Book Review
Title: Carrie by Stephen King
Genre: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Rating: 3.75 Stars
As I mentioned in my review of Salem’s Lot I am planning to read all of King’s published work in the next few years and that obviously means starting at the beginning with Carrie. Carrie was one of the first Stephen King books I ever picked up and along with 1408 and It was one of the first movies I watched. The opening to the book is similar to the movie as we are introduced to Carrie who gets her first period after gym class at school and doesn’t have a clue what is going on. Carrie is horrifically bullied at school and this incident only makes things worse as girls not normally involved in the bullying take part like Sue Snell. Unlike the movie though we get tons of background on Carrie’s family and the upbringing she had.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we can see that Carrie grew up in an extremely religious household to the point where religious is cultish in the household. However, Carrie is telekinetic meaning she can move things with her mind but only at the moment in moments of sheer panic, anger or sadness. Carrie has made many things happen including having rocks rain down on her home when she was only a small child to things more recently like tipping over an ashtray at school when the teacher constantly gets her name wrong. Carrie’s mother returns home when she is phoned by the school at work and punishes Carrie for becoming a sinning woman even though she has no control over this. Carrie even threatens her mother with her gift as her mother fears it but it doesn’t stop the punishment and Carrie isn’t emotionally strong enough to stand up to her mother at the moment.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the main plot of the story is broken up with news segments and interviews about Carrie White after the horrific events that happen towards the end of the book so there is this creeping sense that something is going to go very wrong, very soon. People are beginning to notice the violence directed towards Carrie and the teachers are starting to do something about it. The girls involved are reprimanded and aren’t allowed to go to prom but enrages Chris. She is planning something to get back at Carrie even though it was her own actions that led to this. Meanwhile, Sue is showing a huge amount of remorse as she asks her boyfriend, Tommy, to take Carrie to the prom instead to atone for her actions and hopefully show Carrie that not everyone is as bad as Chris and this might explain why Sue survives the events later in the book.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things seems to have settled down now that the school isn’t under threat of a lawsuit for Chris’ father. However, several of the teachers have a suspicion that Chris is planning something for the night of prom especially since the entire school knows that Carrie is going to be going with Tommy. We don’t know the full plan yet but it has something to do with the layout of the room since Chris looks at these plans and a lot of pigs blood which she sends her boyfriend, Billy to go and collect from a local farmer while he is away attending the funeral of a family member. We have also seen Carrie come into her own with her powers as she can use them more freely and easily, it is also here she goes against her mother and decide to live her own life free of her mother’s overbearing religious influence.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, we have entered part two which is prom night and where things are about to get very interesting. We get to see the events earlier in the day as Carrie prepares to go to prom. While she has some doubts about whether or not the entire thing has been an elaborate joke, she still has a courage that we haven’t seen from Carrie before in the entire novel. As the time for her to be picked up approaches and then arrives, we see that Carrie’s fear was for nothing as Tommy arrives on time even telling Carrie that she looks beautiful before heading to the school. However, we also see Billy and Chris setting up their trap for Carrie by suspending the pigs blood over the thrones of the prom King and Queen, hoping that Carrie will be the one on the stage although they have no way of knowing until it is announced.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the initial vote for prom King and Queen is a tie with Carrie and Tommy being one of the couples so a second vote is held better the two couples to decide on a winner. This is the beginning of the end as anyone who has seen the movie know what is coming and it has been referenced so many times especially by Sue, who is currently at home waiting for Tommy’s return after prom. Sue at this point is almost sure she is pregnant as well which only adds to the oncoming heartbreak and when the time arrives and Carrie and Tommy are crowned King and Queen, the madness begins. After being covered in pigs blood Tommy is knocked out and Carrie flees the gym and the laughter only to realise she forgot about her power. She uses that power to lock everyone in the gymnasium turn the sprinklers on, leading to someone being electrocuted which prompts Carrie to burn the school down as the fire eventually leads to an explosion before turning to the rest of the town. Sue gets news of the fire and heads towards the school in time to see it explode, when she finally manages to stop a police officer she tells them that Carrie did this and to find her before she hurts anyone else.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Carrie is moving through the town, half of which is now on fire moving towards her home where her mother is waiting to kill her. The final events of the book are heartbreaking as we watch Carrie lay waste to the town after everything they have done to her and we see in the aftermath that no one wants to believe that it could happen again if the cause of Carrie’s power was genetic as it seems to be. We have remember that Carrie’s grandmother had the gift and we see a little girl at the end of the book with it too, hinting that the coverup of Carrie’s rampage on the town could very well lead to another. Overall, for a first novel Carrie was an amazing depiction of the horrors King could portray even with little of the actual violence shown on the page as most of it is left to the readers imagination and this is similar to what happens in Salem’s Lot. However, I did feel that there are many books that Stephen King has written that outshine these early works which is the reason for the lower rating.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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