I guess this book can be seen as a companion piece to The Body - published in Different Seasons and filmed as 'Stand by Me'. Both are about a childhood summer, and a group of friends going through an experience that both bonds them together and, as it marks the point when they begin to leave childhood behind, forever separates them. The two stories share the same themes: the loss of childhood and the gaining of something else, the strength of friendship and promises, how children live in an entirely different world to adults, full of horror and wonder - and, of course, the setting of a small New England town and the dark secrets that lie beneath its surface. 
 There is a great deal of discussion about whether King is a 'great' author, but I do think that this is a great book. The horror here isn't just to give us the thrill of fear - although it certainly does that - but serves a purpose. IT, the evil that lives under the town of Derry, Maine, is pure evil. It feeds on children and kills wantonly. It encourages violence and even enters people's minds to make them its puppets - but with Stephen King, as with all great horror, these are never simply the evil acts of the devil made me do it, we see how evil is bred by weakness and intolerance, by selfishness and fear rather than being imposed by an external force, but that there are always powers that are ready both encourage and use the small evils in people's hearts. 
 And while King does not give us an ending of entirely unspoiled happiness, it is perhaps all the sweeter and more hopeful because it is not wholly without darkness.