- After the Flood (1957)
- After the Carnival (1984)
- Six Phone Calls (1985)
- Derry: The First Interlude
- Ben Hanscom Takes a Fall
- Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (I)
- One of the Missing: A Tale From the Summer of '58
- The Dam In the Barrens
- Georgie's Room and the House On Neibolt Street
- Cleaning Up
- Derry: The Second Interlude
- The Reunion
- Walking Tours
- Three Uninvited Guests
- Derry: The Third Interlude
- The Apocalyptic Rockfight
- The Album
- The Smoke-Hole
- Eddie's Bad Break
- Another One of the Missing: The Death of Patrick Hockstetter
- The Bullseye
- Derry: The Fourth Interlude
- In the Watches of the Night
- The Circle Closes
- Under the City
- The Ritual of Chud
- Out
- Derry: The Final Interlude
- Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (II)
The Apocalyptic Rockfight
This is a very dark chapter, and interestingly enough, features no supernatural content. It is here that we truly learn about Butch Bowers and the degree of his insanity. It is both disturbing and fulfilling to learn that Henry resorts to racism and violence in order to earn his father's approval. In one of the darkest scenes of the novel, Henry not only kills Mike's dog, but actually sits down and watches it die, then tells the news to his father who gives him his first beer. I find it particularly remarkable that this twisted incident occurs on page 666 on my edition of the book.
Each of the six chapters in the "July of 1958" section follow the same pattern: the adult Losers are meeting in the library and each has a flashback. While still waiting for the others to arrive, Bill has a flashback of the Losers all meeting in the Barrens for the first time, shortly after the events of the "Cleaning Up" chapter. They discuss how to deal with this strange evil force all of them have witnessed, but then give up and look for a place to light fireworks. At that moment, Mike arrives, being chased by Henry and his cronies. The Losers retaliate and a rockfight ensues, leaving our heroes the winners and the bullies with serious injuries. Once again, Henry gets a lot of pain (something that happens a lot throughout the novel) and eventually retreats.
Henry's two sidekicks, Belch Huggins and Victor Criss, are given more characterization in this chapter than ever before. We learn a bit, especially through Victor's eyes, what it's like to follow this strange, dominating bully with a father who is abusive even to them! Furthermore, Henry is also joined by two other supporting bullies named Peter Gordon and Moose Sadler, both of whom have been casually mentioned in earlier chapters. While it is realistic that Henry would occasionally have others in his gang from time to time, I find these two characters to just be redundant. Peter is essentially a copy of Victor: they are the two smartest and most normal in Henry's gang and show remorse as the excessive violence. Moose, meanwhile, feels like a cartoon character; the most notable moment his character ever gets is that he farts at an inopportune moment, alerting Mike to their presence (King seems to like flatulence, as it will play a larger role later in the story). I don't think the story would have suffered at all had both these characters been left out. In fact, this might have been a good moment to introduce Patrick Hockstetter instead.
This is an enjoyable chapter, but again, I really do feel it should have been placed at the end of the "June of 1958" section. It just would have been extremely climatic to have ended that section with the Losers all together, plus felt the climatic note of the rockfight. Here, it just seems a little unnecessarily late in the story. I mean the seven kids have finally all met, and it only took 700 pages (I'm serious! Mike introduces himself to the Losers on exactly page 700 of my edition)!
So, that was Bill's flashback. Let's see what Mike's will be...
Each of the six chapters in the "July of 1958" section follow the same pattern: the adult Losers are meeting in the library and each has a flashback. While still waiting for the others to arrive, Bill has a flashback of the Losers all meeting in the Barrens for the first time, shortly after the events of the "Cleaning Up" chapter. They discuss how to deal with this strange evil force all of them have witnessed, but then give up and look for a place to light fireworks. At that moment, Mike arrives, being chased by Henry and his cronies. The Losers retaliate and a rockfight ensues, leaving our heroes the winners and the bullies with serious injuries. Once again, Henry gets a lot of pain (something that happens a lot throughout the novel) and eventually retreats.
Henry's two sidekicks, Belch Huggins and Victor Criss, are given more characterization in this chapter than ever before. We learn a bit, especially through Victor's eyes, what it's like to follow this strange, dominating bully with a father who is abusive even to them! Furthermore, Henry is also joined by two other supporting bullies named Peter Gordon and Moose Sadler, both of whom have been casually mentioned in earlier chapters. While it is realistic that Henry would occasionally have others in his gang from time to time, I find these two characters to just be redundant. Peter is essentially a copy of Victor: they are the two smartest and most normal in Henry's gang and show remorse as the excessive violence. Moose, meanwhile, feels like a cartoon character; the most notable moment his character ever gets is that he farts at an inopportune moment, alerting Mike to their presence (King seems to like flatulence, as it will play a larger role later in the story). I don't think the story would have suffered at all had both these characters been left out. In fact, this might have been a good moment to introduce Patrick Hockstetter instead.
This is an enjoyable chapter, but again, I really do feel it should have been placed at the end of the "June of 1958" section. It just would have been extremely climatic to have ended that section with the Losers all together, plus felt the climatic note of the rockfight. Here, it just seems a little unnecessarily late in the story. I mean the seven kids have finally all met, and it only took 700 pages (I'm serious! Mike introduces himself to the Losers on exactly page 700 of my edition)!
So, that was Bill's flashback. Let's see what Mike's will be...