BOOK REVIEW: Carrie by Stephan King ★★★★☆

The story of misfit high-school girl, Carrie White, who gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. Repressed by a domineering, ultra-religious mother and tormented by her peers at school, her efforts to fit in lead to a dramatic confrontation during the senior prom.

After watching the old and new adaption of the Carrie movies I wanted to sit down at actually read this. I know the storyline and the sympathy the audience has for Carrie to do what she did on prom night, but comparing the book to film there were some slight differences and both book and film version served well.

This book follows the story of Carrie White, easy prey for any kid to pick on. She is ridiculed by her peers and mentally tortured by her religious mother Margret White. When the pack of girls, after gym class pick on Carrie as she undergoes her first menstruation cycle in the formidable shower scene, one popular girl Sue Snell takes pity on her and hitches a plan to give Carrie the best Prom Night. Sue convinces her boyfriend Tommy Ross to take Carrie instead, atonement for all the taunts. Things begin to look up when the most popular boy in school Tommy asks her to Prom. At first, she is sceptical but soon finds herself coming out of her shell, telling her mother who’s calling the shots and finally feeling accepted by her peers. However, her happy Prom Night is ended with Tommy as an awful trick is played on her in front of the whole school and Carrie finally snaps. She watches the small town of Chamberlain burn to the ground.

What I really liked about Carrie is the simple storyline. As it was King’s first novel, I think he did a great job making the story sound so real it could actually be based on real events. Alongside the narrative, he throws in police reports, eye witness reports and Sue Snell’s diary about the Prom Night events. It illustrates just how serious the incident was and how it involved the whole of Chamberlain that night.

Now I liked the themes that came out of Carrie, it’s clear to see bullying and ultimate revenge is on the list but to me it has to be the need of love and acceptance. She did not get that from her mother or from any of her teachers at school. It seemed like people at school thought Carrie was pathetic and disgusting. That’s until Tommy sees her in a different light and how her inner beauty shines through. Blood and sin seem to be the next theme, how her first menstruation signified her womanhood and Margret’s fear of women always sinning because of Eve.

I couldn’t think of a negative thing to say about this story however I did find that King uses a lot of pronouns and I personally found it hard to figure out who he was referring to. For example when Sue and Carrie telepathically talk King used ‘she’ so I didn’t know which character was speaking. I felt that there was too much use of it and it could have been avoided if he would have used their proper names.

I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of King’s work and who really wants a book about revenge, not in a chilly thriller type of way, but a simple but tragic way.

Rating 4/5
Publishers: Doubleday
Publication date: April 15th 1974
Genre: Horror/Paranormal