Felt sorry for Victor Criss?

[The Good Guy]

*spoiler alert*

There are so many things I love about this book and there are so many questions that have always come to my mind. One of them is this, did you guys feel sorry for Victor Criss? When IT brutally slaughtered him?

honestly, I did. Ya, he was a bully, but out of all them, I would say he was the smartest and he had morals He recognized when Henry went over the top.

In my own opinion, I'd say he was the most like able character out of Henry's Gang.

[GNTLGNT]

Yeah, it was the old "used & abused" for him...but his fiction mirrors reality, wherein sorta good guys die too...

[The Good Guy]

I mean of all the bullies that die, it hit me the hardest when Vic died. Didn't really feel to bad for Belch (although that's not to say that I didn't feel bad at all) and I'm GLAD it got Patrick.

I guess it goes in this order lol

Victor (man, that sucks. I feel bad for him. He really was likable and it was too bad he had that his fate had to be that way)
Belch(eh, didn't really care for him, but I liked him a lot more than I did Henry or Patrick)
Patrick (Screw that kid. I'm so happy IT got him. I don't think anyone felt sorry for him)

[Robert Gray]

I felt they were all sad stories. Victor wasn't a great guy, but he certainly wasn't a monster. Belch was slow and awkward. His father apparently (per Hanlon Senior) was a nice enough. It is likely Belch would have grown out of being a bully as well. Both Vic and Belch are sad because they didn't really deserve what happened to them. All that being said, Henry is the saddest story of them all. Henry was a monster, but just how much of that can we lay on his shoulders? He was raised to be a racist. He was abused and was going to carry on that cycle. He was poor. He wasn't the brightest. He honestly believed what his father told him (all children tend to do so). Like Big Bill he was being manipulated that summer (and later as a pathetic adult) to the point of madness. Do not let Henry Bowers evil (and he was) blind you to the fact that he was also just a kid. I find Henry's situation the saddest of all. Vic and Belch got off easy when you think about it. They died quickly and went on to whatever happens in the hereafter within that particular reality. The boy that was Bowers got a lifetime of fear and regret and then missed any hope of redemption. I think Bowers is the saddest story of all.

Patrick was damaged good, a psychopath. We can't really equate him to the others because unlike Bowers he had a good home and a loving family. There was just something wrong with him chemically.

[~Ally~]

Perfectly stated Robert Gray; exactly how I feel.

[The Good Guy]

I felt they were all sad stories. Victor wasn't a great guy, but he certainly wasn't a monster. Belch was slow and awkward. His father apparently (per Hanlon Senior) was a nice enough. It is likely Belch would have grown out of being a bully as well. Both Vic and Belch are sad because they didn't really deserve what happened to them. All that being said, Henry is the saddest story of them all. Henry was a monster, but just how much of that can we lay on his shoulders? He was raised to be a racist. He was abused and was going to carry on that cycle. He was poor. He wasn't the brightest. He honestly believed what his father told him (all children tend to do so). Like Big Bill he was being manipulated that summer (and later as a pathetic adult) to the point of madness. Do not let Henry Bowers evil (and he was) blind you to the fact that he was also just a kid. I find Henry's situation the saddest of all. Vic and Belch got off easy when you think about it. They died quickly and went on to whatever happens in the hereafter within that particular reality. The boy that was Bowers got a lifetime of fear and regret and then missed any hope of redemption. I think Bowers is the saddest story of all.

Patrick was damaged good, a psychopath. We can't really equate him to the others because unlike Bowers he had a good home and a loving family. There was just something wrong with him chemically.

Ya, you've got a point there. It was sad for all of them. Except Patrick. If there's any character who deserved to die, it was him. It looks as though Henry may have been a much better person had he not been exposed to the hate his father had. Or perhaps maybe he could have been redeemed somehow (who knows).

Patrick though, there was no way. He had no sympathy for others. Regardless with what environment he lived in, he would have been the same. A Psychopath.