It

I believe this is the fifteenth Stephen King book I've read, and I'm surprised that it's taken me this long to read a straight horror novel from America's most famous horror writer. Things have ranged from fantasy (Dark Tower series, The Talisman) to sci-fi (11/22/63) to apocalyptic (Under the Dome, The Stand), but not until I finally sat down and read the mega-hit that was It did I read a book that was specifically designed to scare. Actually the only time I remember him attempting scary scenes in other books were in Black House (not very effective...) and 11/22/63 (it's super effective!). And just as I've enjoyed most of what I've read by King already, I found It to be effectively scary and an all around awesome read. We start in with a series of vignettes as six successful and seemingly random adults in the 80's across America all receive a similar call from a long-forgotten friend, telling them "It's back, and you need to come back to Maine so we can stop it." No one seems to have any idea what "it" is, but repressed memories of their childhood in the fifties slowly return to all six. They return to Maine and try to put together the pieces and figure out just what the heck is going on- why are atrocities being commited against children in their small Maine hometown every 23 years? Why is this unnoticed by the media? How were they able to survive where so many other children died? Why did they think they had stopped "It", and what can they do differently now? Through this we get to learn about the long summer in the fifties that they all got together and somehow stopped It, only to block the horrific memories completely from their mind up until that fateful phone call. I found the parallel storylines of the kids and adults both trying to stop It an interesting technique- think of the flashbacks in Lost except with much more meat to them. The whole thing kept me reading all throughout my recent vacation, and while I could say that I should ease up on the King books, he's got so many more that I want to read. I don't have any on my plate right now, but more will come soon.