IT is a good reason to stop accepting free balloons. Especially if the person offering one lives in a storm drain. That should probably go without saying, but apparently Derry needs a reminder.
Pennywise gets most of the attention, and a clown with that smile has earned it. But there’s a lot more going on here than something ugly hiding under the street. King gives you a whole town where terrible things happen, people look away, and the children are left dealing with what the adults would rather ignore.
A little about the book
Seven kids become the Losers’ Club in Derry, Maine. They’re dealing with bullies, difficult homes, and the usual problems of growing up when something much worse starts finding them. Years later, a promise pulls them back to Derry as adults, along with memories they haven’t been carrying as clearly as they thought.
The book moves between their childhood and adult lives. You see what happened to them, what they tried to leave behind, and how quickly being back in the same place can bring it all up again. Getting older doesn’t automatically mean you’ve dealt with everything. Sometimes it just means you have a job and better excuses for avoiding it.
The Losers and the town around them
Bill, Ben, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, Mike, and Stan give this book people to care about between the scares. They have different personalities and different things working against them, but being together gives them something they don’t always have anywhere else. Richie’s mouth can get ahead of his judgment, Eddie has plenty to worry about, and Ben has more going on than the bullies bother to notice.
Their friendship gives the danger some weight. These kids joke, argue, and spend time together before they have to face things nobody should have to face. That makes the ordinary summer moments matter. You can understand wanting them to get another afternoon together without something coming out of the dark.
Derry makes that feel less and less likely. King spends time on its history, its violence, and the way cruelty keeps being allowed to happen. Henry Bowers is frightening without needing a sewer or a red balloon. The adults can be frightening too. Pennywise has plenty of competition for the worst thing in town, which is a hell of a statement when one of the candidates eats children.
The Turtle and the stranger side of IT
And then there’s the Turtle. If you come into this expecting a creepy clown and some bad plumbing, King eventually takes you much further out than that. The Turtle brings a cosmic side to the story and suggests that the forces around these kids are bigger than Derry. Apparently the murderous clown wasn’t strange enough on his own.
Having read The Dark Tower, that connection to King’s wider universe is worth mentioning. The Turtle in IT and the Turtle imagery in The Dark Tower give you another reason to pay attention when his books start touching each other. You don’t need to read the Tower books first, and IT is a standalone novel, but those echoes give a Dark Tower reader something extra to think about.
The familiar Turtle rhyme belongs to that Dark Tower connection: “See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth,” as quoted in Song of Susannah. It’s a useful reminder that King can take something that sounds like a nursery rhyme and put an entire strange universe behind it. I’m keeping the details of the Turtle’s part in IT light here so the review doesn’t explain the ending for you.
A little poetry between the nightmares
Ben’s poem for Beverly deserves a mention too. It begins, “Your hair is winter fire,” and it brings a completely different feeling into a book full of ugly things. Here’s a kid trying to put a feeling into words while the world around him keeps finding new ways to be awful.
That small, quiet moment fits the book. These kids have crushes, hopes, jokes, and things they’re embarrassed to say out loud. The poem gives Ben something tender to offer in a town that isn’t very tender with him. Between that and Richie’s mouth, there’s room for affection and humor without making the danger disappear.
Before you head down the drain
This is a big book. King gives the Losers, the town, and its history plenty of room, so don’t pick it up expecting the pace of a two-hour horror movie. The quieter stretches and detours are part of the experience. If you want to spend time with the people in a horror story, there’s a lot here to settle into. If you want the next scare every few pages, the length is worth knowing about before you start.
IT earns a place on an October reading list, but I wouldn’t limit it to Halloween. The friendship, the ugliness of Derry, and the feeling that something old is paying attention from just out of sight give it plenty to work with. The clown may be the reason you pick it up. The seven people standing against him give you a reason to keep going.
Who I’d recommend it to
Readers who want a long horror novel with a real group of characters, childhood friendships, a deeply unpleasant town, and some of King’s stranger cosmic ideas. Dark Tower readers can enjoy the connections, but this works as a standalone. It’s also worth trying if you know the films and want more time with the Losers and Derry.
Caution
May cause you to decline free balloons and take the long way around every storm drain. If you hear your name coming from one, that’s your cue to find a different route home. Leave the paper boat. You can make another.
Content note: strong language, graphic violence, child deaths, bullying, racism, abuse, and disturbing sexual content involving children. A story about kids is not the same thing as a book for kids.
Discussion questions
Which member of the Losers’ Club stayed with you most?
Was Pennywise the scariest part for you, or did Derry and the people in it get under your skin more?
What did you make of the Turtle and the cosmic side of the story? Did reading The Dark Tower change how you saw it?
Did Ben’s poem and the quieter childhood moments matter as much to you as the scares?
Please mark spoilers before discussing the ending or specific outcomes.
— Cory Lane