Yeah, even he's said that it was not a great choice lol.
I kinda get what he was going for though. It failed utterly, but as a scene meant to ground characters in their humanity and link them so deeply that the power of it could carry them through and into adulthood, the symbology is right.
The problem was their ages. Not because kids that age are never sexual, they can be. It was that the combination of the shock to the reader and the details of the scene pushed the idea into unrealistic territory that made it read unhinged rather than like an improvised magic ritual of sorts.
Like, c'mon man, you don't actually need to describe as much as you did. The concept of a young girl making that decision as her size first experience is already at the very edge of credibility, trying to make it seem beautiful and otherworldly just breaks the ragged remains of suspension of disbelief. Like, no Steve, no. Not even in that situation would that happen, it just isn't realistic even in that world. Fade to black, have it happen off screen, and be done with it if you really insist on that being the magic activity.
The fact that he didn't consider anything less skeevy is another issue, but damn, there were a dozen things that would have carried the symbolism just as much, or more. Why not become "blood brothers"? Everyone slice a hand and shake on it, you dig? You know, something that group of kids would actually think of in that situation. On a literary symbolism level it's better.
For one thing, the magic connection would be tied into all of them, not just hinging on one character. For another, blood exchanges as a form of power are damn near universal across the world's history and cultures.
I like King. The dude has a strange and engaging imagination. But that scene is the worst one he's ever written, on multiple levels.
