Stephen King is a household name, and he was certainly big in my house when I was growing up. As far as I can recall, my first Stephen King book was IT, which I read when I was in college, and it genuinely changed the way I look at books.
According to Goodreads, it’s the scariest book that’s ever been written – and that was voted on by the public. People reckon it’s scarier than The Shining, which, although incredibly creepy, I would definitely agree with.
They also say that it’s scarier than ’Salem’s Lot, which I actually haven’t read, but really, really need to.
With IT, there’s a lot of world and character-building groundwork that takes place, and it is a very long book that at points, you may just want to put down and never pick back up again. But the 613,668 people who rated it five stars (me included) are not wrong. It’s worth the sometimes slog that 1,138 pages can feel like.
Stephen King can do (almost) no wrong when it comes to the literary works he produces, and I’d say that this book is in my top five of my entire life.
The reason I say this book haunts me is that I genuinely do not feel as though I’ll read a book quite like this ever again. From the character building of ‘The Losers Club’ Richie, Eddie, Patrick, Ben, and Beverly – to being introduced to Pennywise, it’s a real rollercoaster.
It’s basically two books in one, hence its huge length, and I was hooked from start to finish. It feels as though in Stephen King’s books there’s some sort of magic that can lure you in, make you feel the strongest feelings, and then leave you feeling deserted after you turn the final page because the characters are no longer with you.
And there’s no denying that the horror elements of this book are seriously creepy too. I’m personally not a fan of clowns, so that just instantly makes me scared. But the horrors run much deeper than just Pennywise.
This book also has different horrors in terms of emotions. It’s very reflective and deep, filled with sadness and raw emotion.
Plus, if you’ve seen either film adaptation, I have good news for you, as just because you’ve seen the film does not mean you can skip out on the book, because guess what? The book is far superior to the movie.
How could it not be? Your imagination is likely a lot more disturbing than anything you could be presented with in front of your eyes on a big screen.
So, yes, this book is long, but it’s worth the investment of your time. It takes the average reader around 38 hours to read. So in theory, if you read for just under three hours every day for a fortnight, you could finish it in that time. Or if you want to get it done in a month, read for around an hour and 40 minutes.
Of course, this depends on your reading speed and how hooked you get. I found myself staying up way into the night when I was just 17 to try and get this book read as quickly as possible.
I’ve seldom met a person in real life who has also read IT – I think perhaps because many readers are intimidated by it and would rather read three or four ‘normal’ sized books than this. But this book is never far from my mind.
A true masterpiece and a huge influence on the genre as a whole, if you haven’t read this, I urge you to.
It will certainly leave you thinking about it for a very long time. With the camaraderie of Stand By Me and the heart-raising scares of The Shining, what more could you possibly want for a bit of light bedtime reading?