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"...even in death the dead might still know fear."

BARS

The boy was a bad liar and didn't deserve what happened.

This book is absolutely stunning so far. Some of the best character writing I've read.

a poker game
orwin "old" porch and his eight sons
momma porch run off with the only girl child
russel gone after kalin on egan's horse cavalry
35 pages that felt like 100 in the best way

Things just got weird: talk of mountains moving and the dead returning and a land of mist. Dig it.

TITLE CARD

lindsey is kicking kalins ass when tom walks up laughing. tom makes bets about riding. lindsey gets a lesson.

The original cut edition of THE STAND seems to have gotten rid of all the omniscient sections. Whole chapters have been omitted, but more than that is the POV of lesser characters, like Vic Palfrey and his family, have gone missing as well. Interesting stuff, and I'm sure it was a pain in the ass to pick and choose what stayed and what was excised. King eventually cut 150,000 words from the manuscript, a whole novel.

"Odetta on the Other Side" introduces one side of the coin who will eventually become Susannah Dean, Eddie Dean's wife: Odetta Holmes. We get her back story and intricate details in the run-up her absence as the other side of the coin lands in Roland's palm...

"Ringing the Changes" starts with a ride along with George Shavers in an ambulance who shares the story of how Odetta Holmes lost her legs, and Detta Walker was born. The chapter ends with both personalities being pulled into Roland's world.

"Detta and Odetta" is our first introduction of the titular Lady of Shadows: a wealthy Black woman who has a unique quirk; she has multiple personalities.

Shuffle 1: Eddie Dean is in a bad way. He's been snatched from his reality and left stranded in Roland's world without his precious heroin. He's definitely going through it, but so is Roland, who's fighting a pretty gnarly blood infection. In this chapter they both fight their battles individually until they come across the next door, labeled: The Lady of Shadows.

"Showdown and Shootout" sees Balazar get what he's owed and Eddie Dean removed from his world and added to Roland's. One of the greatest gun battles in all of literature is in this chapter.

"The Tower" isn't the tower you might think it is once you enter this chapter, but this chapter is the glue that holds together two of King's best chapters. Dig it.

"Contact and Landing" is King firing on all cylinders. The level of tension in this chapter is off the charts and only matched by the next chapter.

"Eddie Dean" is the introduction to the first member of Roland's ka tet, Eddie Dean, brother of Harry, and one hell of a heroin junkie, so much so, Roland (and Walter) think of him as The Prisoner. I love the deranged baboon on his shoulder in the tarot card image.

"The Door"

Wounded and starving, Roland sees something in the distance. It makes no sense, but the closer he comes, the more real the image. It's a door. No wall, no frame, just a door. He opens it.

"Prologue: The Sailor" begins with Roland meeting the lobstrosities for the first time. No more Shocker for you, old chap.

"Go now. There are other worlds than these."

The end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end. It all starts and ends here.

Goodbye for now, kid.

Reading the cut version for the first time. Right off the rip, the opening chapter is different. Campion escaping the base is just completely gone. No mention of it. Instead, the book starts with Stu's chapter and is horribly edited with errors everywhere.

"That's car's got a California licence plate."

Also, the first chapter is 19 pages, say thankee sai.

"Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (2)" gives us some of King's best writing. All the stuff in italics is, simply put, elegant and literary.

Literary:
2. (of language) associated with literary works or other formal writing; having a marked style intended to create a particular emotional effect.

And that effect is complete emotional destruction.

Was this King's first happy ending?

"Derry: The Last Interlude" never fails to send me bawling with a single line: Mike, on the phone with Ritchie, asks his friend, "What's Stan's last name." Mike is forgetting this time, so it must be over. Right?

*side-eyes THE OUTSIDER and IF IT BLEEDS and LATER*

Yeah, sure it's over...

"Out"

With It dead, the Losers, young and old, make their way out of the sewers to find the town of Derry collapsing and crumbling around them. Audra is alive but catatonic, and Eddie, sadly, has been left behind.

"The Ritual of Chüd" works because the Losers believe it will work thus the orgy works because Beverly believes it's the only way to bring people close together because that's what her father told her.

King could've done literally ANY THING ELSE but he chose to have six eleven year old boys run a train on the only female member. If you don't like it because of that, I'm not trying to change your mind.

"Under the City" brings everything full circle. We get Its POV for the first time, along with word from around town, visiting numerous people mentioned at the beginning of the book, and some from the interludes, as a storm comes out of nowhere to once more threaten Derry with the possibility of flood waters, and the clock tower refuses to chime the hour. Something is coming...or ending.

"The Circle Closes" is a chapter that exists solely to move a group of characters from Point A to Point B. Nothing much to see here aside from plot momentum.

"In the Watches of the Night" goes by quick for a 90-page chapter. Henry Bowers comes into sharp focus as he stalks and nearly murders Mike Hanlon, before moving off to the Derry Town house, weakened by his own life-threatening wounds, courtesy of Mike. Eddie doesn't collapse under pressure, and the nds Bowers reign of terror.

Then Bill cheats on Audra with Bev, and I hate them for it. Team Ben all the way.

The Battle of Tull might be the greatest example of one man versus a mob ever put to paper.

My seventh and final journey to the Tower begins today.

"Derry: The Fourth Interlude" is incredibly creepy to me: the axe murder in progress while the men at the bar keep drinking and socializing, the headless man continuing to crawl away, the dismembered hand holding a beer, flashes of brutality and banality in equal measure. All of it raises the hair on my nape.

"The Bullseye" brings us to the first battle, the first time the Losers meet It face to face all at one time on Its own turf. I really wish this had been the end of the kids' chapters, but no, we still have THAT SCENE left to go. I hate that it exists, but I refuse to let 2 pages of unneeded filth ruin the other 1,151.