Monday 15 October 2018

RIP XIII Book the First - It by Stephen King

I do believe that this is the first time ever on this blog that I have granted a second review to a book, and it seems fitting that It is the recipient. It (whilst incredibly frustrating to write about because of the number of times you end up saying It) is my absolute favourite Stephen King novel, and also the one that scares me the most. Having looked back at my last review (or, should that be 'review'), I can see that I had already read it so many times that I can't talk about this book in terms of the narrative anymore, so much as a collection of moments that I have thought about so much that the characters are almost real to me, and as a story that I know so well, and yet read in a different way every time.

This book is also full of memories of reading this book. I can remember my first read at 15, and reading it in my mum's car at some garden centre, refusing to leave until I'd finished the chapter. I can remember reading it one endless summer in my nan and grandad's back garden, bittersweet because I can't do that anymore. I can remember reading it too late, then getting up the stairs at my mum and dad's house as quickly as I could, and brushing my teeth as far away from the sink as I could because, well, there's this thing with the drains...

Reading it this time, nearly 30, I found, for the first time, that I am finally starting to relate more to the adults than the children. I KNOW. There are a lot of themes in this book that deal with losing ones childhood, and I think that's a feeling that overwhelms all of us at one point or another. I am (finally, some might say!) starting to feel like a grown up to a certain extent, and whilst that's scary in a big life decision way, it's also scary in that, I don't want to lose my childlike glee with the world in the process.

Or something. Where were we?

It. Right. Books. I mean, It is fucking scary. It's become sort of incomprehensible in my brain that anyone hasn't read It because it is my everything and has, I guess, been a part of my life for pretty much half of my life, but that is a stupid thought and of course everyone hasn't read it. You should read it, of course, as long as you can cope with a newfound fear of clowns and feeling very uneasy around drains, but also probably even if you can't. It's definitely on the long side, even for King, but unlike something like, say, The Stand, in my opinion every single part of it is necessary and important and I wouldn't be without any of it. It is fucking disgusting as well, of course, but it's just such a good book, you guys.

Ummm... Also, spooky spooky, tremble tremble. Here endeth my RIP book the first. Or something, IDK just read It because how can you not? Exactly.

2 comments:

  1. Hmmm, well you have me feeling like it might finally be time to read this one. I have barely read any King actually. Will have to check the library!

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  2. Hi Laura! I've been having a lot of fun with re-reads in the last year. While the time between reading It this time (a few years) and last wasn't as long as say The Handmaid's Tale (I read it at 24 and now 40), the book may stay the same, but it's a different person reading it.
    I loved It at least twice as much as on the first reading. Great.

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