Many of Derry.
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, and he has used Maine as the setting for many of his stories, building fictional towns that fit his vision, such as Castle Rock (or The Rock) and Derry. The latter first appeared in the 1981 short story “The Bird and the Album” and has since been the main setting of some of King’s most famous novels, such as Misery, The Body, Lisey’s Story, Under the Dome, and more.
King has shared that IT, and as such, it was witness to some truly terrifying scenes, but is Derry cursed because of IT or did the creature arrive at this particular town because it’s cursed?
There are points in Stephen King’s universe called “thinnies”, a weak spot in reality where the fabric of the worlds has been worn thin, allowing some creatures to slip through from other dimensions. In The Dark Tower, Derry is mentioned to exist in a thin spot, which would explain why the town seems to be cursed and thus doomed to all types of tragedies. However, IT’s history also adds to why Derry is a cursed town, as the creature arrived on Earth as a result of a massive cataclysmic event, landing in what would become Derry, Maine. IT, then, had been living in Derry since before the town was built, which is why Derry had been plagued with tragedy from the beginning – literally the beginning, as about 340 original settlers suddenly disappeared. The answer to whether Derry is cursed because of IT or IT settled there because the town is cursed is a bit both, as Derry being in a thin spot and IT crashing there have contributed to the town’s curse.
Given its cursed history and the many strange and tragic events that have happened there (like hundreds of people being killed during an explosion, a whole club being burned down, and kids mysteriously disappearing every 27 years), it’s not surprising that Derry has been mentioned in other stories, and it will surely continue being a key location in the universe of Stephen King.
