I've gotta say, even for King stylistically this one is a standout. Its epistolary structure makes it compulsively readable. I read Carrie in a feverish state one Sunday a coupla years ago and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes horror at ALL, regardless of your thoughts on King's work in general. ( )

The movie was better. ( )

(I mentioned in my Matilda review the similarity between Dahl's book and Carrie, and I'd like to proceed in this vein, as if the latter were a sequel to the former). Miss Honey has died a miserable death and now Miss Trunchbull, a.k.a. Margaret White, has adopted Carrie, née Matilda, and they now hate each other more than ever. But it's not a game anymore of ghostly spirits and chalkboards: Carrie has just had her first period, and all the energy and bloodlust that she has had to bury inside all these years is ready to come rushing out. Margaret White, however, is not the only one in danger, because all the other children are growing up too and resent Carrie of her differences. Carrie has always had a stalwart heart, but everyone has a breaking point. Such a divine creation like a telekinetic girl can only have a disastrous ending. ( )

My friend Wendy, my sister, and I decided to do a Stephen King readathon, working our way through his catalogue chronologically. Looking back on a lot of his earlier books, I realized I’d missed reading several of them, his first published book, CARRIE (1974), being one of those.

I’ve seen both film versions of the book, so was familiar going in with what to expect, but I still found it interesting to see so many familiar SK storytelling techniques in their infancy. Also, the way he sprinkles in reports from scientific journals, interviews, and memoirs from the victims throughout the narrative was interesting, so even though the reader knows how the story ends from fairly early on, it’s not presented as spoilers so much as foreshadowing of things to come.

While I wouldn’t consider this so much horror as dark scifi, there were definitely creepy aspects to the book. Carrie’s mother’s religious fervor is wildly unsettling, and the events that take place at the prom are obviously horrifying.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re starting ‘SALEM’S LOT next, and I’m looking forward to reading that for the first time, as well.

#stephenking #horror #carrie #horrorbooks #horrorbookstagram #bookstagram #book #bookworm #booksbooksbooks #bookreview #frommybookshelf #frommybookshelfblog #telekinesis #tk ( )

Sixteen-year-old Carrie White gets her first period while in the girls' showers at her high school. Her classmates, particularly Christine Hargensen, are cruel about it, making fun of her and pelting her with tampons. Carrie, whose ultra-religious mother never told her about menstruation, thinks she's dying. The whole thing is understandably traumatic for her, and unfortunately it only gets worse.

King alternates between sections from various characters' viewpoints as the events are occurring and sections from works discussing the "Carrie White" incident after the fact. Readers are aware, well in advance, that Carrie has telekinetic powers that are awakened and significantly boosted after her first period, that things will go badly for her, and that she'll end up killing a lot of people.

This was my first time reading Carrie - I'd never even seen one of the movie adaptations before. I hadn't realized it was such a short book. Even so, I have to admit I spent a good chunk of the story wondering when King would finally get to the "incident." Considering how many people were around afterward to talk about it all, I expected Carrie's explosion, when it happened, to be more limited to the high school. I was unprepared for the amount of destruction King crammed into the ending.

What stuck with me the most, though, was how deeply sad it was. Not just Carrie and everything that happened to her, but all the other scars left behind as well.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )