It
by Stephen King
Summary
Decades after a shape shifting evil that often appears as a clown named Pennywise terrorized their small Maine town and preyed on its children, seven childhood friends who once banded together to fight it are called back as adults to finish what they started. King alternates between the group's traumatic 1950s childhood and their fractured, unhappy adult lives, using the ancient creature to explore how the fears and bonds of childhood echo across an entire lifetime. The sprawling novel became one of his most ambitious and commercially successful books.
Historical Context & Significance
The book appeared a year before the Horror Writers Association established the Bram Stoker Award in 1987, so it was never eligible for the prize that would later celebrate exactly this kind of novel. It did win the British Fantasy Award in 1987, a genre society honor rather than one of the major prizes this list tracks. King's earlier and equally acclaimed horror novels similarly predated the award by years.