Letting young teenager read "It"

[Itsreallymehonest]

I won't watch or read It as I hate horror. My 14yo dd bought the book and is enjoying it. AIBU in letting her read it on the basis that we just have different tastes? I wouldn't let her watch the film, but am I being naive in thinking that we are only limited by our own imagination with books? Has anyone read it, and is it absolutely awful?

I discovered my love for Stephen King around that age. There might be one or two very graphic / intense things i.e. child sexual abuse that you might not want to expose her to. It's quite terrifying yes but at 14 if she's the mature sort and not likely to end up having sleepless nights about Pennywise then let her get on with it.

I read it and saw the films.
Imo the book is worse and much more frightening but it's a cracking read and if d doesn't scare easy to for it.

Hey, she’s a 14yo girl and she’s reading..look on the brightside.

She’ll be fine we read Stephen king and James Herbert in year 7 I think 14 is perfectly ok

It's a 15? Surely if she's old enough at 14 to read then she can watch it?

My 14 year old has seen the films, I think the book is far worse

I read it when I was 14. We have holiday photos of me reading it on the beach. I remember feeling very grown up. I think it remains one of the longest books I've ever read.

Ds 15 just watched the new film.

It’s fine. I read a lot of horror when I was 14. Somehow I’m normal.

Thanks everyone. And thank you for the tip about the abuse content Valdmirs, I'll have a chat to her about it.

She's an avid reader I'm proud to say, but it only seems like yesterday she was collecting the Daisy Meadows fairy books!!

I love Stephen King. I think I read IT when I was about 12.

It's scary, but it's fiction. So not that scary.

It's quite awful, in that it has a lot of cliches and he doesn't know how to end a story ("...and suddenly, GIANT SPIDERS!!?!"), but that's probably not what you're worried about.

I read it at 14 and enjoyed it, it has a couple of shocking bits - the initial appearance of the clown (with the death of the little brother), and the abuse of the girl in the gang by her father (alluded to, not shown directly IIRC) are the bits that particularly stick in my memory, but it was no worse than much of the non-horror stuff circulating at that age which can also depict abuse and death.

I think you just need to let her read what she likes at this age and be happy she's reading - if she reads enough things she'll be able to compare them and see which ones were actually good in retrospect and which ones she can forget. It's the people who only read a couple of books ever that end up attributing too much importance to them.

I pilfered all of my parents books when I was that age! Most of it was massively inappropriate I'm sure, but I still read a book or two a week and am a full time writer, so it did me no harm.

I read pet sematary when I was about 11 or 12 and it snowballed from there and by 15 I had plenty of King's books on my "read it" list.
I fondly remember secretly staying up until 2AM sometimes because I just couldn't put some of the books down😁

The new IT film is lame anyway. The old one was better and scarier.

Audacity that's good to know! Dd's hobby it writing short stories and scenarios. I'm really try to encourage her as (I think) she writes some really good stuff.

The new IT film is lame anyway. The old one was better and scarier.

Yes to this! The newer films are somewhat comical. The original film terrified me to the extent I developed a fear of clowns!

IT is a great book, and at 14 she’s old enough to decide if she’s scared or not I think, I certainly knew at that age what I couldn’t read.

Having said that, be aware that there is a bizarre orgy scene at the halfway point, so that needs to be taken into consideration alongside the scare factor!

at school my friends and I read virginia Andrews for the sex scenes and Stephen king for the scares

My DD14 has seen the movie, most her age are watching 15,18 movies. I find it odd you’d think of stopping her reading something unless she’s a very young 14.

I read IT around 12-13. It’s still one of my favourite books.

I now have an English Lit degree and am an English teacher.

That's about the age I got really into Stephen King's books. She should be fine.
And if she likes those, she should try Daphne DuMaurier's horror stories especially 'Don't Look Now'

Yes to this! The newer films are somewhat comical. The original film terrified me to the extent I developed a fear of clowns!

I think it's because when you see the new clown, it's SO clear he is evil. But the old one was run of a mill normal looking clown so you it makes you suspect all the normal clowns iykwim.
Like I would find lets say snowhite turning murderer scary, but not if snowhite walked around with yellow eyes, in black leather and a glasgow smile from the begining of the movie...

Yep...I read lots of Stephen King starting age 11/12...and I still love his stuff! I would let my 13 year old son read It if he were interested, but he took one look at the size of the book, and I think that scared him more than the content!

It is a fantastic book, but it does contain several scenes of child sexual abuse including one particularly odd scene of underage group sex (described fairly vaguely, and ostensibly "consensual" inasfar as children can consent to sexual activity which is, of course, not at all). Without knowing the 14 year old it's hard to say.

Agree with PP - I was reading SK from about 12, still love him and I too have an English Lit degree and I'm an English teacher!
One caveat - someone upthread mentioned the very dubious 'sex scene' later in It, involving the Losers as children. That's the only bit where I really thought - WTF?
maybe you can razor blade those pages out