Stephen King’s novel IT is a horror story about good and evil. It starts in 1958 with the seven kids all living in a Derry Maine, and then what they do when they come back and do much of all again in 1985. In 1958 they are mostly eleven year-old kids. Six boys and one girl. They called themselves the losers club.
The plot is complicated and has plenty of very scary sides to it. Of course, it does, thats what Stephen King does so well.
The surprise for me was how much I identified with the town, the various residents, and the seven who fought the evil of IT. I remember 1958 and this book captures it completely. You feel like your right there. The school bullies bring back memories, as those problems that brought the club together also bring back memories. When IT comes for them you feel like your right there with them as member number eight.
Each of the seven have their own challenging life with problems at home, at school and lack of support. When they find each other, it is so important and helpful that they did. You feel glad yourself to have found them.
Bill is a leader and he loses his younger brother to IT early in the book and then he is haunted by that through most of the book. Beverley is the only girl. She is attractive and has red hair. You can almost see her and she is in every way an equal member of the club. She may be, next to Bill, the most influential of the seven. They really do depend on each other and grow to feel love for each other and then a special love for Beverly.
It doesn’t surprise me how well Stephen King gets into a plot that you totally accept. His dialog and understanding of the time, place, and characters is just amazing.
What does surprise me is how the one girl and her relationship with the 6 boys grows and how you really wind up feeling how she feels. This stands out to me wondering how King could really capture the nature of the feelings of this girl that are disclosed.
I liked the second half of the book best. They promised they would come back if things went wrong again. When they did come back new characters were brought into the plot. The events that took place when they were younger and that we went through with them are really clarified as they are relived and remembered.
It ended and I miss them.
Stephen King Quotes
“We lie best when we lie to ourselves.”
“We all float down here!”
“Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.”
“Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.”
