Best Audio Book

This was by far the best audio book I have listened too Steven Weber was just phenomenal in his performance and really did this epic book justice.

5 stars all round and a must!

16 people found this helpful

Horrific genius!

Oh, wow. I have just finished listening to the entire 44 hour, 53 minute long audiobook of It by Stephen King and loved nearly every second. Would I recommend listening to this as an audiobook rather than reading it? YES! With incredible narration and long chapters, this is the perfect listen for a long plane journey, while you’re inputting data at work, or to accompany you when you’re doing mundane every day tasks by yourself. The story is just brilliant, with excellent setting, plotting and characterisation. Obviously no book is perfect, but this is an epic horror novel worth reading/listening to!

The story
For those who don’t know, It by Stephen King follows the lives of Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Richie Tozier, Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon, and Stanley Uris as adults and children growing up in the haunted town of Derry. However, Derry is only haunted for children, by ‘It’, which appears in many different forms depending on your fears. The most popular form It takes is that of Pennywise the dancing clown, which was capitalised on in the popular movie adaptations. It begins by introducing the characters as adults being told that they need to return to Derry because It has returned, and they promised that they would come back if things ‘started up again’. Seamlessly weaving between their lives as children and lives as adults, King tells the story of the children who It has killed and the children who tried to stop It and their efforts to stop It completely as adults.

What I loved about this book…
First off, the audio is just perfect. Steven Weber gives every character their own unique voice and once you get past his version of stuttering Bill, which can be a bit annoying, you start to appreciate his acting skills vastly. I especially liked how It had more than one voice depending on the circumstance, and how he managed to do all of Richie’s ‘voices’ just right so that they sounded like they were coming from him. I could genuinely picture the characters in my head from Weber’s telling of the story.
The story of It by Stephen King is very clever. It is a unique story and I don’t think that any horror novel based around kids in a small town will ever measure up, and will always be compared. From the characters returning to the town that tortured them as adults, showing the parallels and just how easily It can return them to their childlike personas; Bill’s stuttering, Richie’s glasses, etc., this is a very in-depth novel which has been plotted carefully and the characters drafted with care. Seeing how King paralleled the battle scenes with the children and It, I do wonder how they plan on re-creating it in It part 2, out next September, as I now see it as one story, not two.

However…
As I read in a post by The Bee-witched Reader, I have to agree that King’s use of racial slurs and Beverly as the only female in the friendship group is at times questionable. While I understand that, even as adults, the characters were returning to their childish natures in order to battle It once more, I agree that little character development is shown in way of the treatment of Mike and Stan, especially by Richie. He does note when things might be offensive through use of ‘beep beep, Richie’, but this is more of a friendly joke.
Furthermore, what the hell is with THAT scene?! I am not sure how high King was when he wrote that in there, but it literally makes no sense, exploits child erotica, all while suggesting that Beverly’s only use is that all of them can be connected through her private parts. WTH? Everything else about Beverly is great, and many tomboys with male friends would relate to her, except from this incident!

Overall, It by Stephen King is a brilliant story and an even better audiobook, thanks to the talented Steven Weber. I would recommend to fans of the film, King fans who haven’t yet read it and anybody who loved The Chalk Man or Stranger Things. I once again applaud one of my favourite authors of all-time for this smashing read.

10 people found this helpful

Poor

50 hours of my life I’ll never get back! Utter rubbish. Dont waste your time

7 people found this helpful

Well worth a read

I'm not a fan of horror and would not watch the movie 'It', however, this book was completely gripping and enjoyable. The narrator is fantastic and through his voice, tone and expression is able to bring the story to life. The book is long but not laborious and I eagerly looked forward to the time when I could listen again as I commuted to work. I really recommend it.

22 people found this helpful

It, Three Decades Later . . .

It, the shortest of titles for probably one of the longest books most of us will ever read in this genre.

It, the simplest of titles for probably one of the deepest and multi-layered horror books in existence.

It really is something special and one of my personal all-time favourite books though I wonder how people coming fresh to it now might see it. More to the point I doubt such a book as this would survive a modern editor’s attentions intact. King didn’t throw everything but the kitchen sink at it he threw that first and then started ripping up the floor tiles and threw them and everything else besides at it too. The book follows the stories of a group of children and how they find each other through the debris of their dysfunctional childhoods and then into their adult lives using a non-linear dual timeline to cover both. Each of them suffers a form of abuse and of course with it being King are not spared from more supernatural horrors. King imbues each of his characters with real depth and personality. He doesn’t seem to believe in extras either with even bit part characters like bar men and a taxi driver who only appear fleetingly being given detail and personality of their own.

The narration. I was somehow expecting creepy but Steven Weber is bright and breezy, particularly well-suited to the childhood parts and moves things along at a refreshing pace. Where he scores highly is the way he almost literally throws himself into the emotion of each of King’s carefully realised situations. The combination of writer and narrator is stunningly powerful at times and the tension ratchets up to extreme levels during the most important encounters.

As you read through the book what’s impressive is that King holds the attention both to the coming of age tale of the children including their experience of bullying, parental situations and the like as he does with the outright horror of It. The adults have equally compelling tales, as does the town of Derry itself. By the end of the book you will feel like a regular Derry old-timer able to recount tails of its history to any young ‘uns that might happen along.

The only question in my mind is for anyone coming to this fresh. Listening to King’s other classics like The Stand and The Dead Zone, stories I am re-visiting decades later, I have been delighted by how vibrant and fresh they’ve felt after all this time. With It I do have some nagging doubts. Clowns weren’t exactly new in horror when King wrote the book in 1986 but in the intervening years we’ve had a lot of horror clowns and they have become a quite hackneyed aspect of horror. Coupling that with the lack of editorial censure King was subjected to and I do suspect some might not find it as entertaining as I have.

In all though, regardless of those things this is one of the absolute horror classics and the way that King ends it for this group of grown-up children is incredibly poignant. This is a long journey and a dark path to tread but I am so glad I walked it again thirty years on. In a way that parallel to the story made me feel in some small way a part of It.

62 people found this helpful

Masterful - a horror classic

If you could sum up It in three words, what would they be?

Elegant, sinister, terrifying.

What did you like best about this story?

Stephen King has stated that his aim for "It" was to write his thesis on horror - to include everything that scared him as a child and adult. I think he has achieved this. It's a masterwork in terror. Although he has better known books, this for me is his scariest work. It is a long work following the youth and grown-up lives of several friends in a small Maine town. Both the children and the adults they become have well-realised damages and fears, and this relatability makes the scary encounters even more powerful. An iconic work I would recommend to anyone who fancies a chill sent expertly down their spine.

What about Steven Weber’s performance did you like?

Steven Weber reads immensely well, with passion and flair. It's more of a performance than a straight read, with each character given a distinct voice. And perhaps most important of all - his Pennywise is blood-curdling!

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

"They all float down here..."

92 people found this helpful

Fantastic

I had been waiting for this to come out in audiobook format for a long time and I wasn't disappointed.
The story is very detailed and incredibly engrossing.
The narrator does and excellence job and I can't recommend this book highly enough.

16 people found this helpful

One of his best!

First read this long novel about twenty years ago- a brilliant read (took me about six months if memory serves! ). When I saw it on Audible, I knew I had to have it; had to visit my old friends in Derry again. I wasn't disappointed at all. Superbly read by Steven Weber. Highly recommended :-)

18 people found this helpful

gripping

Despite its length it never feels like it is dragging, allowing you to become enthralled in the characters lives and sucks you in like a vacuum to story

23 people found this helpful

Better than any Movie. Hooked from about 4 hrs in.

I struggled at first with the story moving back and forth from past to present. By the end I felt I knew each and every character in every way possible. Thoroughly enjoyed .Much better than what the movies can offer.

2 people found this helpful