Name: It
Author: Stephen King

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

Very heavy

Very strong; children are murdered in specific, graphic detail; Pennywise's violence takes many horrifying forms; body horror throughout

Language

A lot

Strong language; American vernacular with profanity throughout; racial slurs in the 1958 sections

Sexual Content

A lot

Strong; a controversial sexual scene involving minors near the novel's end; adult sexual content in the 1985 sections; sexual violence implied in some attack contexts

Substance Use

Some

Moderate; Losers' Club adults include alcoholism as a character trait; period drinking

Emotional Intensity

Very heavy

Very strong; the nature of childhood's particular courage and how it fades; the way a place can hold evil; guilt about what you left behind

What this book is about

Stephen King's It alternates between 1958 and 1985, following the Losers' Club — seven children in Derry, Maine — who face the ancient, shape-shifting entity that takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and their adult selves who must return to finish what they started. King's most ambitious novel and one of his most disturbing: violence against children is specific and visceral, the horror is genuinely terrifying, and the novel contains a controversial scene of child sexual activity near its end that has been debated since publication.