I liked the story...it kept me interested...but I thought the ending (once again)-- the evil spider versus the philosophical turtle, fighting to the "death" down in the sewer-- was, quite frankly, laughably ridiculous. The homicidal clown bit-- I thought Tim Curry chewed up the scenery doing the part for the TV movie-- appealed to me, as did the horror-movie monsters that made their appearance throughout the book. Occasionally engaging, often absurd, comic-book made into a best-selling novel.

This has to be my favorite Stephen King story. Don't let the length scare you, it's truly an epic horror masterpiece. After reading "The Stand" I devoured Mr. King's other books. While I love "The Stand", "It" has depth and deals with horror in the mundane everyday world. Mr. King has a way of ripping into the reader's nightmares and presenting them in an intense and unputdownable manner! If you're looking for a book filled with thrills and chills "It" is for you!

I could go on about the clown, the childhood terror and the sheer horror but I think they've been covered enough. What It means to me is something different: my first voyage into the horror genre, something that terrified and electrified me to the extent that my reading habits were the never the same. Thirteen years later and I still cringe when I remember my first reaction to reading IT. I thought it lost some of the pace towards the end (other I have spoken to disagree) but still, this is the real thing and one of the best in the whole genre.

If an author wants to do a coming of age story and mix in thrills this is exactly the book they need to write.

King is a master of horror, setting everything up in brilliant vibrant phrasing. It is mixed with just enough terror to keep the reader on the edge of the seat while maintaining a side story about friendship, and banning together to overcome an obstacle. This one being a killer clown...for most of the book anyway.

The characters have depth and make you actually care about them. It remains strong today just as it did when it first came out. Excellent work Mr. King!

Maybe I'm expecting too much from Mr. King. Maybe I'm missing the point. I understand that he is a MASTER story teller. I appreciate how three dimensional his characters are, and I enjoyed the realistic dialogue. Some of the background stories were interesting, and some of them were pointless.

The book was well written, but the constant time-warping was BEYOND tedious, especially in the last 200 pages. Overall, this was a decent book, but I preferred some of his earlier works to this for several reasons.

I was very pleased with this product. It was just as you described.
Thanks.

  A great book, in my opinion its King's best. A great story of friendship, that really made me think back to being that age again. The story has great characters, and is funny, scary and moving all at the same time.

Its a long book, but you will find that the pages fly by. A must raed, that you will be sure to re-read.

Nothing more to say... just great!

I loved the Flash backs with the kids, but the adult parts turned me off and with about 50 pages left I could not finish this book.

Quite possibly the best book I have ever read. The characters and the scary moments make this a must read. Being a teenager, I think that other teenagers would greatly enjoy this book. I still hold a special place for Beverly, Ben, Bill, Richie etc. in my heart. This is probably King's greatest work.

A great book......a land mark in american literature but let me tell u some parts in the book are so boring u would rather die instead of finishing that part to get to a better part of the story and it is so long it took me a year to read well thats because i would stop reading it for a while but overall its one of the best books i ever put my face in.

I remember watching the sewer drain part when i was a kid, and i ran down the stairs like a little school girl. I couldn't bear to watch it till i gre older, then it was kind of cheesy by then. If you want to scare the crap out of your kids, show them this movie, or read the book to them. I still hate clowns.

I'm 34 and I still hate walking buy sewer drains....

Saw the movie first, In my opinion you should never see the movie before you read the book. Your imagination doesn't have the freedom to think about the characters and the scenes when you already have a specific picture of what these people and places look like. Loved how the book took it's time in developing each of the characters and with the various time periods that the story deals with. I also liked how the mood of the book could change at the drop of a hat. I have never read a book that utilized sentiment, suspense and horror so well. This is one of the few books that truly scared me and I actually had to put it down more than once. King is the master of horror and this is one of his best. The movie was good but it was merely a half hearted attempt to cram a long book into a movie. Would have been better off approaching IT like they did The Stand. Two more hours could have explained a lot more.

hard to read at night alone without freaking ya out!

This is easily the scariest book I've ever read, and I've read a LOT of scary books. The scene with Bev and the voices in the drain still freaks me out, and it's been years since I read it. The book really deals with how two different groups deal with terror, and adversity. The great thing is, both groups are the same people, just some 20 years apart. The book has a lot to say on many levels, and is one of my favorite Stephen King books.

This book is outstanding. The movie is also outdtanding. King at his best. I know many people who watch this movie and never want to look at a clown again he does his job and does it well. His job is to scare us and he is great at it.

Over-written, tedious, unimpressive shite. King at his worst, recycling his old stuff with as much enthusiasm as a milkman at the end of his route.

My favorite King novel and one of few books that can actually scare me. A groups of friends reuinite after 27 years to defeat an evil force of nature. There are many memorable scenes in this novel; I've read it three times. Another huge doorstop of a book, this one is over 1000 small print pages in PB. In my opinion, this is Kings masterwork and will be read for generations to come.

Easily one of the best horror books of all time. We ALL float down here!

I've read this book cover-to-cover three times and I STILL want to read it again and again and again and again...

Stephen King - in his early years - was an excellent author, able to pack power into ten or fifteen pages. However, he lost it with It. This books tells a story in such a drawn-out way that you're actually sick of the characters by the time you put it down. I mean, is it necessary for us to know the colors of each and every flower in Derry before the story continues? Must every rock be described? Whatever magic King had with his Night Shift years is definately over. This could have been an effect, completely entertaining 250 page story.

I read this when I was 18 and it gave me the first nightmares i had had in years.

What a great little story. Too bad it continued on with King's bad reputation for poor endings.

The single. scariest book I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I have read IT three times and love it more each time I do. The characters are all realistic, mostly likeable, and the story is superb. The clown, Pennywise, is one of the scariest bad guys I have ever read. This, to me, is King's masterpiece. There is no doubt who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and you never know if the good guys will win.

It sounds strange but it was scary.

I am a strong, independent, reasonably fearless, grown woman. IT is the only book I've ever had to put down because I got scared. I was reading IT one night while my husband was at work. To this day we laugh about the fact that I put it face down on the floor, left the room, and turned on every light in the house. Didn't sleep a wink that night. IT's that good.

It shows the creative intelligence of Stephen King due to the fact that he can take the image of a clown and make it evil. He also created great suspense building up to the arrival of it in the book.

Before I had read the book I had seen the movie. I thought the movie was great and so was the book. The book was too long though, and at times made me lose interest.

The movie was lot worse then the book, but in the book they give you a lot more things to work with. It was more interesting than watching it. It still kinda sucked.

It was a tedious, long, yet interesting Stephen King novel. Like many of King's earlier works, it suffers from a slow beginning, and some of the jumps from the present to the past are tedious and confusing. However, overall I think that King weaves an interesting tale of the battle between seven people and the ultimate being of evil.

The first time I read this book I really got a lot of details. It was so much detail that I could picture it in my head and when I saw the movie, there were so many parts that I had pictured. It was very good.

It was very scary. It kept you on the edge of your seat. It was very demonic. Stephen King is very creative and knows what scares you.

What I like about the book is how he told the story. It always kept me wanting to read and never put the book down. The clown was the best.

This was a movie that made me jump. It left me on the edge of my chair. I own the book and for a week I dreamt about IT...

I am terribly afraid of clowns; therefore It, by Stephen King, terrified me. I still have nightmares, but enjoyed the book immensely. Every child that has ever had fears from the past that were bound to resurface can relate to this masterpiece.

One of the scariest books I've read! I loved it!