Stephen King's IT. (From The Northern Echo)

Stephen King's IT.

10:41am Thursday 16th October 2008

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Blurb on the back: It was the children who saw - and felt - what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one’s deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing...

The adults, knowing better, knew nothing.

Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of IT was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until they were called back, once more to confront IT as it stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.

Main characters: Bill Denbrough - Bill who suffered tragically as a young child due to the murder of his younger brother George, was branded leader of the "loser’s club". He shows great leadership throughout the novel and is quite a clever individual. Bill also has a speech impediment or rather, a bad stutter. His friends however have learned to cope with this and understand whatever Bill orders. He is close to everyone in the losers club and even when everyone is grown up, he remains the leader.

Mike Hanlon - Mike is a black man who has had a troubled childhood. He has lived through racial discrimination most of his life; this is caused by another character within the book. Mike has a huge phobia of bird and attends Neibolt Street Church School, a religious school that none of the other characters attend, he meets up with the other six from the loser’s club on the fourth of July. From this day onwards he was accepted as a member and has remained a member ever since. Mike was the only one to stay in Derry after growing up, because of this he still has some memories of IT, this is how the others are informed about the current crisis and that they must return to Derry to fight IT off again.

Ritchie "Trashmouth" Toizer - As a kid Ritchie was obsessed with trying to pull off comedy voices, that was kind of his thing. As he grows up it turns out he is a well respected disk-jockey for a radio station, and his main act is his voices. Ritchie wears glasses and has the nickname "trashmouth" because he just can't seem to keep his mouth shut.

Beverly Marsh/Rogan - Beverly is the only female character in the story, well the only main character. She has bright ginger hair and smokes, alot. As a kid she went out with Bill Denbrough, however Ben Hanscom has a crush on her. She likes to get involved with male things like digging etc, and is quite capable of defending herself. When she grew up she got married to Tom Rogan, who wasn't a very nice man, I’ll leave it to you to find out why.

Ben "Haystack" Hanscom - Ben was given the nickname "haystack" by Ritchie. This was because he was morbidly obese. He has a very large crush on Beverly, this is displayed through-out the book. At one point he even writes her a poem, how romantic. As Ben grew up, he decided to loose weight, he also got involved in construction work, one of the most famous in England was designed and built by him, the BBC building.

Eddie Kasprack - Eddie is Bills first friend. He suffers from a bad case of asthma, and needs he aspirator regularly, his mother is also illness crazed, or rather, she thinks that anything and everything will make Eddie sick. Eddie enjoys comic books and playing in the Barrens with the loser’s club. As a child Eddie dreamed about playing baseball but the kids would never let him play. Eddie grew up and now runs a Limousine firm that transports famous celebrities.

Stanley Uris - Stan is fascinated with birds and goes out to watch them regularly, he also enjoys looking at comic books with Eddie. Stan is Jewish and is the only one of the losers club to be immensely scared of IT. He was so scared in fact that when Mike called him when he was grown up he... (read the book to find out more) Henry Bowers - Henry is the type of guy you never want to meet. He is basically a huge bully, full off hate for other people and other races. His father is crazy and is also very racist, especially towards Mike Hanlons father Will Hanlon, thus Henry displays hate for Mike. Henry has a gang on boys that follow him, Belch Huggins and Victor Criss, both of which will do anything Henry says. Everyone knows that Henrys mental health is not very good and we can monitor this determination through-out the book.

First impression: Well, at first I have to say I thought it a daunting task to even pick this book up. The look of it put me off straight away, I’m not a very keen reader but once I get into a story I find myself enjoying it. This is the first Stephen King book that I have ever read, so I didn't quite know what to expect. This is an incredibly long book to read and is quite slow at starting, my advice is to just persevere and read on!

Thoughts on the book after reading half way: Hmm, scary! This book is really interesting. The way the author has constructed this is magnificent! I am really enjoying the book, it's so chilling and it really creeps you out. I have been reading this book for a while now and am about half-way through, I have to say it is the most fascinating book I’ve ever read. The author uses a technique of flicking between characters to introduce them to the reader and between different times of their lives. For example, one of the characters, Bill Denbrough, who is in the opening chapter as a child, joins the story again as a grown man. From the point that all the characters have been introduced the book then intertwines the two, childhood memories and present day. This is a key factor of this book and happens throughout, it's also a very interesting structure to a novel, constant flashbacks and revelations of new memories, that seemingly everyone has forgotten, help guide the "loser’s club" to find a way to defeat IT. I found the introduction to all of the characters entertaining, the way they all meet also kept me amused. This book just keeps me interested.

Overall: Well, overall I think this book is a must. It has kept me entertained now for months, and I am still reading it. The amount of twists in the storyline and the revelation of memories creates as many questions as it answers. If you have any spare time I recommend this thriller, however I think you should read it when you’re not alone.

This book takes the number one spot out of my collection, so if you do decide to read it then let me know what you think. Just don't get put off by how big it is! It takes a bit of getting through, but once you get into it, believe me, you'll never have your nose out of that book. Also, if anyone is interested in this book but doesn't fancy reading through it, may I recommend the film. I've heard that it is nearly as good as the book.

Well, this is my first re-view, hope I did a good job. Let me know in the comments, thanks :)

Ryan Dawson

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