This is my second time listening to IT by Stephen King on Audible. I wanted to listen to it again before the movie, IT: Chapter Two, came out. I listened to this the first time a few years ago and I really enjoyed it. IT absolutely terrified me! If you are a Stephen King lover then this book is a MUST! Horror is your thing, then this book is also a must. If you are afraid of clowns, easily scared, or easily creeped out then this book probably isn’t for you. I gave IT by Stephen King 5 stars!
Book Stats
- Title: IT: A Novel
- Author: Stephen King
- Genre: Horror
- Publication Date: 1986
- Pages: 1153
- Est. Reading Time: Approx. 44 hours
- My Rating: 5/5 Stars
- Buy Now: Amazon
Plot Summary of IT by Stephen King
In 1957, something is terrorizing the small town of Derry, Maine. Seven misfit children become friends and have to ban together to try to stop it. What makes IT so scary is that it takes on the form of your worst fears. Pennywise the dancing clown is IT’s most common form. In 1985, after forgetting their childhood traumas the main characters are back in Derry again to try to stop IT once and for all. The story jumps back and forth between when the main characters are children and adults.
There are so many main characters I won’t be able to discuss them all. I’ll talk about which are my favorites and why. King does such a good job of giving each and every one of his characters enough time to develop. (Part of the reason the book is so long.) They all have a unique personality, possess a special skill, and have intriguing backgrounds as children and adults. You actually feel like you know these characters by the end.
Audible
The audiobook is 44 hours long! Since I only listen on my commute to and from work, I only listen about an hour day. So it took me about 2 months to finish. When you spend that much time on something you definitely get wrapped up in it and get attached to the characters. Remember this is my second time listening. My first time listening scared me more, probably because I didn’t know what was going to happen.
The second time wasn’t as scary but it was still creepy. Towards the end, when the book starts to pick up, I was driving to work and while I was checking to merge I thought I saw someone in the backseat of my car! I’m usually not easily scared but this book gets to me. I love Audible because it distracts me from my terrible commute on the 405. If you are interested in listening to IT by Stephen King or Audible in general you can sign up and get your first month free.
Narrator: Steven Weber
IT is narrated by Steven Weber. He is most known for his role on Wings as Brian Hackett. Weber has also played roles in some of Stephen King’s movie and mini-series adaptions, most notably playing Jack Torrance in the 1997 mini-series of The Shining. He is one of the best narrators I have heard so far! He is AMAZING!!! Yes, that needs 3 exclamation points because he is that good. I can’t even count all the different voices he does. His Pennywise voice is terrifying! I think his creepy voice contributed to how scary I found the book. I thought I saw a couple of clowns on my commute.
Favorite Characters
Ben Hanscom
Ben Hanscom is my favorite character. He is my favorite because of his love for Beverly. I love the haiku he writes for her as a kid:
“Your hair is winter fire,
January embers.
My heart burns there, too.”
He is so sweet and mature for his age. I find his puppy love for her adorable. Bev will always have a special place in my heart too since she is the only girl out of the group. I know how it feels growing up with only a bunch of neighborhood boys to hang out with.
Bill Denbrough
Bill Denbrough is my next favorite character. He is the main leader of the group and the biggest reason they go after IT. Bill desperately wants to avenge his brother’s death. I appreciate his love for his brother and his struggle to not blame himself for his death. The first chapter or first ~30 minutes of the book destroy my heart every time. I’m sure we all know the scene with Georgie, Bill’s younger brother, in his yellow raincoat. He’s chasing the paper boat Bill had made for him down the flooded street and encounters Pennywise in the sewer drain. Georgie is so young and innocent; it breaks my heart every time.
“They’ll float,” it growled, “they float, Georgie, and when you’re down here with me, you’ll float, too.”
– Stephen King, IT
Bill has a stutter as a child and it is written very well but Steven Weber narrates it even better, showing his range as a narrator. “He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts” is one of the mnemonics Bill has to repeat over and over again to overcome his stutter. It’s repeated so much I started saying it along with him.
Richie Tozier
Richie Tozier, I have mixed feelings about because he is the most hyper and immature out of all the boys. He is always making inappropriate comments at the worst times. But I wanted to mention him because he was always doing accents. As a child, his accents were very bad but as an adult, they were very good and he becomes a radio host. The reason I mention him is that Steven Weber, the narrator, nails every single accent he does. The good and the bad ones. It’s hard enough to do a good Irish accent and it’s mind-blowing that he can do a bad one well too.
IT’s Scariest Forms
What Eddie Kraspbrack sees IT take the form of, is what scares me the most in the book. Eddie is a bit of a momma’s boy and she thinks he is always sick or hurt and she has forced that fear onto him. One day when Eddie was walking by 29 Neibolt Street, a hobo crawls out from under the porch and starts to harass him. He suddenly thinks the man has leprosy and if he touches him he will get it too, so he starts to run to get away from him. The diseased man runs after him but Eddie jumps on his bike and eventually makes it to safety.
King describes this sick and diseased man with a missing nose so well that I wanted to throw up at parts. I am a little bit of a hypochondriac myself, so a very disgusting looking person trying to grab me would definitely scare me and make me run the other way. After reading this I actually had a similar dream of a man crawling out from under a bush and trying to chase me!
Honorable Mentions
IT takes on so many different forms throughout the book. This includes people they know, creatures, movie monsters, and even blood. Some are more weird and creepy than scary to me. But I thought I would mention a few that made an impact on me. One was the Creature from the Black Lagoon. This stuck out to me because my mom said she was terrified of that movie as a child. When she watched it again as an adult she almost laughed. King did a terrific job of picking things that the children would be afraid of like the werewolves and mummies from the classic movies.
The part when they are adults and they are about to eat their fortune cookies and an eyeball and a bug crawl out gives me the creeps. Even things I am not scared of like clowns or giant birds, the details King uses to describe them makes me understand why someone else would be.
My IT
If I was in Derry and I was trying to destroy IT, what form would IT try to take to kill me? SPIDERS! Or any type of bug crawling all over me. It could become a lot of things but that’s the first that pops to mind. Everyone has a different fear. What would IT become if you were in Derry? Or what is your biggest fear in real life?
Favorite Quotes
“Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.”
This book is all about childhood innocence and growing up. I think the day you lose your innocence is the day you realize not all adults are nice or even good people. This happens to some children earlier than others. This realization came to him at a time when IT was lurking in the sewers and he knew he had to be stopped but he was more afraid of dealing with the adults in his particular situation.
“You can’t be careful on a skateboard.”
I love this quote because you can’t be careful on a skateboard. If you try to be careful or overthink what you are doing you are going to lose your balance and fall off. You need to be confident and you can’t be indecisive or second guess yourself or you will end up hurting yourself which is opposite of what you were trying to do in the first place. Also, the whole point of a skateboard is to go fast and have fun but you can’t do that if you are being careful.
Final Thoughts on IT by Stephen King
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed IT by Stephen King. I enjoyed it so much that I listened to all 44 hours a second time! I still can’t get over how long the book is. I’m not going to lie, it is part of the reason I chose to listen to IT instead of reading it because I knew it would take me forever. I’m glad I listened though because I feel like it’s even more of an experience with all the character’s voices. Even though it didn’t scare me as much the second time I did pick up on more Easter eggs the second time which makes it more fun.
I am sticking with my 5-star rating and I highly recommend to anyone who wants to be scared! Everyone that I know who has read the book also really liked it. The movies and the mini-series aren’t too bad either. Obviously they can’t capture every detail the book has and are changed slightly to make viewing better but they are still scary. So read IT, listen to IT, or watch IT and be scared!
Have you read, listened to, or watched IT? What did you think? What was the scariest part for you? Or what would IT be for you? Let me know in the comments!
If you are interested in more books or audiobooks by Stephen King, check out my review on Pet Sematary. To never miss a Quill Quotes post, please subscribe or follow us!
Thank you for prepping me more for my IT read, which is happening for October, I’m a bit glad I’m not listening to it, I think I would be completely terrified lol, I’m already sure I’ll be sleeping with the light on just with reading the words.
You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy your reading and it doesn’t scare you too much!
I read IT such a long time ago and have watched the original and 2 new movies and enjoyed all of them. The new movies didn’t scare me much since I knew what happens but I was creeped out imagining myself in shoes. I should listen to audio books this one sounds great on audio.
Yes, you definitely should listen to the audiobook. Especially if you are like me and don’t have enough time to read it and like doing other things while you listen.
Do you think IT is actually what King described or is it a symbol for something more? Something intricately human?
I prefer to think IT is actually what King describes, even though IT is terrifying as a monster I find that less scary than the alternative. When I discussed the quote about Eddie learning that adults were the real monsters, I always wondered if IT was manipulating Eddie’s pharmacist, had taken his form, or if he really was just a terrible man. I can see how IT could represent all things bad in the world especially if IT feeds off of fear. I talked about what form of IT scared me the most but I left out when IT uses or manipulates people to do bad things. That truly frightens me.
Like I said in my article the book deals a lot with the loss of childhood innocence. Most of the adults in the book were terrible. Bill’s parents neglected him after Georgie’s death, Bev’s dad abused her, and all of the adults always seemed to look the other way when bad things happened in Derry. So I think IT as a whole, not just the monster, could represent all the different types of bad people in society. People who are oblivious to the bad things, people who know bad things are happening but don’t help, and the people who purposely do terrible things. It makes it much more real-life scary when it’s about society and not just a monster anymore.
Thanks for reading and thank you for your question! Do you have any thoughts?