When horror books are mentioned, there are usually many thoughts surrounding the genre that come to mind: the ghost story, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, the demonic, and truly terrible and abhorrent pieces of writing that are only scary because the goal is to stuff the most amount of evil in one book. Stephen King's It is the latter, although it does have a great set-up, a packed middle with much tension and mystery, and some memorable characters that are few and far between.
For the record, I do think that King does have some good work, just the far majority of it deserves no recognition. The Shining movie, despite it being made by Kubrick and hated by King, is a classic and an amazing and fantastically terror-invoking piece of work that also provokes discussion about the meaning of the movie and the philosophy of the violent, all good traits. The Shawshank Redemption might be the greatest movie of all time, only possibly second to The Godfather and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. So, I do think he has some good ideas, but perhaps his third-most beloved work, It, is not like these, as it is a piece of garbage and commits crimes against the Earth by giving a reason to chop down more trees to satiate its incredible length of 1200 pages, roughly speaking, and that's not large text either. It is a real commitment; I did not believe that King could possibly smell these many white sheets until I remembered he was on crack when he wrote this and it really shows, but not in a good way. He could have written a crack-driven book of actual substance but for the fact, he was Stephen King, one of the most pretentious, unjustified people of little to no talent who has ever lived.
As I have said before, The Shining movie was famously hated by King. I brought up this to one of my friends, who loves Stanley Kubrick's work. I said, "You know, Stephen King famously hates The Shining." His reply? "Well, Stephen King is famously an idiot." True.
I'm probably being too harsh on the guy: King has gone through much and substance addiction is terrible even if he wasn't in a particularly nasty neighborhood or anything. But, still, much of what is in It is morally depraved not to even write, but to think about.
I will try to spoil as little as possible to get my point across, but if you are interested in reading it, I'd advise you to skip most of this article.
It's beginning is actually very good; it's a decent set-up. Essentially, the clown that has become the symbol of the book has the most dialogue at the start than the rest of the novel through two specific incidents, one in the mid-1950s and the other in the mid-1980s. We are brought into a town called Derry located in Maine. Throughout the book, Derry is described in such vivid and specific detail that one could draw a map without much effort if one had the time. Then, six strangers to us receive a mysterious call, each calling them back to Derry in 1985. The funny thing is that none of them can remember what had happened in Derry and therefore, the call's significance.
An important part to remember about It is that it takes place in two separate sections: the summer of 1958 and 1985, all centered on seven of the same characters: "Stuttering" Bill Denbrough, Mike Hanlon, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom, Eddie Kasbrack, and Stanley Uris.
Although Denbrough is the Loser's Club accepted leader, an author and a steadfast kid (again, different years), Richie Tozier and Mike Hanlon I think are the most likable characters that have a great arc. Richie Tozier is a wild man, an even wilder kid, offensive, glasses-wearing, and a funny man. Richie is the king of one-liners. He's sort of generic, but his arc works very well in that he's one of the only characters that you'd want to hear from. Mike Hanlon too is an amazing character, but far less generic, more virtuous, and extremely intelligent while remaining athletically capable as the book reminds us many times. Sometimes, while I would not call the sentiment pity, you just have to feel bad for the guy: a racist bully constantly torments him and his father in extremely disgusting and downright evil ways (not wanting to spoil), which brings us to Henry Bowers.
Stephen King villains are almost always the best and easiest to appreciate about his works (thinking of The Warden, Percy from The Green Mile, and Jack Torrance from The Shining), but Henry Bowers is a special case. He is quite possibly the evilest villain in any work I have ever read. Bowers is sheer hatred and violence. As a child, he's a murderous bully and as an adult, he's even more psychopathic, as he has fallen to It. Bowers as an obstacle for the Loser's Club does work and is a better antagonist than IT itself. He is, in fact, a central reason why the middle works, as he threatens murder and torture to the kids.
IT makes no sense in IT's form that is not Pennywise the Dancing Clown, an icon of horror. I feel okay spoiling the end with you readers because it is so bad that you should be forced to see it. Basically, Bill Denbrough in a strange, forced (they literally found out about it in a library book about mythologies) ritual ends up meeting IT in ITs domain after being hurdled across the universe, seeing the creator of the universe, which, I kid you not, is a freaking Turtle that curses and feeling the presence of an unnamed Other. He then defeats it by simply being determined. This is another problem with IT as a domineering force: it is just pure evil. No specific vice. Just pure evil, which is far too broad of a villain to work in a book of this stature.
The ending is surprisingly a happy one, well, not particularly surprising since King's quote before the book contained the sentence "the magic exists", which, I have to say, does not sound exactly horrifying. Basically, a character has one heck of a bicycle ride and that's that.
I do have to say this though, if Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was a short story, then I have to say that King could very well be amazing at short stories, as also evidenced by his Derry Interludes that take place in between parts in this book. The Interludes is a series of diary entries by Mike Hanlon (another reason why he is a great character) that attempt to compile information about Derry's strange past, one could say. They are filled with horror, tension, and some vagueness that only adds to the prior two characteristics.
It can be a mess at times and its ending is a disaster area, but most of its six acts work overall. There are few memorable characters and even less memorable situations, and yet Mike Hanlon, Richie Tozier, and Henry Bowers manage to earn the title of "great characters." I would not necessarily recommend It, as the novel is filled with excess profanity, depraved sexual situations, and extremely graphic imagery, but I would say that is up to you all.
6/10
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