Title: CarrieAuthor: Stephen King
First Published: April 5, 1974
Publisher: Anchor
Pages: 322
Genre: Coming of Age, Horror, Paranormal
Format: Ebook
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Synopsis:
Unpopular at school and subjected to her mother's religious fanaticism at home, Carrie White does not have it easy. But while she may be picked on by her classmates, she has a gift she's kept secret since she was a little girl: she can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. Her ability has been both a power and a problem. And when she finds herself the recipient of a sudden act of kindness, Carrie feels like she's finally been given a chance to be normal. She hopes that the nightmare of her classmates' vicious taunts is over . . . but an unexpected and cruel prank turns her gift into a weapon of horror so destructive that the town may never recover.
Review
I hate to admit that I held off on reading this book for a long time. I had watched the 1976 and 2013 films and figured that the films would have already spoiled the book for me, but I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I think I kind of liked the book better, even though the 1976 film is a classic that I love. In fact, the films feel very watered down and tame compared to the book which in a way is a shame.
Carrie is a teenage girl that is abused at home and mercilessly bullied by her classmates. Carrie’s mother Margaret is completely unhinged and her religious fanaticism is uncomfortable to read about. There is so much cruelty in Carrie’s life that you can’t help but pity her. But Carrie has telekinetic powers, heightened by the onset of puberty, which she sharpens like a blade. I was impressed with how her character was written, and how much agency she has underneath her awkward exterior.
I had mixed feelings about the many inclusions of outside sources writing about Carrie White and the prom. The ones that detailed flashbacks to Carrie’s childhood or developed the White family were good. However, there was a point where it started to feel like too much and it started to disrupt the main plot. The story also started to drag in the latter half of the novel, and the choice to write the prom scene twice from two different perspectives was odd and felt a little repetitive. These parts were not great, but are understandable for an early novel.
Carrie is a tragedy, about a victim that becomes a monster that I couldn’t help but feel scared for from start to finish. It is a coming-of-age horror story at its core and one of the best ever written.
Quote
“Nothing can change her back now from something made out of newsprint into a person. But she was, and she hurt. More than any of us probably know, she hurt.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Stephen King
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world’s most successful writers. King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.
Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities including many libraries and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.
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