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There has to be more to this. My guess in the first 10% CAN'T be correct, right?

Stuffy and dry, like Ben Shapiro's wife.

"Bill Denbrough Gets a Cab" and "Bill Denbrough Gets a Look" both showcase Bill's author brain: the changes in Derry over the past 27 years, that headache-inducing doubling effect, like bad 3D glasses, seeing both old and new Derry at once. Then, when Bill reaches the restaurant, King uses the writer to describe the Losers Club and, as with the town, he can see both the kids they were and the adults they've become.

Chapter 15 is the scariest shit I've read in decades. Too bad so few people are ever going to be able to read it. 😫

"Derry: The Second Interlude" delves further into the history of the titular town. We're witness to a horrible tragedy known locally as the Fire at the Black Spot, wherein 80 people, mostly Black people, perished in a fire set by the Legion of White Decency, the North's version of the KKK. This chapter cements Derry's place in this book as a living character, a third antagonist on the side of Pennywise and Bowers.

"Cleaning Up" is the last chapter before the second interlude (The Black Spot is next!). This chapter is split between Bev and Stan's stories, which is a master stroke, in my humble opinion, because Stan has been dead since "Six Phone Calls" and having his take on Pennywise told through Bev's memories of him, as his own chapter was written from his wife's POV, is immaculate storytelling. 100 outta 10. No notes.

Boy, I sure hope someone else reviews this before I do. I'd hate for my review to be the only one this one gets, mainly because, while it's a stunning piece of literary history and I'm happy as hell my buddy sent me a copy, it's not a very good story. Not yet, anyway. Still a long way to go!

"Georgie's Room and the House on Neibolt Street" is the longest standalone chapter for a good reason: we finally get to see the only weapon the Losers can use to combat the entity known as It: the magic of childhood: BELIEF.

Ooo, I love a good story within a story!

"The Dam in the Barrens" introduces us to Eddie's monster: the Leper. It also shows how much Eddie loves and respects Bill due to Bill always knowing what to do, what to say. Bill is the most mature of the kids, and King uses the death of his brother Georgie as the instigating factor: Bill grew up far before he should have, preparing him to lead the charge against IT.

I'm not sure what to make of this. It's smooth, unblemished, and succinct (for Straub, anyway) but there's something missing, and that's probably exactly what he would've added had he been able to finish it.

"One of the Missing: A Tale from the Summer of '58" begins with the death of Eddie Corcoran and ends with Mike Hanlon. In the previous chapter, Eddie Kaspbrak's panic attack mirrored the fact that It uses your own mind against you. In this chapter, Mike thinks they can finally "go to sleep" because "Spring vanished, summer gone, harvest done," mirroring It's own cycle. The giant bird is my least favorite monster.

"He does not deserve the light, he deserves peace," Matthew Levi says of the Master, alluding that heaven, while called Heaven, is not peaceful. I dig this, because if "Christians", modern or historical, are going to Heaven, I'd rather fellate Satan while boiling in a lake of fire for eternity than hang around those assholes.

"Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (1)" sees Big Bill racing through Derry to save his buddy Eddie from certain death after Henry Bowers and gang bust Eddie's nose sending the boy into a panic attack and not an asthma attack. After all, Eddie's aspirator is filled with nothing more than water and a dash of camphor for that medicinal flavor. It's all in Eddie's head, foreshadowing how IT works.

"Ben Hanscom Takes a Fall" has the scariest scene in the entire book for me. The mummy: first seen as a figure in the distance, out there on the ice, then a man, followed by the realization that the man is dressed as a clown. A bell rings. The clown looks up to reveal a withered and wrinkled face, bandages flapping in the wind. Perfectly written horror in which nothing actually happens.

I feel like I'm missing something because I haven't read all of his books. This feels like reading Stephen King's INSOMNIA without having read any of the Dark Tower books...

Great stuff, just confusing. Immaculate writing as ever.

That chapter was tremendous fun. Behemoth having a shootout, the apartment aflame. Such a joy to read.

"Derry: The First Interlude" is our first verifiable word from Mike Hanlon. To me, Mike is the most important character in the novel, not Bill or Ben, or anyone else. Mike has been tasked with staying, with remembering, and that is undeniably main-character energy. His terror is palpable. He doesn't want to call in the gang but he will, soon, after more evidence presents itself, after, soon, before it's too late...

Kiss Me, Judas, type shit

The irony of executing people because they refuse to die in your stupid, senseless, unwinnable war is mankind at peak stupidity. Faulkner does a good job getting that point across, though, I will admit.

"Bill Denbrough Takes Time Out" is an amazing chapter wherein not much happens yet the reader is on the edge of their seat. You can feel what's coming and you don't want to go, no, you don't want to go, you don't want to return to Derry anymore than Bill or Bev or Eddie or Ritchie, or poor Stan want(ed) to, because what's there might be the end of them, and you do not want to bear witness to all that is to come.

Again, the Pilate chapters are the best. He's the best drawn of all the characters. The stuff happening in, for lack of a better term, the present seems reliant on the insanity of what's happening: witches, women riding flying pigs, dead villains travelling by way of fireplace, et al. While Pilate's chapter deal more with humanity and the choices we make or do not make.

JK Rowling stole so much from this book. It can't even be called tribute or homage; just straight up theft. Nearly Headless Nick, the fireplace travel system, and so much more. I will list all the ways that terf shithead ripped off this dead Russian author who she knew couldn't accuse her of anything because he is, as previously mentioned, FUCKING DEAD.

"Beverly Rogan Takes a Whuppin" is built brilliantly. We begin with omniscient narration, inside Tom Rogan's head, but 2/3s of the way through, as Bev starts to fight back, we enter her head, as if she's finally come back to herself, woken up. DUNE by Frank Herbert (yes, that classic piece of scifi) is written in the same style. Omniscient narrative is a good storytelling device in capable hands. We need more of it.

I finally figured out why I'm not enjoying this. Faulkner doesn't name anybody to allude to the faceless, nameless act of war, how so many parish needlessly, and so many remained unnamed, John and Jane Does, so maimed and mutilated by war to be personless cogs in the crushing machine of mankind's violent pastime. I get it. I simply hate that I don't have names for these people, which is the point, of course.

"Eddie Kaspbrak Takes His Medicine" is my least favorite chapter in the book. King starts by listing Eddie's medications, and it doesn't get any better from there as we're introduced to his whiny wife Myra and a metric tonne of fat shaming. Oh well, it's amazing that these 20 pages and two more letter on (in THAT scene) are the only bad parts of this 1100 page kitten squisher. Insane.

Margarita meets Woland!

Out of my three active reads and three inactive ones (yes, I'm currently reading six books) this is my least favorite and the first National Book Award winner I'm not head over hills for. It started wonderfully with a unique premise but the past 150 pages of different vantage points of the same event is wearing me down.

"Ben Hanscom Takes a Drink" has so many odd connections to THE STAND. Next time you get a chance read, or reread, that subchapter in "Six Phone Calls" and see if you can spit them all. And no, it's not only the Red Wheel being located in Hemingford Home.