Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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In Part 1: Chapter 1 – After the Flood (1957) all we get is the introduction those familiar with the mini-series will already know.
Chapter Focus: Down In the Sewers (Georgie, Bill, and Bob Gray aka Pennywise the Dancing Clown)
In the fall of 1957, young George Denbrough, a 6-year-old, was found with his arm ripped off. It was reported he was chasing a boat his older brother William, aged ten, made for him earlier that day. William, commonly known as Ben, was recovering from a recent bout of the flu, hence him now being with his younger brother.
On the day in question, it was flooding as it was in 1931 in Derry, 26 years before, yet still both of George’s parents, one of which was playing a piano downstairs during the time of the arm ripping, did not watch the little child as he decided to play with a paper boat. What soon came after was the stuff of legend. What type of legend? Well, one of murder.
You see, there are rumors that there was a clown in the sewers. Someone named Bob Gray but under his profession as a clown he went by Pennywise the Dancing Clown. It isn’t made clear though why a clown would be in the sewer. What is known is that after George’s brother lovingly made a boat that could float, oh did it float. It floated right into Pennywise’s hands and he let Georgie know so many things floated down there. Of which, after his arm being ripped off and Georgie being left with a dead look in his eye, he floated too. [note]Pennywise is explained as a cross between Bozo the clown and Clarabell. His face was white, with red hair on both sides. At first, it seemed he had yellow eyes, but really they were a dancing blue. He had a baggy silky suit with orange button, wore a bright electric blue tie, and big white gloves. The kind you would see on cartoon characters from the black and white era.[/note]
Commentary
Pretty much all of the books I’ve read over the past few years are on the Books page. Among them, you will not find a single book dedicated to horror. Reason being, I don’t like the idea of being scared and books can be way scarier than a movie if done right. So with Stephen King going overboard on details, believe me when I say that I do wonder if the King of Horror may not have a character creep into my nightmares. Well, maybe if I was 6 and not past three times that age.
Let me be real with you here, the first chapter, likely because I saw the miniseries, wasn’t that impressive. I felt like King really did go a bit much into the description. Almost to the point where you can understand why so many of his productions become movies or TV shows. He pretty much writes like he is making a script. There is very little world building for you to do since he goes into such detail. Which, being someone who mostly reads YA novels which are more about personality than looks, depending on the book, it does require some adjustment.
However, being that I plan to see the new IT, I want to be familiar with the source material and even though this book is listed as 1477 pages, I hope to be done in time. Especially since, be it a physical book or e-book, I’m not the quickest reader.
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