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Dubbed the Master of the Macabre for his domination of the horror genre, King has also written bestselling thrillers, mysteries, fantasies, novellas, and short stories, many of which have been turned into blockbuster films and miniseries (A partial list includes Carrie, The Shining, The Stand,, Misery, It, The Shawshank Redemption, The Langoliers, Stand by Me, and The Green Mile). He also has two works of nonfiction to his credit: a gorgeously crafted memoir/scribbler's how-to (On Writing) and Faithful, a chronicle of the Boston Red Sox' stellar 2004 season, cowritten with Stewart O'Nan. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
In between books, the indefatigable King performs in the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band that includes among its rotating personnel fellow authors Dave Barry and Amy Tan; attends as many Boston Red Sox games as is humanly possible; and contributes with his wife, Tabitha, to many local and national charities.
King is probably one of the most easily recognizable authors alive, and it's not just because of his string of bestsellers. King has appeared in a number of films based on his work, including Pet Semetary, Thinner, and The Stand.
If you've ever wondered why Stephen King has written several books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, there is actually a very simple explanation: King is so prolific that he felt it necessary to create an alter-ego so that he could publish more than one book a year. The name was a hastily hobbled together combination of writer Richard Stark (ironically, a pseudonym for Donald Westlake) and Randy Bachman of rock group Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
Anonymous
Posted October 7, 2008
This is it, without even the tiniest shadow of a doubt. I've read a lot of books, ranging from classics, like Count Dracula, by Bram Stoker, Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and a lot of books by S.K. Himself. So far, I haven't come across one I haven't enjoyed on some level. I'm actually rereading it for a second time, and am just shy of page 30, which isn't even a dent in this 1,100-plus-page masterpiece. It's absolutely my favorite piece of litterature I've come across, and I hope, one day, I can come across a more durable first- or second-edition hardcover to replace the spine-tarnished, yellow-paged paperback I have. Long ramble short: It isn't for everybody--if you're looking for a more to-the-point horror story, try out Dean Koontz, who is also great--but if you're a fan of The King, and have't checked this out, I highly recomend it. I recomend, also, that you read this book in a dimly-lit room with no TV or music playing, with the door locked and the windows draped shut, so you can get the full effect.
18 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DPManwell
Posted October 1, 2010
I won't bore you with my recap of the plot - the synopsis here is just fine. If you've ever read Stephen King before, you have a pretty good idea whether you'll like this one. In my opinion, IT is not as good as THE STAND, but on par with SALEM'S LOT and leaps and bounds better than UNDER THE DOME. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
If I were rating the story alone, I would have given it 5 stars. The e-book, though, gets three stars, because the formatting is absolutely awful... at least as the Nook displays it. Long stretches of text (in some places, close to 2 full pages) are inexplicably italicized. Sometimes, the italics stop just as inexplicably - in the middle of a sentence that's no different in tone or viewpoint than the ones leading up to it. In several places, there is a dangling half-paragraph requiring a page turn to get to the rest of the paragraph (and I'm not talking about the mid-sentence chapter breaks; I know those are correct).
To top it off, there are several spelling errors - "rn" substituted for "m," the numeral "1" for the letter "l," and the like. I believe all of the formatting and typographical errors probably result from a bad scan of a print copy of the book. It needs fixing - it's embarrassing to have such a poor version of such a good book by such a popular author.
13 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This was only the fourth book that i had read by Stephen King. When i first picked it up, I was shocked that there was over 1000 pages. But i was drawn in within the first ten pages and had the book finished in 8 days. The plot was amazing, characters were well developed, and the deaths were brutal! Clowns have always and still to this day, scare the crap out of me. (The book didnt help too much with that)
10 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 8, 2008
Straight to the point: This is the first King book I read and it is my favorite book I have EVER read. I never wanted it to end. The characters have so much life, you will feel like you lived in Derry and were part of the club. Horrifying, funny, sad, depressing, exciting, adventure....This book has it all.
9 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Horror literature has long been shunned as being the no-name brand of fiction; never taken seriously by critics but overall adored by the readers. The grisly tales of ghostly haunting, vampiric infestations and the all around Bogeyman serial killers have been written about for hundreds of years, and there are writers in the field past and present that have succeeded in scary the daylights out of you - yet you crave more like a thirsty hell hound. In all of those writers only one has time and again gone over the top, above and beyond and one step too far. He never lets the reader go and gets them deeper and deeper into the things that really scare us. Those things aren't always supernatural, but the everyday trials we face as human beings. That one writer is Stephen King. Out of his huge library of written works there is also only one tale that gets down to the root of what we fear and makes us face IT head on. IT!! What is IT? Anything at all - if you fear IT, you will confront IT. Supernatural or not the creature called It is the idea of terror. IT lingers under you skin, but you cannot scratch. King created the one truly all encompassing horror novel, because everything out there - in books, in movies, in real life is ever present to eat at you. I, The Nobody must confess that I have never been able to read this book straight through - IT is that scary. Not just the eerie and the horrifying, but the sadness that these characters are engulfed in. As kids we all dealt with bullies and some of us, broken homes or even worse - and our lives are reflected in each and every page. Even if you don't connect with one aspect of It, other parts you will. This will always endure as the one truly terrifying novel of all time. And the name says it all - IT! I am currently rereading it - and I will try to read IT all the way, instead of bits and pieces here and there. Can and entire city be haunted? Yes, IT can.
Can entire universe be haunted - Yes. For It is also a connecting book to the Dark Tower Saga; the turtle, the deadlights. Derry is like your own hometown, but the evil is more insidious and floats down below.
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 8, 2009
My name is Brock Golbeck and I am 16 years old. I read this in my English class and I'm writing this review for English class. The book I read was Stephen Kings book IT. It is about seven children who grow up together and were tormented by an evil that lived in the sewers in Derry, Maine where the book takes place.
They worked together to try to stop the evil and they thought they had put an end to it. They made a vow to stop the evil if it came back, twenty-eight years later they heard of the evil terrorizing kids again and they reunite and come back to put a final end to IT.
You will have to read this suspenseful book to find out why they didn't stop the evil when they were young and what things IT has done to them. But the book makes you question if you should leave things as is or should you be a good person and help others? After reading this horror I'm not sure what I would do. The major theme of the book is fear, everyone fears for their life because this evil.
The seven main characters in the book are Mike Hanlon, Stan Uris, Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Rogan, Eddie Kaspbrak and Bill Denbrough.
The book and the movie go along good with each other with a few changes from the book which has more detail than the movie. If you don't like to read watching the movie might work best for you.
On a scale of 1-5, 1 being the worst and 5 being the best I think this book is a 5 star book, Stephen King is one of the best horror writers today and if you liked this book you might want to read some more of his books. I think anybody that likes books about horror will enjoy this book.
7 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 18, 2009
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I have read all of Stephen King and this is by far my favorite. I have read this particular book six times and always find myself engulfed in the story. The children feel real and genuine, the kind you can find in every small town. This is a thriller and no one does thrill like Stephen King.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 20, 2008
starts slow, builds up the characters, and keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire way.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 23, 2009
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Okay, let me just say that the movie did not do 'It' justice. After all, which movie-based-on-a-book does? Besides for 'The Notebook'.
Since the copy of 'It' I read was 1028 pages, I'll just list my comments instead of writing paragraph after paragraph.
- super long, will keep you busy
- it's actually frightening, a missing factor in 99% of the "scary" novels I've read
- this made me scared of clowns
- I felt like I was actually in Derry, fighting Pennywise with the Lucky Seven
I would definitely recommend 'It' to anybody with a few hours and an open mind.
4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.the group of chracters have somthing of there own to fear. so thats wat so called IT brings them. the nightmares they have it brings it to life spiders, monsters even drunk mad parents. wats so sick is that it takes the form of pennywise the clown and i hate clowns. every twist and turn keeps you on your seat please keep the lights on as the best 1104 padges are worth reading.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 26, 2009
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This is one of the scariest books I have ever read. It thrilled me from start to finish. I suggest taking notes on characters as this book is very lengthy but it is one of the best books King has ever written. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a good scare
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 3, 2009
When I was told about this book I was only given a small idea as to what it entailed. Being a huge Stephen King fan I felt I had to give it a chance. Unfortunately, when I picked the book up I realized it may involve more time than I could give to finish such a long story. After sitting down and beginning the story, I found myself transformed into this small town and back to my junior days of hanging out with friends. It captured me immediately. I could relate to almost everything that was written. There are many characters and lives to keep up with but after you are introduced to the whole group you cant help but remember each detail. Given the title character is something that has freaked me out since childhood it wasnt long before I found chills running down my spine as I read. I became so involved in this story I couldn't read it with the lights down. I have recommended this book to all my friends and especially my childhood friends that would understand this story on the same level as I did. Mr. King has a brilliant mind and has found a way to put my greatest fear down on paper.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Gr0dewa1d
Posted October 25, 2008
I read this book nearly 20 years ago, and I remember it vividly to this day. In this story, Stephen King found a way to tap into childhood fears and nightmares. I can remember not being able to get to sleep while I thought of Pennywise the Clown. The plot is good, although the book is an investment in reading time. King develops the characters well. Like all King books, read it before seeing the movie.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 10, 2008
You cannot be disappointed in King's BEST novel. I have read it 3 times and will likely read it again! Forget the movie, which could not come close to capturing the story. The characters are likable and REAL...I could vividly see and feel the entire story. And the details are what make this book so great so never mind the 1000+ pages! It's worth it. The only negative is that you will be sad when it's over.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 4, 2008
This is definitely the best SK book ever. I like plenty of other SK novels, but this is the best. The characters are so wonderfully described as children and as adults that they became friends of mine. When I finished the book, I missed them. Once again, this is the best SK book!!!
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 4, 2012
This is the first book I ever read by Stephen King. I was the same age as the main characters and read it late at night, in bed, with a flashlight. It scared the bejeezus out of me and I've read it at least ten times since. It is an excellent novel and I highly recommend it.
However, I do NOT recommend the ebook. It is very poorly formatted. Strange indents and tabs, poor punctuation, misspelling, and random italics make it a bad scan of a great book. It's a joke that no one even bothered to edit the file on such a high profile author.
One star for the ebook copy. Please read the story but spend the money on a different version. This one is an embarrassment.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 24, 2012
This was the first book i read by Stephen King. I absolutlely loved it. My only advice is that if your not in high school dont read. This is not a book for kids. Do not read before bed eather, because you will be scared of every little thing for a while. stephen King is a horror story writer, so those with weak stomachs stay away. I hope every one else enjoyed this book as much as i did.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 23, 2012
My dad always talks about the movie It. My dad said: if you think it is not really scary your in for a rood of awaykening. My dad saw the movie and read the book. P.S the clowns name is pennywise.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 21, 2012
My personal favorite book by this author. Loved every minute of it.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 19, 2012
This book in my opinion is Stephen King's best work. He delivers an amazing srory in this one; really just unbelievable. However, I don't reccomend this book for people who don't like horror stories. This book WILL scare you, there is no doubt about it. You also need alot of patience to read this book, as any other King book.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
A #1 New York Times bestseller..."A LANDMARK." (Chicago Sun-Times)
"THE HORROR MASTER'S BEST." (People)
"[A] SCARE-FEST." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"A GHOUL'S DELIGHT." (Kansas City Star)
That's IT.