Book Review: It

Author: Stephen King

I was in the bookstore a while ago, looking for something by Stephen King that I didn’t already have, and picked up It. I’m sure I’d read this book before, but, frankly, I didn’t remember anything about it, so it was like reading a new book.

King uses a very clever device in this book: The story is about a group of seven people, who encountered something when they were kids, and then had to encounter it again when they were adults. So the entire novel ping-pongs back and forth between the story as children and the story as adults. I found that to make for a very interesting read, personally.

The big problem I have with the book, though, is its length. I like King’s writing, so I don’t normally mind a long book from him, but by the end, this one just seemed to drag on. For the first 90% of the book I found myself interested, only to spend the last 10% wondering how much longer it would go on. I don’t fault the writing for this, per se, just the fact that the story takes so long to tell—I don’t think he had a choice but to do it the way he did.

So, all in all, I would probably recommend the book, but with the caveat that it is pretty long, so I’m guessing that only the really die-hard King fans will really want to read it.