Hello and happy Tuesday. Yes, after seven months, I finished reading It by Stephen King, but I won’t make a regular review because I think it’s a bit pointless. Here’s the deal: it doesn’t matter what I say about this novel because it has been a success for forty years and it will continue being one for decades to come. And I’m fine with that, honestly. Do I think it’s a literary masterpiece? In some ways, yes. Do I think it’s extremely problematic? In some ways, yes.

I’ve been thinking about this post, and the way I’d go about it. If I were a lit major, I’d talk about the very poor portrayal of women, the derogatory language that was used and how it probably is a reflection of King’s actual thoughts, the very smart way in which he experimented throughout the novel to make it so complete, so captivating, the different genres of horror he incorporated. I could say a lot, but I’m not a lit major and I don’t see literature that way. I’m not going to recommend this book and I’m not going to do the opposite either. It’s your choice whether you want to read it or not. It’s also perfectly fine if at some point you consider DNFing it.

The truth is I feel very accomplished to have read all of it in less than a year and I don’t think I’ll be taking on a challenge like that in a while. I feel like I’ve gained some freedom back now that I can truly read whatever I want without having a huge tome on my nightstand, judging me. I did end up switching to an ebook version, which was way more manageable, especially after the halfway mark. Also, towards the end, I challenged myself to read 92 pages a day, and that was super useful.