrator who gave exuberant life to all of the characters. There were no small characters in the book according to Mr. Weber, and I was glad for it.

2/5/13

I was recently taking a quiz on this book and for as many times as I’ve read it, there were things I just didn’t remember. It bothered me.

So I grabbed it from Audible and Steven Weber is reading, and I’ve got 44 hours of horror and bliss and wonder ahead of me.

I will never not love this book.

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