- After the Flood (1957)
- After the Carnival (1984)
- Six Phone Calls (1985)
- Derry: The First Interlude
- Ben Hanscom Takes a Fall
- Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (I)
- One of the Missing: A Tale From the Summer of '58
- The Dam In the Barrens
- Georgie's Room and the House On Neibolt Street
- Cleaning Up
- Derry: The Second Interlude
- The Reunion
- Walking Tours
- Three Uninvited Guests
- Derry: The Third Interlude
- The Apocalyptic Rockfight
- The Album
- The Smoke-Hole
- Eddie's Bad Break
- Another One of the Missing: The Death of Patrick Hockstetter
- The Bullseye
- Derry: The Fourth Interlude
- In the Watches of the Night
- The Circle Closes
- Under the City
- The Ritual of Chud
- Out
- Derry: The Final Interlude
- Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (II)
The Album
This is a transitionary chapter, but it is a necessary transition, so I appreciate it, even if relatively little happens in it.
As the adult Losers all gather at the library (and each have brought alcohol, the adult solution to dealing with fears), Mike goes to the refrigerator and is shocked to find the head of Young Stan, which suddenly takes on Pennywise's eyes and talks to him. This leads Mike to have his own flashback:
A few days after the rockfight, Young Mike meets the other six kids in the barren again as they build their "underground treehouse." Although he is a stranger to them, all seven feel a very clear sense of comfort, as if Mike is blatantly intended to be apart of this magical group, which consists of seven for a reason. They each tell their stories about their encounters with It, and Mike surprises them by revealing he has seen the clown also, as well as the giant bird. Later, Bill, Ben, and Richie head to the library to do some research on creating silver bullets. A week later they group meets again and Mike is clearly one of the gang: he is comfortable with Richie's jokes and picks up on Ben's crush for Beverly. Eventually, he shows the group his father's album of old photos of Derry, and they find appearances of Pennywise, both in photos and caricatures, going two centuries back. One photo comes alive once more and Pennywise taunts them directly. Stan shuts the book in fear and tries to deny what's going on, but the others insist that it's real. This incident strengthens their resolve: the Losers Club are fully aware of this creature's existence, what It is doing, and their mission is to destroy It.
It's worth noting that some of the photos Pennywise appears in are dated 1933 and 1945, and it's already been established that It was asleep during those years (the previous cycle ended with the fire at the Black Spot in 1930, which left It in in hibernation until 1957). So it would seem that Pennywise was not literally at those events in time, but is simply creating this apparition to scare our heroes. Then again, I actually sort of enjoy this contradiction; it creates a time distortion that seems very characteristic of the Pennywise we know.
While I do think that some of the dialogue in this chapter goes on too long, especially Richie's ongoing bad jokes, it still is extremely refreshing to read about the gang all together and observe their interplay with one another. This will be the most horrific summer of their lives, but it will also be the best one of their lives. They are slowly coming to love one another and you see that here. Finally, it's also nice to see their purpose against It settle in. Once again, this would have been a fantatic chapter to open the "July of 1958" section of the novel with.
We have transitioned from meeting our heroes separately to observing them function as a unit at their strongest, and this will set the tone for the rest of the childhood story to follow.
As the adult Losers all gather at the library (and each have brought alcohol, the adult solution to dealing with fears), Mike goes to the refrigerator and is shocked to find the head of Young Stan, which suddenly takes on Pennywise's eyes and talks to him. This leads Mike to have his own flashback:
A few days after the rockfight, Young Mike meets the other six kids in the barren again as they build their "underground treehouse." Although he is a stranger to them, all seven feel a very clear sense of comfort, as if Mike is blatantly intended to be apart of this magical group, which consists of seven for a reason. They each tell their stories about their encounters with It, and Mike surprises them by revealing he has seen the clown also, as well as the giant bird. Later, Bill, Ben, and Richie head to the library to do some research on creating silver bullets. A week later they group meets again and Mike is clearly one of the gang: he is comfortable with Richie's jokes and picks up on Ben's crush for Beverly. Eventually, he shows the group his father's album of old photos of Derry, and they find appearances of Pennywise, both in photos and caricatures, going two centuries back. One photo comes alive once more and Pennywise taunts them directly. Stan shuts the book in fear and tries to deny what's going on, but the others insist that it's real. This incident strengthens their resolve: the Losers Club are fully aware of this creature's existence, what It is doing, and their mission is to destroy It.
It's worth noting that some of the photos Pennywise appears in are dated 1933 and 1945, and it's already been established that It was asleep during those years (the previous cycle ended with the fire at the Black Spot in 1930, which left It in in hibernation until 1957). So it would seem that Pennywise was not literally at those events in time, but is simply creating this apparition to scare our heroes. Then again, I actually sort of enjoy this contradiction; it creates a time distortion that seems very characteristic of the Pennywise we know.
While I do think that some of the dialogue in this chapter goes on too long, especially Richie's ongoing bad jokes, it still is extremely refreshing to read about the gang all together and observe their interplay with one another. This will be the most horrific summer of their lives, but it will also be the best one of their lives. They are slowly coming to love one another and you see that here. Finally, it's also nice to see their purpose against It settle in. Once again, this would have been a fantatic chapter to open the "July of 1958" section of the novel with.
We have transitioned from meeting our heroes separately to observing them function as a unit at their strongest, and this will set the tone for the rest of the childhood story to follow.