Rachyl's Reviews > It

This was my first Stephen King novel, and I really now understand why he's such a popular author. His writing in this book was phenomenal. He really makes you visualize what's going on. They're far more than simply words on a page. I found his characters to be well thought out enough for them to be memorable as well. Even minor characters were embellished in some way (this helped make up for the long-winded nature of the book that I know some people weren't fond of, but it's definitely something that worked for me). The town of Derry was described enough too, that it really felt like a town. The characters revisit (or at least mention in passing) several stores and streets throughout the book and all that helped to make everything seem more real. I also enjoyed the little town histories told trough the "interludes" which added depth (and not to mention upped the fear factor.
One of the first things that stuck out to me about this book that I loved was that it wasn't just about the monster. Sure, these things could be linked back to It, but I loved that the book also dealt with hate in the human psyche. I was already hooked from the visualization of the first chapter, but when the second introduced a hate crime, I could already tell that I was going to be getting more than I expected when I decided to read this monster horror book. This connection with human hate and imperfection is why I was ultimately disappointed with the origin of the monster though. (view spoiler)[It seemed to me to be rather out of place that It wasn't derived from humans but from some weird cosmic being (hide spoiler)] and that, unfortunately, did pull me out of the story a bit.
I also loved the apparent tie-ins with Freudian psychology. There was the large emphasis on the underground (which I connected to the repressed and the subconscious), the uncanny nature of the two halves of the book (childhood and adulthood), reverting to childhood roles (and desires), the elements of sexuality, and the many forms the monster takes. I would love to hear the thoughts of someone more knowledgeable in psychology than myself had to say about this book, but I did find it interesting with just my basic understanding.
Though the story did definitely freak me out at certain points, and I'm looking over my shoulder a little more than normal, I also expected it to be much scarier. This is my first horror book, so maybe I'm just not used to the medium, and this slight jumpiness is as scary as it gets, but I did expect a bit more