Clown – Christina de Vries

I read a paperback edition of IT.

Published: September 1986

Publisher: Viking Press (now owned by Penguin Random House)

Pages: 1104 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 44 hrs, 57 min

Synopsis by the publisher:

It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real….

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.

***

The Writing

Stephen King is an absolute master when it comes to setting that creepy and dark mood in the readers mind. The way he explains surroundings, events and people’s inner most scary thoughts is done so brilliantly that you feel like you’re a part of the story.

The way he hints to what is going to happen throughout the story makes reading it like watching a disaster happening in slow motion. You are mesmerized and can’t look away and you badly want the warn the characters at the same time.

And I just love how he adds references to other books of his as well as the work of authors that he admires.

The Characters

Even though King is known as the master of horror, I think that what makes him such a talented writer is the way that he shows a reader the very worst and the best that hides inside a human.

Let’s start with Pennywise (because how could I not?)! I can definitely see how so many was traumatized when it came to clowns as they read this book at quite an early age. I myself (not being that easily scared when it comes to books) wasn’t scared for life and runs away screaming whenever I see a clown after reading IT, but Pennywise definitely pops into my mind every time I see a floating balloon or look down the drain pipe in a bathroom. So I might have been somewhat affected by this creepy clown. But there was so much to this mysterious character and I was so incredibly intrigued by IT (and horribly disappointed when it came to the movie when I watched that for the first time after finishing the book! But more about that later.)

In the beginning of the book there were a whole lot of characters being introduced and I was a bit confused for a little while, but in true Stephen King style, it wrapped itself together pretty fast and then it was almost impossible to not be hooked into every single character’s story.

The Plot

I really had no idea where this story would go or end up when I started reading.

The plot twists and turns and tells so many stories in one book, and as long as it’s done as well as this is then I’m loving that concept.

I was never bored, I always had a feeling of the possibility for absolutely anything to happen and my heart was already racing at page forty-seven.

And that ending! Woah! Stories like this with endings like that is what makes me such a big fan of Stephen King’s work!

My Thoughts

IT was such an amazing ride of a story. I loved every step of the way, even though I was a little confused at times. When I finished reading, it did not feel like I had been through over 1100 pages.

Definitely a book that I want to reread again some time and one that made me respect King as a writer even more.

And (as I mentioned) I did watch the movie after finishing the book and I was so disappointed. It did not stay true to the story, it hardly explained what IT was and there were so many parts that I missed from the book when I had it so fresh in my memory.

I was really rooting for the remake of IT and was actually really sad to hear that it was put on ice for now. We need a better movie adaptation of this horrific masterpiece!