Carrie

Spoilers ahead: As a huge fan of the 1976 film "Carrie," I decided to buy the book to read the story as first told. I figured a movie that made me feel so sad had needed to be looked into a little further to seek to understand it a little better. Maybe this way, I wouldn't feel as sad about Carrie's tragic life and ultimate end. However, the book made me feel just about as sad. Carrie White is a student at Ewen High School. She is an outsider who is constantly bullied by her peers due to her unappealing appearance, her shyness, and her mother's erratic behavior. She also discovers that she has the incredible power of telekinesis. When she has her first period in the showers, her classmates mock her by telling her to "plug it up!" and by throwing sanitary towels and tampons at her rather than helping her. The terrified girl has no idea about what a woman's menstruation is and believes she is dying, as no one taught her about it. Her gym teacher Miss Desjardin helps Carrie through this and punishes the girls for their behavior, which is one week's detention with her. Chris Hargensen, who is the ringleader of the bullies, leaves detention early and is suspended, and ultimately forbidden to go to the Senior Prom. This, in her mind, is all Carrie's fault. Meanwhile at home, Carrie's unstable and religious fanatic of a mother (Margaret White) punishes her for having her first period by locking her in a "prayer closet." This is something that is accustomed in the White household as the book explains Carrie sometimes spends days in the closet, leading to exhaustion and sleeping in her own waste. It's just so sad reading parts of the story like this. One of the bullies, Sue Snell, feels sorry for what she did to Carrie so she asks her boyfriend (Tommy Ross) to take the girl to the prom. He asks Carrie to the prom, which unlike the movie, she accepts almost right away though awkwardly. Margaret is unhappy with this of course and tries to make Carrie stay home from prom, which she is unsuccessful at. Carrie and Tommy are elected prom king and queen as part of a plan devised by Chris Hargensen and her boyfriend Billy Nolan. Their plan is to dump pig's blood on both of them as a prank for getting Chris in trouble. Once the blood is dropped on both of them, the bucket falls on Tommy and kills him. Carrie runs out of the gym in humiliation as everyone yet again is laughing at her. She then remembers her telekinetic powers.... From outside, she locks all of the gym doors and what at first was a plan to just throw the prank back on all of the other students, turned into a massacre. Students and faculty are electrocuted, burned, and suffocated inside the school by the use of Carrie's powers. Unlike the 1976 movie, Carrie's vengeance continues throughout the town. She is able to use telepathy to communicate to the citizens of Chamberlain that she is in fact the one wreaking havoc on the town. Carrie visits a church to pray before going home, where her mother is there waiting there to kill her as she think that Carrie is using Satan's powers. Margaret White stabs Carrie in the shoulder when she returns home. Carrie kills her mother by stopping her heart in self-defense. Carrie then travels to local bar called The Cavalier to confront Chris and Billy, who had been sleeping together there. She is able to kill both of them by slamming their car into the side of the building. Sue Snell is able reach Carrie at the bar, who is dying. Carrie and Sue use telepathy to speak to each other. It is revealed to Carrie that Sue had good intentions all along and is forgiven by Carrie. As a last action before death, Carrie makes Sue miscarry her child that was conceived with Tommy as her period arrives. We then learn from the last few paragraphs that other people may in fact possess the great power of telekinesis. This is a great book that I literally read in one setting. I couldn't put it down because it is so intriguing. Once again, like the 1976 movie, we can't help but feel compassion for Carrie. The story is just so tragic. A tortured girl who just wanted to fit in and be normal, but was never given the chance. Stephen King uses a lot of court room dialog and news articles to tell certain parts of the story, such as the time a very young Carrie created a rain of ice stones to fall on the White house after a confrontation with her mother. I thought this was an excellent way to tell the story by giving us many different points of view. The book really makes you feel Carrie's isolation and sadness. The part that actually made me cry was the poem she wrote in her 7th grade class. The quote is posted on the picture I posted for this review. It's just so sad to think a child feels that helpless and alone. The description of the very small closet that she is forced to pray in also is unsettling. Stephen King was at the top of his game with his first published novel "Carrie." It is a very well written book that fills the reader with emotion and makes us want to reread it. I now know why the 1976 movie was so great: the novel in which it was based upon was excellent.

I decided to revisit the first novel of my favorite author after all these years. Unlike Salem's Lot or The Stand or even Misery which I've read a few times. I read Salem's Lot every so many years. this is only the second time I have ever actually read Carrie and the first time since it first came out in paperback a lot of years ago. I'm actually more familiar with the movie than the book and I listened to Sissy Spacek read the Audible version along with my own reading of the novel. It has been so long that it was like a first read. Any memories I had were of the movie meaning the Sissy Spacek original and not any of the remakes. First the Audible version is excellent and Sissy Spacek does a great job of reading it. Being from Alabama I kept picking up some of her Southern or should I say Texas accent at times. But, it was only on a couple of words and she did a really good job of reading the story of the exceptional and troubled young girl from Maine. This story still holds up and if you are looking for a good Audible listen you can't go wrong with this one. Now, to the story. Carrie as a story really hit home for me since I was raised in the Bible Belt and honestly Carrie's mother reminded me of some of the adults from my youth in a Penacostol church. Even the name of Carrie's mother reminded me of a lady that was really religious back then. Not as deadly with it or as mean spirited of course. Anyway, one of the reasons that Carrie was a challenging read for me back then was my churchy upbringing. Was it a sin to read a book with such irreverent religious imagery of my then Chritsitan faith which brings me back to the story. Stephen King if he were a churhy person which he is not seems to align from the few times I've heard him discuss it with a more calmly mainline Methodist mindset. Carrie had the beaten down just get it over with attitude of many of us who were born into a religious fundamentalist family. Thankfully I was born into an actual family and my religious relatives were not toxic. The fictional Carrie's family certainly was. Although she had only her mother left. Stephen King does a great job here especially for a first published novel. He hits the right note of the poor downtrodden bullied teen and the casual cruelty of youth As a male I think it might have actually worked better with the bulliyng parts from a male perspective. I know how mean teenage boys can be. On the other hand I bet some females will recognize the meanness of teenage girls in the narrative. I sometimes hesitate to read books from my youth and young adulthood. They tend to seem dated. But, this one about kids from around my time really kept my attention. This is the young Stephen King. Still full of potential and stories about haunted cars and haunted hotels. Vampire's over running a New England town and a quiet man with a gun and an obsession for a Dark Tower are in the future. This is the start. Not of the Tower or the haunted hotels and cars. But, of the writer. It's a good trip and well worth the time.

The novel Carrie by Stephen King is centered around a sixteen year old girl, Carrie White. Her whole life she has been pushed around by both her mother, Margret, and her classmates, especially Chris. Margret is an extremely religious individual and forces that apon Carrie. Chris is one of the most popular girls in their high school, and has an unprovoked hatred towards Carrie. As a result of these things, Carrie is made fun of in school. Everyone believes she is a freak and plays jokes on her. After having no independence from her mother, and constantly being harassed at school, she reaches her breaking point. This happens at the school prom when Chris decides to sabotage Carrie’s night and goes too far. Carrie is finally pushed over the edge and chaos erupts. While reading, I was able to connect to Carrie White. Throughout my life, I have never been popular at school and have been made fun of. This could be frustrating and sometimes made me angry. Though it was not the best choice, at times I would fire back at the people teasing me. Being as Carrie made the same decision, I was able to reach a deeper understanding of the book. I truly knew where Carrie was coming from and some of the things she may have been feeling. I also related to Sue in some ways. Just as Sue regretted bullying Carrie, I have regretted many of my actions in the past. For example, whenever I am unnecessarily cruel to my family, I feel remorse and wish to change my actions. This connection helped me to better grasp the novel and fully comprehend it. In my opinion Carrie is an exceptional book. Stephen King is really able to illustrate the story with his words. He goes into great detail during the whole novel. With Stephen King, anything is a possibility, especially the unexpected. It was extremely refreshing to read this because it was not at all cliche. I have certainly never seen or heard of any story quite like this one. Behind every corner is a new twist, just when you think things couldn't get any crazier. I am not usually very interested in reading, but this book had me on the edge of my seat. I found myself constantly thinking about it and eager to continue learning about Carrie White’s tragic life. My personal favorite part of this novel is the very beginning. I remember how wide my eyes got as I turned to the third page. The book starts off with a strong hook that will definitely grab your attention. I was shocked at how bold the story started, and I absolutely loved it! I would one hundred percent recommend this book to another person. It is thrilling and action packed, while still paying close attention to every component of the story. The characters are extremely well developed and very diverse. I believe that each and everyone could find at least one personal connection to one or more of the characters. With all of this, there is a strong and important message given throughout the novel. To me, this story really showed how your actions have a large impact on others. People who enjoy being frightened or taken on an adventure through the books they read would be the best audience for this novel. It also might be appealing to those who are sick and tired of Cinderella and other classics, people who are looking for something completely different. And finally, if you’re like me, and you are not the biggest fan of reading, this book might just change your mind. ~Sydney Danese, D Block English

Even if you already know the basic premise of Carrie, this book still manages to hit hard. Stephen King doesn’t just tell a horror story he slowly builds an atmosphere of isolation, cruelty, and emotional tension that makes the final act feel both inevitable and devastating. Carrie White is not portrayed simply as a monster or a victim; she is painfully human. The bullying, the religious abuse at home, and the complete lack of safety in her life are described in a way that feels uncomfortable because it feels real. King does an excellent job showing how small acts of cruelty pile up, and how silence and complicity can be just as damaging as direct abuse. What makes this book especially effective is the structure. The use of reports, interviews, and “after the fact” documents adds a chilling sense of realism. You know from early on that something terrible is going to happen, yet the tension keeps growing until the breaking point. The prom scene is iconic for a reason not just because of the horror, but because of the emotional weight behind it. Despite being a relatively short novel, Carrie leaves a lasting impression. It’s unsettling, tragic, and still very relevant in its themes of bullying, social cruelty, and unchecked power. This is classic Stephen King at his rawest and most impactful, and absolutely deserves five stars.

Good story and much better than the movie. Very believable. The story not only talks about Carrie but how her tragedy affected the entire town.

Even living in the small town of Chamberlain, Maine in 1979 doesn't stop 16 year old going on 17 Carrie White from suffering the equivalent of cyberbullying. Even though she's in high school, kids write offensive graffiti at their elementary and middle schools insulting and making fun of her. She is picked on by everyone not just at her school but by just random kids she passes on the street. She can't escape the endless persecution and it's been going on ever since she was a small child. A lot of it has to do with her nutjob fundamentalist Christian mom who believes that Carrie's very existence is a sin. She has never allowed her to play with other kids and is abusive, assaulting her and frequently locking her in a closet without access to food, water, or a bathroom. As the book begins, Carrie is so clueless that when she has her first period in the girls shower room at school and begins to bleed she panics and doesn't even know what is happening to her. She thinks she is dying! The other girls laugh at her, insult her, and throw tampons at her! Only one of the girls, Sue Snell, begins to doubt what she is doing and questions her own morality. She, along with her boyfriend, Tommy, resolve to help bring Carrie into the social network of the school. To do something nice for her for probably the first time in Carrie's life. This might all sound like an afterschool special drama, but there is a mysterious x factor. Carrie has a telekinetic ability to move objects with her mind. She also seems to have some telepathic powers. As the book, progresses, her powers manifest stronger and stronger. She also does a fair bit of practice to see exactly what she can do. Meanwhile the leader of the bullies at her school, Christine Hargensen, is preparing an awful prom night surprise for Carrie. I had been meaning to read all of Stephen King's books for some time and now seemed a good time to start. And I wanted to read them in order of publication. I will be skipping books I have already read like Salem's Lot and The Shining. Next up after this is Rage. I was quite surprised by the lack of gore and violence in this book. All of that is really concentrated in the end Prom Night sequence. There's really not a lot going on in the book except for that. It's a character study more than anything else. Even in the Prom Night scenes, King is restrained, I guess stemming from the fact that he wasn't really confident in what kind of writer he wanted to be and hadn't really found his voice. The book was good, if a little slow. What's funny is that reading it, I started thinking what if Carrie White had existed in the Marvel or DC universe? With her telekinesis, she could have become a superhero! Maybe if her mom hadn't been such a loon, Carrie could have read some X-Men comics back in the 1960s or 70s and gotten a better vision of what her power was. Or if she had some read some good scifi! Another thing I thought about was that back in 1974 when this book was published, the parts where Carrie unleashes her powers on her classmates was probably a lot more shocking than it is now in 2019. Mass school shootings seem to occur almost monthly in the US now so we've almost become USED to horrible school violence. Who would have predicted from this first book that Stephen King would have become one of the bestselling authors of my lifetime? There's really nothing in this first book that makes him stand out from the crowd. It's really a generic mainstream title if you get down to it. The characterization is really strong, which to me is a foreshadowing of something he would become a master at.

The first novel Stephen King published, and what an amazing career the man has had since then. I am a huge fan of all his books, and this is a very good one. I enjoy the way it is written, like a documentary sort of, and the way all the characters are written is very good. It is a bit gory at times, and the terror at the end is very good.

I really wanted to give this a go for its 50th anniversary year, and after loving Pet Sematary, I knew I had to bump this one up. Believe it or not, I’ve been alive for 32 of those 50 years and managed to avoid pretty much all spoilers. While reading this, which I didn’t know was any form of religious, I also happened to be listening to C.J. Leede’s American Rapture—which is an extreme examination on religion. Both of them start with a kind of deep dive into the bounds in which Catholicism is designed to hold down and punish women simply for existing. While Sophie’s family is simply force feeding her guilt on a biblical scale, Carrie’s mother seems to be well off the deep end. While Sophie is showcased to be so far removed that she truly doesn’t even know how the world itself functions, Carrie is so religiously uneducated in womanhood that she is unaware of menstruation, not even knowing herself. While AR showcases how religious families can be hurtful even within the Bible, Carrie’s mother using god like a hammer. Much more on the side of torture than praising. I was surprised by how thoroughly this goes into the high school level of bullying. Because she is so sheltered, the other girls view her as weird, because she isn’t allowed to dress normal or use makeup, isn’t super skinny, they consider her ugly. The opening scene of the novel they throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her instead of helping her, solidifying just how other they view her. She is ostracized from her fellow classmates while she can’t even seek solace at home. Kind of similar to Neal Cassidy’s Schroeder that I just finished as well, that level of bullying could be seen as more than enough to push someone over the edge, and yet King’s novel adds an additional layer. Right from the beginning, the reader understands that Carrie has telekinetic powers. She is not sure how exactly they work, or why she has them, nor are they very strong, but it’s something within her that she can explore. The novel mixes Carrie’s own discoveries with excerpts from scientific research and journals surrounding the phenomenon in a way that almost felt like King was creating his own superpower or mutant gene, even though that is not at all the direction of the novel. And Carrie is anything but a superhero. And while there are definitely some issues where this is dated—primarily the descriptions of young girls, women in general, and some racial terms—I found it interesting that Chris’ boyfriend is displayed as the quintessential bad guy, his mistreatment of women being the main thing on display. It’s almost a commentary while missing his own mistakes? And with that being said, Chris is the villain here. As a ringleader from the opening shower scene, she becomes wholeheartedly hellbent of ruining Carrie’s life…mostly because she got in trouble for doing a terrible thing? As the daughter of a lawyer, who is also displayed as an entitled idiot, it’s no surprise that Chris would blame someone else rather than doing some soul searching. This hellbent desire to get back at Carrie is the straw that breaks the camels back. The ending is fast, violent, and gruesome in a way I don’t think I’ve ever read before.