It / Stephen King / 1,138 pages

It is a 1986 horror novel by Stephen King, and is one of his longest books written to date.

Georgie Denbrough was always afraid of what could be lurking in the basement, but when he was playing outside after a heavy rain in Derry, Maine in 1957, he learned too late that It was not in the basement, but in the sewer drain; he was killed as a result.  27 years later, in 1985, after a man named Adrian Mellon was said to be killed by something that looked like a clown, a resident of Derry calls his childhood friends-- "The Losers"-- to come to Derry to destroy It once and for all. Jumping between summer of 1958 and 1985, The Losers have to deal with the psychological tortures It puts them through, a psychopathic childhood bully and escaped convict, and the reasons they forgot EVERYTHING that happened in Derry, including the very existence of Derry.

There were a lot of ups and downs in this book, and I mean a lot; therefore, I'll start with a few of the downs.

Downs:
First off, I wasn't agreeing with Richie's character voices, as a lot of them come off as racist.  I mean, okay, one could argue that It was 1958 when nothing was politically correct, but still.

Another flaw is that the book sometimes flows away to another story almost irrelevant to the plot, mostly backstories to minor characters, but on the flip side...


Ups:
... they all manage to connect to the same problem that is It.

Okay, as someone who usually listens to audio books, I don't really review the narrators, but I'm going to say It right now: Stephen Weber's performance was phenomenal.  I'm serious.  I haven't heard a narrator that really kept me at the edge of my seat since, well, ever (I guess it's my first time).  As for the voices, he gives a distinct voice to each character (especially "Stuttering Bill" Denbrough) that would make Jim Dale proud.

Also, this book isn't really about a scary clown--if I could describe this story using a pie chart, only 9% of It would show the clown.  I'd say a more appropriate definition is that It's about one's worst nightmares, whatever It may be, coming to life to kill them.

Another part that I had both ups and downs about was the ending.  It became a lot more supernatural than just something with various forms, and I almost asked myself, "This is the same book, right?"  But that's kind of the fun of It.

Overall, I'd recommend It to anyone who either has the time to read the whole book or has the time to listen to all 35 CDs (I promise, the latter is worth It).

The Hypnotist / Lars Kepler / 503 pgs.

A family is found brutally murdered and their bodies are mutilated.  Amongst the carnage one survivor is found clinging to life.  In order to find and warn the one family member who was not at the house the night of the attack, Detective Joona Linna asks the once famous now disgraced hypnotist Erik Maria Bark to hypnotize and question the survivor.  This starts a chain of events that escalates to the action packed and bloody ending.

The Hypnotist's authors "Lars Kepler" has been marketed as the next Steig Larsson.  Well it is a lot like the Larsson's books as it is LONG, very long, with lots of setting detail, divergent plot lines, and LOTS of back story.  Even worse in the Hypnotist, scenes are told from different character viewpoints so you end up reading the same scene two or three times.  There is a lot of action, but you have to wade through many slow points to get to it.  So I did feel like this was very similar to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" without the really cool Lisbeth character. 

  The violence in this book is graphic and some of the murder scenes and abuse described is not for the faint of heart.  I listened to this book on CD, which is the only way I would have been able to get through this book.  I did feel kind of bad eating my lunch while listening to the gory details.  ;)

Come and Find Me / Hallie Ephron 276 p.

Computer security expert Diana Highsmith has swathe herself in triple and quadruple security since the tragic death of her husband Daniel. Unable to leave her home, she assess security breaches and offers ways to protect against hackers by sending her avatar to client meetings in the OtherWorld. Jake, her late husband's best friend, handles the real world client contacts. Before losing Daniel, the 'Three Musketeers' worked to spread chaos by hacking, without regard for the consequences. Now Diana is tough on hackers. Armed with Xanax and courage she enters the real world to find her missing sister, Ashley. Diana soon discovers that she is following a dangerous trail lined with deception on a grand scale. A fast-paced, plot-driven, psychological suspense story that may appeal to readers of Kay Hooper.