Audio Book Review - It by Stephen King

 IT

by Stephen King
read by Chuck Benson

1986, 42:04 hours long, unabridged

 

Re: An unspeakable horror terrorizes a group of children in a Maine town. Later, as adults, they face It again.
 

Outstanding: Stephen King can write a hell of a book. It remained interesting even while driving sleepy and worn out, while the narrator told the story of a character that had no bearing on the story whatsoever. The character of It/Pennywise is brilliant in so many ways. All of the children in the novel are written like legitimate children, with their strange patterns of speech and idiosyncrasies that come with it.
 

Unacceptable: This is an incredibly, unbelievably long book. I had to listen to it while cleaning the house and walking to the mailbox to have any hope of finishing it before Christmas, which had been my goal. There were a lot of minor, soon to be dead people in Derry that we learned perhaps a bit too much about. Sometimes you don;t need to know what kind of toothpaste someone uses before they have their heads torn off. The version of audio book was incredibly crusty and the first twenty minutes (no fooling) was spent listening to the narrator read off the inside flaps, the chapter titles and indicia on the first ten pages. 

Summary: This was my first book on tape that I'd ever listened to, and it was a doozy. I managed to find the cracklingest, goofy, long-winded version in existence, and I loved every minute of it. Maybe it's my love of old radio or cheesiness, but it was a huge kick listening to this tale while I drove 40 minutes to work every day. And King's epic kept me awake and alert the entire time. Hooray for audio books!
 

4/5
 

Notes: There is also a 2010 version of this audio book, read by Stephen Weber. You can listen to a sample Here. It sounds good too, but I actually think Chuck Benson had a better voice.
   

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