It

I read this as a teenager, just as I was diving into the horror genre. I already knew at this point that I wanted to be a storyteller. What struck me while reading It was the jumping back and forth between time periods.

I had never read a book structured that way, and it seemed that every chapter ended on a cliffhanger, forcing me to keep reading. There aren’t many books that I would say I had a hard time putting down (I get bored easily), but It was certainly one of them!

Stephen King has been the biggest inspiration for my writing over the years. While many horror and supernatural elements exist in many of his books, there’s no denying that identity and thriller play pivotal roles in this book. Aside from the terror of Pennywise the Clown, a significant portion of this story involves how this group of kids is forced to grow up and discover their own identities in the face of this great evil.

The unfolding mystery of Pennywise and its origins across the decades gave me that thriller vibe I am always looking for. The author's horror forces… show more.

This is perhaps my favorite novel of all time and the first Stephen King book I ever read despite its epic length. Pennywise is such an iconic villain and the literal nexus of all monsters in creation. As fantastic as the horror elements are, the friendship between “The Losers Club” is undoubtedly the most beautiful aspect of the work.

Stephen King’s greatest strength is how interesting his human characters are, particularly through their development and response to the supernatural and otherworldly horrors.

I love this book for three reasons: nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia. As a child, I read this coming-of-age story, which really spoke to me.

I don’t know what that says about me since it features a killer clown and a little boy getting snatched down a sewer drain (looking back, it was hardly age-appropriate). But I loved seeing how the characters changed from kids to adults–and what stayed exactly the same. It inspired me to imagine how I might turn out in adulthood, and that blissful, childlike wonder is something hard to recreate as we get older.

It must be the scariest horror book I have ever read.

A superb exploration of fear delivered with surgical accuracy. I’ve never been so scared reading words from a page in my whole life.

There is no rendition, on the screen, that does justice to this novel. The backstories, history, and seemingly insignificant descriptions help to paint a picture that feels all too real, even during the most surreal moments.

A must read!

The novel, It, successfully changed how the world views clowns.

Remember when you used to think of clowns as entertaining? See them at kids’ birthday parties? Watch them spilling out of a miniature car? Big red nose, red hair, funny smile? 

Well, not anymore. 

A fear of clowns spread like wildfire following Stephen King’s publication of his most terrifying novel.

It is a true classic in horror literature. Believe me, you will never look at clowns in the same way.

And this brings us to the final of my little top five man-eating monsters list. It’s another one of which you may have heard, and after all, who doesn’t love killer clowns? And I am sure you’ll agree that Pennywise qualifies as a man-eating (and kid-eating) monster worthy of this list. Sporting a mouthful of teeth that any orthodontist would kill for, he has a voracious appetite and can alter his size to accommodate it. It is a masterpiece of terror about the past coming back to haunt you (and eat you) and how one’s fear of something can sometimes… show more.

It, is a classic Steven King horror novel that somehow manages to magnify the fears and phobias of kids and adults. From giant spiders, haunted houses inhabited by werewolves, to killer clowns, Steven King showed us that not all horrors are just the boogeymen under the bed that we were once afraid of as children…but some of those very fears will haunt you forever if you don’t face them.

It was my introduction to the deliciously deranged horror fiction of Stephen King. I first read it in my early 20s, when I was living alone for the first time. I would come home after work, and read into the night, then stay awake afraid of shadows. It is the ultimate monster, every nightmare, every insecurity or fear anyone has ever had. Only Stephen King could make a child’s balloon, or a paper boat into nightmare fuel, but they’ll float. “We all float down here.”

In my view, the quintessential Stephen King book, It is so much more than a scary tale of an otherworldly being that feasts on children using the guise of a clown. A story of love, loss, and childhood long forgotten, It is a powerful coming-of-age tale that perfectly captures what it means to grow up and apart from friends you were once so close to. Add to that the terrifying concept of a shapeshifting creature that feasts upon fear and has terrorised a town for centuries—the implications of which verge on the Lovecraftian by the conclusion—and you have an epic… show more.