It Posters

In an event for some artists to come up with a winning It poster, I would like to share some of the participating entries which I found on Posterspy

Countdown to Halloween: It Readalong

It

Written by: Stephen King
Narrated by: Steven Weber 👍
Length: 44 hrs and 55 mins 
Categories: Literature & Fiction, Horror

Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.

I have decided to read Stephen King's huge novel It for the Countdown to Halloween and the Fraterfest Readathon this fall. I wanted to do something to honour October/Fall/Halloween so if anyone wants to read it together with me, you are welcome to share your thoughts on your blog. I've done one before.
Feel free to use the handy blog button also to link up to this Read-a-long.
I am stepping out of my comfort zone that is why the more support the better, since...

• I don't think Stephen King's books are that terror-full, for the most part, 
• It is gigantic 
• I've seen both the It movies in preparation for this read-a-long 

Regardless here is a rough schedule to which I'll be following.

Start: October 1st

Stop 1:  October 8th at 345 pages – end of chapter 6

Stop 2: October 15th at 738 pages  – end of chapter 11

Stop 3: October 22nd at 1063 pages – end of chapter 18

End: October 31st at 1392 pages

I'll be listening to the audiobook as well because I think the narrator Steven Weber does an excellent job. So there's that.

My Thoughts:

The six Derry kids who make up the Losers Club, have been summoned back to Derry 27 years later and they all know what that means. Pennywise is back. Now they are all grown up, they have to fulfill the oath they made years ago in blood. Having no clue what will happen to them, without hesitation, except on the part of their significant other, who they leave behind and sometimes it is for the better.
I'm thinking about Beverly. She is now in a relationship with a violent drunken SOB who physically beats her and is mean and controlling like that.
It is typical for Stephen King to write stories that involve real serious issues such as domestic violence, abuse and ALL THOSE MISSING CHILDREN!
It's hard for me to read about stuff like that, and quite frankly it turns me off.
I also have an aversion to cigarettes since I quit. I dislike reading about it in a book. Anyway, smoking and domestic violence are two things I'd rather not read about.

Part 1: Chapter 1. Pennywise murders Georgie Denbrough in the street near his home.

¶ In the fall of 1957, Georgie Denbrough goes outside to play in the rain following a paper boat that his brother Bill made him. The town is flooded in rain that year and Georgie's boat was swept away. He quickly ran after it but it looked like it was going to end up in the sewer down the drain pipe. As was expected, his boat fell down the sewer drain hole on the side of the road. I felt sorry for him. However, when Georgie approached the drain hole he saw that somebody was in there.

It was a clown. Georgie was not scared because the clown spoke and he promised to give his boat back. The clown had it in his hands. The clown wanted Georgie to come and see and float. Inside the sewer.

Everything down here—floats. It, Part 1, Chapter 1 

Georgie reached for his boat and the clown grabbed his arm and pulled him in tearing off his arm. Georgie died that day but his brother didn't want to believe it. Bill Denbrough wanted to kill the sonofabitch who took his brother. There were other disappearances that year.

That clown they fought within the sewer so many years ago, is a distant memory, which they had put out from their minds and had never thought about until now. IT makes them remember how terrifying it was. I don't blame them, however, none of Stephen King's books that I have read so far, are scary IMO. His writings feel too archaic like he's stuck in the mid-1900s and lacks lustre.

Quote-Tastic - Favourite IT Film Quote

Quote-Tastic is a meme held on Mondays by Herding Casts & Burning Soup. Join us every Monday and share a favourite quote that's grabbed you for one reason or another.

I'd like to start off this year's countdown to Halloween event by sharing My favourite It quote. from the new film based on Stephen King's 1986 horror novel. Watch the clip on Youtube

"I told you bill, I fucking told you, I don't want to die, it's your fault, you punch me in the face, you made me walk through shitty water, you brought me to a fucking crackhead house! and now, I'm gonna have to kill this fucking clown"

He picks up a baseball bat

"Welcome to the Losers Club, asshole!"

The 2017 remake on Netflix is way better than the original version of 1990 IMO. The main reason is because of the actor who plays Richie Tozier aka Finn Wolfhard. I purchased the book with the intention to read it prior to Halloween. Even though I've been wanting to read it for the last two years. It's still a daunting task because of a lengthy 1157 pages! I mean who does that?

A Musing Wolfman

The dictionary defines a muse as a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

Take a short excerpt from a book that describes something scary or some creature that you remember.

What scary thing or creature lurking in the shadows will you shed light on?

In Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews writes about A Wolfman-

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1) by Ilona Andrews Ch. 4 page 93-94

The Wolfman comes tapping at Kates window. . . .

Two amber eyes glared at me, full of longing and hunger. A face that was a meld of wolf and human leaned on the glass. Its misshapen, horrid jaws did not fit together right and long strands of drool hung from its crooked yellowed teeth. The skin around the lupine nose wrinkled. The nightmarish thing sniffed the glass, blowing air through its black nostrils and making a small opaque circle of condensation. It raised one deformed hand and tapped the glass with an inch-long claw. Tap, Tap, Tap. The nightmare opened his mouth and produced a low guttural growl, the frustrated snarl of a mind gifted with the power of speech but locked in a body unable to produce the words. Only the most adept of the shapechangers could speak in a midform.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I am a participant in The Countdown to Halloween!

  I bought this classic horror to read for Fraterfest Halloween Readathon and was content to do so until Penguin Random House recently offered a FREE audio download of Frankenstein in connection with Kiersten Whites new release of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. So ya. I could not wait another minute. Now I have the pleasure of owning both formats and I am loving Jim Weiss narration. His voice booms in crescendos and is soft in decrescendos. I'm on page 139. The written text reads like a beautiful song with descriptive lyrics. I don't know where Mary Shelley got her inspiration from but I saw a similarity from the Bible story, Sodom and Gomorrha. When God speaks to Abraham about sparing the city if he found as few as one righteous person? Same with Frankenstein. When the monster pleads with Victor to make him a companion. If for the sake of one person who shows compassion towards him he would save humanity. Or something like that.

"If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundredfold; for that one creature's sake I would make peace with the whole kind!"

How the creature was terribly misunderstood when he tries to help a small child all because he was hideous looking!

"This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense, I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone."

Poor creature. How sad and lonely and wretched he was! I love Clerval and Justine Moritz and the snow-clad mountains in Geneva. I love the cottagers. Everything about the story is well written and descriptive. It's not hard to picture. I adored the movie, Young Frankenstein. It's amazing how much of the real story is portrayed! so I was sort of familiar with the main ideas but I think it's cool to be able to actually read the book. I don't find it scary at all.

Original post: Jackie's Booklikes
Check out Frankensteinia Countdown to Halloween participant 

The Countdown Commences

Booktober, Blogoween, Inktober, Drawlloween and all the others in between has begun. October has commenced which means I will be posting something to do with books and Halloween at least for 13 days out of 31. Fingers crossed, and if my @#!'ing computer will cooperate. I am doing Blogoween on my other blog if I'm not here I am there: @ Jackie's Forget Me Nots 

Free audiobook - Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Hurry, the offer won't last for long. Penguin random house is giving away a free download of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, narrated by Jim Weiss.

Add to Goodreads | Amazon.ca