The Skinny: 
 A book about a clown has surprisingly little to actually do with a clown. 
 The Fat: 
 A few months ago I decided I wanted to try and read a Stephen King novel. Now, I have watched a few movies that have been based on his novels/short stories ("Shawshank Redemption" and "Stand By Me" come to mind), but before last week I had never had the pleasure of reading King. So I googled what his best novels were and IT kept coming up at the top of the list. And when I saw the page number I thought Challenge accepted. 
 So I bought the book and within a day of buying it I started to read IT. Unfortunately, after reading 5 pages I could tell I wasn't in the mood to read the novel. Since it's so long I didn't want to force myself to read the book. So I waited a week and then tried again. And I am so glad that I waited because this book was INCREDIBLE!!! I DEVOURED IT. 
 King's novel was long, but it was fast paced. It felt like every chapter there was another plot twist! If this is how all of King's novels are then he may quickly become my new favorite author. This is one of those books where the less you know, the better. I was prepared for the book to have a clown and be scary, but IT is a character driven novel and the clown remains a figure in the background. King would tell each character's story or an event and right when I would think: What does this have to do with a clown? And then BAM!!! Pennywise would show up. 
 This novel was longgggggg, but I was seldom bored. I haven't been so eager to find out what happens next since I read East of Eden. There were parts of IT that had me laughing so hard my sides hurt, parts that had me crying from loss, and parts that led me to jump when I saw a balloon floating on the ceiling of a restaurant (I will never be able to look at balloons the same way again). 
 The only time I contemplated not finishing IT was when I got to page 500 and realized I wasn't even halfway done with the book. That was a bit discouraging knowing that with most books I would've been finished by then. Sort of like when you clean your room and think Wow, I made a lot of progress and then realized you had only finished cleaning one corner. But the book was so good the thought lasted less than a second. 
 When it came to the ending I was super nervous of how King was going to end such a long novel, but he did it beautifully. Definitely one of the better endings I have read in a while. 
 When it comes to critiques, besides the length there were a few other issues I had. For example, (view spoiler)[reading about 12-year-olds having sex was a bit uncomfortable. I still am not sure why they needed to have sex to strengthen their bond and get out of the tunnel. It was just odd to me. Plus, I have issues with the fact that the adults Pennywise targets (outside of the Loser's club) are mostly either African Americans or gay. And the final confrontation with Pennywise was confusing. (hide spoiler)] 
 There were definitely some parts that King rambled and parts that could've been shortened, but the book overall was so good that the length was well worth it. All in all I loved IT and I definitely want to read more by King. 
 ***TRIGGER WARNINGS: suicide, child abuse, spousal abuse, bullying, racism, homophobia, institutionalization, murder, and implied sexual abuse.