My experience reading Stephen King's It

Thirteen months. It took me thirteen months to finish a book. Yes, I have finished other books in that timespan, but it took me more than a year to finish Stephen King's It. As I'm sure many of you know, this book is nearly 1,200 pages. I have never in my life read a single book that long.

I had illusions that I would read the book in time for the 2017 movie adaptation. I grew up on the 1990 TV movie. Tim Curry will always be Pennywise in my heart. But I digress. I started this book in early July of 2017, needless to say I was barely 100 pages in by the time the film came out in September.

But I was determined to finish. This was my third attempt at reading It. Both times I don't think I got beyond more than 80 pages. I didn't want to quit this time. This book went with me on not one but two vacations, to Virginia and Maui, and several commutes to work. Prior to It, the only Stephen King books I read to date were Carrie and Misery. You know back when King wrote normal size books. I never went beyond those two because the rest of his books seem to be equal in weight to a small child.

Just a few days ago, I finally finished. As much as I admire King's ability to craft a story and chastise the current White House resident on Twitter, this book left me a little verklempt!

King's imagination is awesome, but he seems to not know when enough is enough.

This book is more than 30 years old, so I'm not going to rehash every minute detail. Ninety percent of the book was clicking on all cylinders for me. The strong friendship of the Loser's Club, Bill, Eddie, Stan, Ben, Richie, Mike, and Beverly shines throughout. One minute they can be cracking jokes on each other and ready to fight bully Henry Bowers to the death in the next. But......the last ten percent of the book is another matter. The cosmic turtle, the spider, and the COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY child sex scene kept this from being a four-star read for me. It's like King had a fully-thought out idea/plot for 1,092 pages. Then came page 1,093, when Beverly sets an incredibly INSANE plan in motion. I don't care what anyone says, not even Stephen King himself, I will NEVER be convinced that the "child ritual" was essential to the plot. I can forgive the confusing passages about the cosmic turtle and the spider, but children having sex was a bridge too far. There were also moments of racism and homophobia that I could have done without.

I knew and understood what I was reading for ninety percent of the book, but the rest just left me corn-fused!

This thirteen month experience has not turned me off reading more books by King. I need some time to recover but eventually I want to tackle The Stand, The Outsider, Under the Dome (the last season of the TV adaptation SUCKED, which I'm still mad about), Sleeping Beauties, and Duma Key. At the rate I read It, I might not be finished with this list for at least five years. Oh I hope not!

Rating: Give it a try