“It” by Stephen King follows two timelines and spans twenty-seven years. The novel tells a remarkable story of a group, the Losers Club, who take on a monster, IT(Pennywise), terrorizing the city of Derry.
Though the summary separates the distinct eras of the novel, “It” has no separation of eras. Everything seems to alternate between the past and present; this, coupled with Stephen King’s use of epistolary writing, made the novel feel like more of a narration of real events than a fictional story. The distinct plot structure added intensity and created an air of thrill and horror.
The story begins in October 1957, when a sick Bill Denbrough and his brother, George, made a paper boat. George runs off to play, leaving a sick Bill behind. While playing, the boat gets washed down the drain, and George notices a clown in the drain. The clown introduces himself as Bob Gray, also known as Pennywise, the dancing clown. He tries luring George into the drain with the promise of goodies, but he refuses. Pennywise then tells George to reach out to get his boat. The little boy agrees, and when he puts his hand into the drain, the clown pulls him in, rips off his hand, and kills him.
In June of the following year, Ben Hanscom, an 11-year-old overweight boy, is picked on by a group of bullies led by Henry Bowers. They try to hurt Ben by carving his stomach with a knife, but Ben luckily escapes and hides, where he meets another boy called Eddie Kasbrak, a hypochondriac who believes he has asthma. Ben and Eddie become friends and later meet Stan Uris, a Jewish boy; Richie Tozier, a jokester; Beverly Marsh, Michael Hanlon, and Bill Denbrough, George’s brother. Together, they form a group called the Losers Club.
The rising action begins with the discovery. The Losers Club tells each other of their encounter with a shapeshifting monster, who came as what they feared most. For Bill, it was George’s ghost; for Beverly, it was blood gushing from her sink; for Eddie, it was a leper offering him a blowjob; for Richie, a werewolf; and for Ben, it was a mummy with balloons. They eventually gave the entity a name: IT.
Pennywise is a unique being that loves existing in the fears of others. But why does the entity focus on only children? If he is as strong as he boasts, why doesn’t Pennywise go after adults with fears? Stephen King’s vague description of the entity in his horror novel seems weird but normal because I believe horror should have vagueness that leaves enough room for imagination.
Later, Henry chases Eddie into the barrens after he reveals he is the one who poisoned Mike’s dog. The rest of the Losers Club rescue Eddie by fighting off Henry. They win, and Henry leaves promising revenge. The Losers Club finds evidence from Eddie’s narration of a prehistoric bird chasing him that the entity they faced was an ancient being in Derry for centuries if not millennia. The group decides to find out the exact origin of IT with a Native American ceremony.
The ritual succeeds as Mike and Richie discover IT’s origin. They learn that the monster is millions of years old and has landed as a fireball from the sky. They also discover the monster sleeps for twenty-seven years before awakening to feed on people for a whole year.
Later, in July of 1958, Eddie is hospitalized after Henry breaks his arm. Beverly witnesses a grueling scene where Patrick, one of the boys in Henry’s gang, is killed by weird blood-sucking monsters, an alternative form of IT. She alerts the group, and on reaching the scene, the group finds a message from the monster telling them not to interfere or else they die. Determined to kill the entity, Ben makes two slugs from silver coins, hoping they can injure Pennywise with silver.
Pennywise tells a history of existence, bragging to readers about his origin. The being explains that he is an entity as old as the universe. He says he existed between the void that separated universes from each other, called the macro verse. He boasts of his superiority and explains why he prefers killing children. His reason was existing in a form children feared was easier.
Pennywise’s history of existence felt out of place. It felt like Stephen King realized Pennywise had no steady background that could make it killable, so he decided to make it talk about itself. In my opinion, the monster should have been unstoppable. That would have been a complete horror.
The conflict begins when IT attacks the Losers Club in the form of a werewolf. The group gets the upper hand as they injure the monster with the silver slug Ben created. Realizing they are a real threat, Pennywise gives Henry a switchblade and sends him after the Losers Club. Henry kills his father and goes into the sewers with his sidekicks, Belch and Vic, hoping to end the lives of the Losers Club, who were also down the sewers trying to kill IT.
Henry and his sidekicks encounter an alternate version of Pennywise in the form of Frankenstein. Their encounter leaves Vic and Belch dead. Henry escapes death, but the authorities blame the deaths of the children on him; they send him to an asylum.
The first resolution occurs when Bill discovers the Ritual of Chud, which allows him to enter the macro verse. He meets another ancient entity, Maturin, and learns that Maturin created the universe from his vomit after a stomach ache. Maturin tells Bill the only way he can defeat Pennywise is in a battle of wills. Bill conquers the monster with Maturin’s help, sending him back to sleep. After everything, the group gets lost, and Beverly has sex with the entire group to bring back unity. The group then makes a blood promise to return to Derry should the monster awaken.
The turning point begins twenty-seven years after defeating Pennywise when another tragedy occurs in Derry. In July 1984, at the annual Canal Day Festival, three teenagers attacked and threw a gay man named Adrian Mellon off a bridge. Adrian dies, and during interrogation, one of the boys says they saw a clown in a silver suit drag Adrian under the bridge. Adrian’s boyfriend, Don Hagerty, confessed to seeing the clown but was advised to withhold his story.
With Adrian’s death, a string of misfortunes start occurring in Derry. Mike, who is still in Derry, believes the problems are the work of none other than IT. Mike calls the group, reminding them of their promise to return should the monster wake up.
The Losers Club, comprising Bill, now a successful horror writer married to Audra, his actress wife; Beverly, a fashion designer in Chicago married to an abusive husband called Tom Rogan; Richie, a disk jockey living in Los Angeles; Ben, a successful architect living in Nebraska; Eddie in New York where he owned a limousine rental company, and Stan Uris, a wealthy accountant in Georgia receive Mike’s call.
They all agree to return except Stan, who kills himself by slitting his wrists and writing ‘It’ on the wall with his blood. Beverly escapes to Derry as she fights Tom, who tries to beat her. The Losers Club meets at a restaurant where Mike refreshes their memory of how the monster wakes up after twenty-seven years and starts a killing spree. The group decides to get rid of IT once and for all.
Facing Pennywise was so traumatic that Stan ended his life. This part of the novel puts the experiences of the Losers Club into perspective. It shows how they were mentally destabilized by a traumatic experience that even adults cannot deal with.
The Losers Club explores Derry to refresh their memory. While re-exploring the town, Eddie, Richie, Beverly, and Ben face variant forms of IT. Beverly faces the witch from Hansel and Gretel, Ben sees Dracula, Eddie experiences Belch Huggins in leper form, and Richie faces Paul Bunyan’s statue.
Unknown to the club, three people, including Audra, worried about Bill, Henry, who escaped from Juniper Hill Mental Asylum, and Tom Rogan, who wanted to punish Beverly, arrive in Derry. Henry and Mike fight in the library, injuring each other, and Henry escapes. The rotting corpse of Belch Huggins gives him a lift to where the members of the Losers Club stay. The corpse orders him to kill the Losers Club. In another violent confrontation with Eddie, Henry dies, leaving Eddie on the verge of death.
The climax begins when Pennywise orders Tom Rogan to kidnap Audra and bring her to him. On seeing the monster’s final form, a giant spider, Tom dies of shock, and Audra enters a catatonic state. The group learns that Mike is on the verge of death and knows they will have to face IT once again. The group sends energy to Mike as he fights a nurse possessed by the monster. Using the Ritual of Chud, Bill and Richie enter the monster’s mind but lose their way. As a last resort to save the group, Eddie sprays his aspirator on IT, but the creature kills him by biting his arm off.
Eddie’s death, in my opinion, felt like Stephen needed a sacrificial lamb among the Loser’s Club. His death felt unnecessary, as the monster had already caused enough carnage.
IT runs away to tend to its wounds, but Bill, Richie, and Ben chase after him. They find the monster laid eggs and discover it might be a female. Ben stays behind to destroy the eggs. Bill fights his way into the monster’s body. He locates the heart and kills the creature.
The falling action begins when the group leaves Eddie’s body behind as they carry Audra. The Losers Club realizes the scars on their hands are gone, meaning the monster is gone.
The final resolution occurs as a storm sweeps through Derry, destroying the downtown area. Finally, the group goes their separate ways. Richie returns to Los Angeles and Ben and Beverly leave together after realizing they were in love. Mike starts a new life elsewhere.
The novel ends with Bill taking a catatonic Audra on a ride on Silver, his old bike. She awakens from her catatonia with the power of belief.
“It” is an excellent novel about love, friendship, coming of age, and defeating one’s fears. The book’s best-selling point was using children to fight an ancient entity; this made everything more thrilling and fearful.
