One moment you’re laughing out loud, the next you’re grabbing for your covers – Stephen King’s `IT’ is a masterpiece in every aspect and is proof that King is one of the greatest novelists the world has ever seen.

Derry, Maine – the setting of many of King’s novels (the reason I will never go there!) – a town that has been seemingly gripped with an aura of death and tragedy dating back centuries.

Kids are going missing at an unusual rate here, and a group of children – together they are the `Losers Club’ – can sense something wrong about the town of Derry…

They can sense IT.

A shapeshifting horror that sometimes takes the form of a dancing clown called Pennywise, other times the form of your greatest fears.

Told from two different timelines – the Losers Club facing IT as children and the group returning a second time as adults – `IT’ is an epic horror novel, at a huge page count of 1,138 and with a wide cast of characters, each being incredibly interesting and developed in a way that only King can pull off.

Although there are many things that are great about ‘IT’, the defining factor for me is the extremely likable and massively relatable set of characters.

There’s the lonely but knowledgeable Ben Hanscom, who is constantly bullied for his weight, but who also proves to be an incredible architect – skills that come in handy for the Losers Club on multiple occasions.

The big mouthed Richie Tozier, a highly entertaining character who doesn’t seem to have a filter and who pays for it often.

The sickly Eddie Kasprak, a character defined by his controlling mother and who in my opinion has one of the most interesting and satisfying character arcs in the entire novel.

That’s just a few of them. The seven children that make up the `Losers Club’ all have demons of their own that further define their characters, each of them having to not only fight back against Pennywise and IT’s other forms, but also against their very human, very real, life issues – which can sometimes be just as scary as IT itself.

Stephen King is an incredibly diverse writer, able to master any genre or topic that he chooses to write about. His depiction of life as a 12-year-old and how they see the world, is incredibly nostalgic and is hilariously entertaining.

Even if you’ve seen the films, I still highly recommend reading this book, as it features lots of storylines and perspectives that are not included in the films. Some of these include police interviews that make the story feel on a larger scale, more real and much scarier.

There are also more victims – with chapters following them and their demise – more development of the setting and of the horrific past of Derry making it feel like a character in itself, more unique fantasy elements, more dread (King is an expert at this) and most of all…

More IT.

The only bit of criticism I could give the book, is that it has a slightly unsatisfactory ending (which seems to be Stephen King’s one weakness) but the rest of the book is so good that it makes it all worth it anyway.

The feeling of dread throughout and the build-up to the final climactic showdown is written so effectively, that the 1000+ words will feel more like 100 as you rush to finish this thrilling read, eager to see the Losers Club prevail against their tormentor.

This book is an essential for all readers, whether a horror fan or not and you should not miss out on reading it.

The horror is bone chilling.

The comedy is tummy tickling.

The story is breath taking.

Stephen King’s ‘IT’ is entertaining from beginning to end and tells a large story that will inflict you with a range of emotions and leave you longing for more from the master of horror himself.

And if you like other novels by King, you just might spot a couple connections in this one, because as terrifying as it sounds, all of his books actually take place in the same universe.

So keep your eyes open!