Page 666 of Stephen King’s IT is disappointing.

I’m rereading IT because I read it back in the day when it came out…like 86 or 88. At the time I didn’t enjoy the book which in hindsight makes sense since I’m reading a novel written by an adult about the end of childhood as my childhood was literally ending.

At 1153 pages (in paperback!) “it’s” a brick of a book. (Ironically partially set in a time when people threw bricks in windows as a way to deliver hastily penned often negative messages…now we just use twitter save the glass hurt the feelings…progress like time is not linear.)

So to be chugging along reading a horror novel about a demonic entity it’s a rare treat to get to page 666…most horror novels are not that long even in hardback.

And IT doesn’t appear on page 666.
Nobody does…the page is blank!

It’s a section break cueing readers back to 1958…the climax of the recent IT movie: where the Losers Club give IT the business and think they’ve succeed and rescued Derry, Maine. Which of course they did not…Losers for real: lot more kids died on their watch before they finally got it together.

But yo Stephen King…you really gonna leave page 666 blank in a horror novel? Low hangin fruit is always sweet and in season.

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