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GAF Reads Stephen King's It

V

Vincent Alexander

Member
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A promise made twenty-eight years ago calls seven adults to reunite in Derry, Maine, where as teenagers they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city's children. Unsure that their Losers Club had vanquished the creature all those years ago, the seven had vowed to return to Derry if IT should ever reappear. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that summer return as they prepare to do battle with the monster lurking in Derry's sewers once more
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If you don't know anything about Stephen King's It, then you are probably one of the fortunate few who didn't grow up terrified by this man:

newsbild-es-Kopie1.jpg


However, on September 8th you might have a new face to be terrified of as an incoming fresh adaptation hits theaters. And with this new movie, many are picking up Stephen King's It in preparation. Whether a re-read or first time through, a few of us thought it would be good fun to have a thread dedicated to discussing the book as we await the new movie's theatrical release. If you are interested in a trailer for that, give a watch here. It's yet to be known how the new adaptation will hold up, but the glimpses we've seen so far have received mostly positive reactions on GAF.

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I would like to ask that people please mark spoilers up to September 4th as we will have some reading for the first time. By that point, we'll be 4 days away from the new movie's release, and should be plenty of time for everyone to have finished. With a book like It where we jump back-and-forth through events, it would be especially helpful if you were able to state what chapter you are discussing and/or marking spoilers for---I know if I was a first-time reader, it would make me feel more comfortable clicking on a spoiler confidently knowing where it is coming from. Of course, this isn't required, but if you are able, it would surely help discussion.

If you have the time, please join us in reading Stephen King's It. If you are a fan of horror and haven't read It, you owe it to yourself. So go grab a copy and jump on in!
 
Sunster

Sunster

Member
I was gonna read the book eventually but come to find out in the trailer thread that it contains some kind of
kid orgy
so I'll just stick to the movie.
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
I will say that this was my first Stephen King book I'd ever read, and I was a bit intimidated by the size. It surprised me how great of a read it was, and not very difficult at all. I paced myself at a chapter or two a night. It was a truly horrifying read, and I had fun every page of the way. I plan on picking my copy back up from a friend tomorrow so I can begin my re-read.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
Sunster said:
I was gonna read the book eventually but come to find out in the trailer thread that it contains some kind of
kid orgy
so I'll just stick to the movie.
Click to expand...

The rest of the book is worth the read. Just find out what 2 pages or so it covers and skip it.
 
H

hydruxo

Member
I think I'm going to try and swing by Barnes and Noble tomorrow and snag a copy. Always wanted to read this and I'm really excited for the new movie.
 
B

border

Member
I am really tempted to read the book, but I feel like if I read it now it will make the movie kind of boring and tedious.....just to see the exact same story played out to the letter on screen.

If I just want to read up the the point in the story that the movie covers, what page/chapter can I quit at?
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
border said:
I am really tempted to read the book, but I feel like if I read it now it will make the movie kind of boring and tedious.....just to see the exact same story played out to the letter on screen.

If I just want to read up the the point in the story that the movie covers, what page/chapter can I quit at?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the way the books are framed and how this movie is going to be framed, you couldn't read up to a particular chapter. But I couldn't recommend the book more. Even the 1990 TV miniseries, which did a pitiful job adapting the book, was still enjoyable if not simply to see some of these characters brought to life.

Dead Prince said:
whoa. almost 1200 pages long.
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Yeah...it's quite long, which is what always intimidated me from starting. Once I started though, it didn't feel long at all.
 
F

FrenchMovieTheme

Member
Awesome book. Very long but a smooth read that flows very well. I wasn't expecting it to be as brutal as it was having only seen the miniseries and never having discussed the book with anyone
 
D

Draconian

Member
border said:
I am really tempted to read the book, but I feel like if I read it now it will make the movie kind of boring and tedious.....just to see the exact same story played out to the letter on screen.

If I just want to read up the the point in the story that the movie covers, what page/chapter can I quit at?
Click to expand...

You can't because the two time periods are interspersed all the way through the novel.
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
Vincent Alexander said:
Unfortunately the way the books are framed and how this movie is going to be framed, you couldn't read up to a particular chapter. But I couldn't recommend the book more. Even the 1990 TV miniseries, which did a pitiful job adapting the book, was still enjoyable if not simply to see some of these characters brought to life.


Yeah...it's quite long, which is what always intimidated me from starting. Once I started though, it didn't feel long at all.
Click to expand...

well i went and ordered the book from amazon. guess people are ordering the paperback because it won't be here for awhile. hopefully i can get it in time before the movie! lol
 
M

More_Badass

Member
border said:
I am really tempted to read the book, but I feel like if I read it now it will make the movie kind of boring and tedious.....just to see the exact same story played out to the letter on screen.

If I just want to read up the the point in the story that the movie covers, what page/chapter can I quit at?
Click to expand...
That's the best thing about (good) book adaptions, the changes made and the transformation from text to screen makes the same story in different mediums feel like distinct things.

As for your second question, the book doesn't work like that. It shifts between the children and adults' stories
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
I should maybe read this.

I saw the preview of the sewer drain scene shown in the trailer for the remake, where the little boy loses his boat in the gutter and meets Pennywise. The full scene has a fantastically creepy conversation where Pennywise coaxes the boy to take back his boat. Pennywises's voice has just the right quality of bubbly menace. The nuances in his tone and expressions were sinister as hell. At one point, he zones out and starts gurgling while the boy is talking to him, then he sort of snaps out of it and puts on his friendly face again. So good.

I can't wait for the full film. It seems to have a great sense of atmosphere. The way it's shot looks a cut above your typical horror movie. And this new version of Pennywise is really working for me.

Does anyone know if the book has a similar tone? I like my horror stories to have a creepy atmosphere more than an onslaught of grotesque imagery.
 
V

Volimar

Member
A bit off topic, but Cujo is also a pretty good novel. I'm more into his short stories, but now and then a book comes along...
 
rackham

rackham

Banned
Regarding the young kids having sex at some point,

I don't think it should be marked as a spoiler for a couple of reasons.

1. People should know about it if they're going to be bothered about it. It's only in the novel.


2. It's not a big deal and is not supposed to be sleazy and is not written in that way. Kids have sex in real life. deal with it. I will mark this next part as spoilers.

Beverly has sex with the whole crew when they're kids to calm them down because they're all freaked out of their minds. It's actually a really interesting scene.
It's not written erotically or sleazily and is not supposed to be. The book deals with the entire lives of these people and to think that a child killing clown from another dimension is ok but pre teens doing real things is kind of silly. To be honest, the most fucked up part about the sex is how it basically takes place in the sewers.


I'm super excited for this movie. Just rewatched the original series to get hyped. Can't wait.


edit: The original Pennywise in the series was hilarious. The library scene with Richie is great.

second edit: Hope the new movie is like 6 hours long
 
B

border

Member
Are the children and adult stories broken up into chapters? Like, if I just want to read the kid stories can I just read a certain set of chapters? Or are they interspersed and inter-related so much that it's hopeless to divorce one narrative from the other?
 
F

FrenchMovieTheme

Member
Monocle said:
I should maybe read this.

I saw the preview of the sewer drain scene shown in the trailer for the remake, where the little boy loses his boat in the gutter and meets Pennywise. The full scene has a fantastically creepy conversation where Pennywise coaxes the boy to take back his boat. Pennywises's voice has just the right quality of bubbly menace. The nuances in his tone and expressions were sinister as hell. At one point, he zones out and starts gurgling while the boy is talking to him, then he sort of snaps out of it and puts on his friendly face again. So good.

I can't wait for the full film. It seems to have a great sense of atmosphere. The way it's shot looks a cut above your typical horror movie. And this new version of Pennywise is really working for me.

Does anyone know if the book has a similar tone? I like my horror stories to have a creepy mood more so than grotesque imagery.
Click to expand...

The book has some extremely creepy and even vile shit. And not even just the stuff pennywise does himself

PS

Border they aren't literally mixed but I don't recall it being adult/child/adult alternating. Been a bit since I've read it though
 
V

Volimar

Member
rackham said:
Regarding the young kids having sex at some point,

I don't think it should be marked as a spoiler for a couple of reasons.

1. People should know about it if they're going to be bothered about it. It's only in the novel.


2. It's not a big deal and is not supposed to be sleazy and is not written in that way. Kids have sex in real life. deal with it. I will mark this next part as spoilers.

Beverly has sex with the whole crew when they're kids to calm them down because they're all freaked out of their minds. It's actually a really interesting scene.
It's not written erotically or sleazily and is not supposed to be. The book deals with the entire lives of these people and to think that a child killing clown from another dimension is ok but pre teens doing real things is kind of silly. To be honest, the most fucked up part about the sex is how it basically takes place in the sewers.


I'm super excited for this movie. Just rewatched the original series to get hyped. Can't wait.


edit: The original Pennywise in the series was hilarious. The library scene with Richie is great.

second edit: Hope the new movie is like 6 hours long
Click to expand...

Nah man, that was fucked up.
 
N

Night Angel

Member
border said:
Are the children and adult stories broken up into chapters? Like, if I just want to read the kid stories can I just read a certain set of chapters? Or are they interspersed and inter-related so much that it's hopeless to divorce on narrative from the other?
Click to expand...
You can't just read one. The kid one drives the adult one, but both are needed to fully flesh out the characters.

The kid... spoiler mentioned above was some weird shit, though.
 
L

Lionheart1827

Member
Sunster said:
I was gonna read the book eventually but come to find out in the trailer thread that it contains some kind of
kid orgy
so I'll just stick to the movie.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a weird part but it was really only a few pages. Its absolutely worth reading. Prob one of my favorite books. Never have I been so invested in a books characters so much. The imagery King was able to draw out of the stories, the dread, incredible.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
I started reading the book about a month ago, currently about 500 pages in. Chapter 11

I used to think that Misery and Salem's Lot were my favorite King stories, but It has really impressed me. I hadnt been interested in reading it before because I had seen parts of the It miniseries and thought Curry's Pennywise was such an over-the-top, silly-looking, not-very-scary villain that it put me off from reading the book.

What a mistake that was

It is like the epitome of classic King horror. Small Maine town, dark secret, nightmarish otherworldly evil, the equally nightmarish evil of human nature, childhood fears and psychological horror, etc. The effortless way he builds tension through the cross-cutting narrative, the intimate and natural sense of childhood friendships forming, the unsettling nature of Derry - maybe even more so than It itself - as the definitive American small town version of those haunted hamlets found in Lovecraftian fiction...it all works

More than any other King book I've read, It made me appreciate just how good he is at establishing character and making you get to know them and like (or hate) them.
 
Lord Ghirahim

Lord Ghirahim

Member
Watched the original movie when I was 8, read the book when I was 11. I think the most traumatizing part was the hobo blowjob stuff. I haven't read it since.
 
M

mariachi507

Member
I'm currently about to finish to first interlude then onto chapter 4. The only King book I've read up to this point is The Gunslinger. However, that was many years ago when I was a teenager and it didn't resonate with me at the time. Thus far, I'm impressed with his ability to establish a sense of dread. Especially, for me, knowing how many of the beats play out because of seeing the miniseries. It's not exactly the way the story plays out that's creepy but more of how it does. For example,
the fate of Georgie has to be one of the more famous moments of the novel, but thanks to King's words it was still effective. Just the way he described Georgie smelling the foul fear inducing stench of the cellar appearing in the storm drain was enough to make my skin crawl. Then the yellow eyes appeared.....

The structure is unexpected as well. I figured that the story would just go straight into the kids perspective but chapter 3's depiction of their adult lives managed to keep the dread going without giving the scares. It contributes greatly to the build up of seeing how their childhoods played out while also pointing to beyond.
Now, I've got to get back to reading.
 
G

Gozer the Gozerian

Member
Would it be worth adding like weekly discussion points to the OP? Like this first week we're covering chapters 1 through X? Not sure how active the thread will stay over the next month but it's such a meaty read that it seems like adding a little focus to the discussion could be fun.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
mariachi507 said:
The structure is unexpected as well. I figured that the story would just go straight into the kids perspective but chapter 3's depiction of their adult lives managed to keep the dread going without giving the scares. It contributes greatly to the build up of seeing how their childhoods played out while also pointing to beyond.
Now, I've got to get back to reading.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah,
the adult's reactions to the fateful call is so effective at building up the suspense and the terror of whatever It is and what happened back then, as well as establishing how strong their childhood bond will become
 
JeTmAn81

JeTmAn81

Member
I think I need to read this but not sure if I have time now. I've read a bunch of King's stuff but never this one. The 90s adaptation gave me nightmares for three nights straight.

Edit: I think I've read some 15 of his books and none of them was the straight horror he's known for. This would be the one to break that.
 
B

beyond_death

Member
Been about 12 or 13 years since Ive read it and I think most of the references and little details went over my 15 yr old head. The upcoming movie prompted me to reread it
 
D

Draconian

Member
border said:
Are the children and adult stories broken up into chapters? Like, if I just want to read the kid stories can I just read a certain set of chapters? Or are they interspersed and inter-related so much that it's hopeless to divorce one narrative from the other?
Click to expand...

You shouldn't because the structure is a large reason why it's good, especially in the second half where the two time periods mirror each other. Divorcing one from the other would lose a lot of what makes it special.
 
M

mariachi507

Member
More_Badass said:
Oh yeah,
the adult's reactions to the fateful call is so effective at building up the suspense and the terror of whatever It is and what happened back then, as well as establishing how strong their childhood bond will become
Click to expand...

It's also a testament to King's abilities that despite just meeting these characters I feel as if
I know all about them from just seeing a snapshot of their adult lives. I already know what they were like when they were kids even if they have changed since then.
I'm also curious if King has ever snorted lemon juice.
 
L

Leeness

Member
Just finished a second read through (listen through...audiobook) of this a couple of weeks ago. Very excited for the film.

Waiting for open spoilers haha. But I'm excited to see some of the scenes on film, and also mortified.

Patrick Hockstetter
's death scene is one of the only fictional things I've read that has had me physically gagging so...looking forward to seeing THAT on screen...not. Haha.
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
Leeness said:
Just finished a second read through (listen through...audiobook) of this a couple of weeks ago. Very excited for the film.

Waiting for open spoilers haha. But I'm excited to see some of the scenes on film, and also mortified.

Patrick Hockstetter
's death scene is one of the only fictional things I've read that has had me physically gagging so...looking forward to seeing THAT on screen...not. Haha.
Click to expand...
It's been too long since I read, and I don't start my reread until tomorrow. How did that go down again? I can't remember at all.
 
R

Rival

Gold Member
I should download it for my kindle and give it a reread. I think I read this in 7th grade so it's been 25 years now. Damnit I'm old.
 
Z

Zeyphersan

Banned
Yeah, I’ll join in. Haven’t read this book since high school, and I remember thinking that I did not like the ending (I round to the last third) at ALL. Wonder if anything has changed

Went through a giant Stephen King phase and tore through most of his stuff, have high respect for everything I read
 
B

Ben Morales

Member
Y'all are making me want to read through it again. I was intimidated by the length too but once I started I couldn't put it down. I would just read a couple chapters a night and sometimes I would tell myself, "Ohhh... One more chapter... I'll stop after I find out what happens in this chapter... Oh wait, what is this one about?" The pacing is just really good and the perspective and time period changes kept me engaged.

Edit: Also, I wonder if the movie is going to touch on Pennywise's
origin with the turtle. The chapter with Pennywise facing off against the turtle was fucking incredible. lol
 
L

Leeness

Member
Vincent Alexander said:
It's been too long since I read, and I don't start my reread until tomorrow. How did that go down again? I can't remember at all.
Click to expand...

The flying leeches and the descriptions of them landing on his eyelids and sticking his eyeballs and sucking out his eyeball juice and stuff... eye horror basically lol. Also then he wakes up "as It started to feed on him" before he dies.
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
Leeness said:
The flying leeches and the descriptions of them landing on his eyelids and sticking his eyeballs and sucking out his eyeball juice and stuff... eye horror basically lol. Also then he wakes up "as It started to feed on him" before he dies.
Click to expand...
Wow. How do I not remember this. It is slightly familiar...maybe I repressed it to keep the nightmares away.
 
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