I am a huge fan of Stephen King and with the new movie for It out now, I decided to reread the book before I watch the movie. I already read this book once when I was 15-ish? But all I remembered was the Horror Clown and that he was quite terrifying and how much I had liked Bev. These two things are still true now, but this book is much more.

For one, it is much more disturbing and messed up than I remembered. There's child abuse and domestic abuse (both directed against the one girl in the group), hinted child sexual abuse, homophobia (the q and the f slur are used liberally), racism (the n slur is also used a lot), bullying, antisemitism, ableism, suicide (not graphic though), a lot of violence and murder and a really awful scene where 11-year-olds have sex (way too graphic and just all over terrible). I totally blocked that one out and to be honest, I wish I could forget again. Ugh. There's also the constant sexualization of the 11-year-old girl in the group, not just by her six guy friends, but also by her father, other grown-ups and by Stephen King himself. I never want to read about an 11-year olds panties or nipples ever again. 

If you want to read this book, please be warned, there's a lot of gross shit going on.

Now, I'm a huge fan of Stephen King. His books are messed up and terrifying and I absolutely adore them. And when it comes to the scary parts (scary, not the puke-fest that makes up that scene) it's a delight to read this book. He is a great writer, who knows how to build different characters and who shows incredibly well what it means to be 11 years old. If you're an 11-year-old boy. Like I said, the girl is incredibly sexualized and it's a huge load of crap. I have to admit that this is not one of my favorite books from him, not even close. 

Now if I ignore the last 100 pages or so, the incredibly copious amounts of slurs and the way Beverly is sexualized, this would probably be pretty high on my list of favorite Stephen King books. Like this, it's quite far down. Despite its flaws, however, this is a book that's pretty awesome. It's also better than the movie in certain aspects (Mike Hanlon deserved better *cough, cough*).

The characters are incredibly well written, especially the boys, and even Beverly gets some great scenes (that don't revolve around her being a girl and her being sexualized, like way too many parts of the book sadly do). All characters feel incredibly real and King once more shows how well he can write different voices. Despite the constant switches in time and perspective, it's never confusing or annoying as it is done so well. Personally, I think the switches in time are one of my favorite parts of the book. You get to see them as terrified children, who know they can't trust in grown-ups and only in themselves, and then as grown-ups, who know they can't even trust in themselves. But if they can't believe there's no way they can beat It. We are told about the past in flashbacks and memories that only slowly resurface, one more terrifying than the other. And both in the past and in the present, It slowly inches closer and closer.

It itself is a terrifying monster. It feeds on violence and fear and the worst atrocities of humankind. I loved the idea that it takes on your worst fears and that it is easier for It to hunt children as their fears are much more straightforward. But in It's hunger for destruction, It inadvertently brings together seven children, who have their strongest weapon - Imagination - and they know they have to stop It. 

One thing I also really liked was the way Henry Bowers, the feared Bully, was shown to slowly become more and more unstable, partly under It's influence, and how he became more terrifying each time they met him.

So all in all, this was an incredibly well thought out horror story, that was ruined by being quite a bit too long (the last 300 pages were terrible and the last 100 simple torture to up the gross-ness factor), quite a few gross scenes (including that scene) could have easily been left out and the book would have been still as terrifying, if not more. Because let's be real here, a gangbang with 11-year olds is not terrifying, it's just gross and really does a big disservice to Beverly's characters, especially since it's portrayed as a way of bonding and growing up, as well as Beverly reclaiming her sexuality from her abusive dad, none of which needed to be in the story to bring the plot forward and none of which really makes sense. It felt like that scene was only there to gross people out. And it really ruined the rest of the book for me. 

All in all, a nice horror book, but Stephen King has many, way better books, that don't feel as bloated as this one does and that manage to be scary, without being disgusting. It saddens me a bit, that this book is often seen as one of his best when it is definitely far from it.