Carrie by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Carrie, Stephen King’s first published full-length novel was released in 1974 and at this point, I think it’s fair to say it’s a modern classic. This novel has been adapted to film four times, the most well-known being the original 1976-release starring Sissy Spacek as Carrie.
Incidentally, I did decide to listen to the audiobook for this reread, as I had only read the print copy before, and the audio was narrated by Spacek.
It was fantastic and I highly recommend that audio-version. Spacek clearly has an intimate connection with this story and with Carrie in particular. I felt like it made the audio experience extra special.
Assuming most people at least have a general idea of what this story is about, I will keep this short and simple. This story, through the incredible use of mixed media, tells the story of Carrie White, a bullied teen who lives in the small town of Chamberlain, Maine.
At the beginning, there’s an infamous scene taking place in the girls locker room at school, wherein Carrie experiences her first menstruation. Raised by a single-mother, religious fanatic, who believes only women who sin grow breasts, Carrie has no idea what a period is.
She’s frightened at the sight of the blood and panics. Her peers, who have already been bullying her mercilessly for years, are brutal in their reaction to the event, pelting her with feminine products and screaming at her.
It’s awful. The girls are awful. Carrie gets sent home for the day and the young women involved in torturing her are given a light slap on the wrist.
It’s at that time, under distress, that the first public signs of Carrie’s powers appear. At least since that rock incident when she was a child…
The plot progresses from there, advancing Carrie’s story from that point forward, as well as filling in some of her backstory, including her gut-wrenching, abusive relationship with her mother.
When one of the girls involved, Sue Snell, starts to feel remorse for the locker room incident, she concocts a slightly hair-brained and uber-naive plot wherein her popular, jock boyfriend, Tommy Ross, will take Carrie to the Spring dance instead of her.
Tommy isn’t crazy about the idea. Not because he has anything against Carrie, he’s not that kind of guy, but because he doesn’t feel like Sue’s tepid attempt at ridding herself of guilt will make any real difference in Carrie’s life.
Nevertheless, he loves Sue and is willing to do anything she asks. If only he hadn’t…
I had such a blast listening to this. I haven’t read this story in over 20-years and it was so great to revisit one of King’s earliest hits. Imagine reading and reviewing this in 1974, like ‘this Stephen King guy is an author to watch.’
I was struck immediately by the creative use of mixed media. I have read from other authors who have mentioned how this novel influenced them with that format and I can see why. It is so incredibly well done here. IMO, definitely still one of the best displays of that format published to date.
I think it is important to keep in mind how unique that would have been at the time of publication.
There have been numerous novels in the past few years that have embraced that narrative style, particularly if you think of all the ones including podcasting elements. It seems now an obvious choice as a way to tell a story, but it’s really not traditionally.
I’ll be honest, it did make me sad reading this though. I was reminded why I have never reread it until now. There are certain King’s, mainly this and Cujo, that are so good, yet so painful to read, because of how much empathy I feel for the characters involved, that I sort of avoid them.
As a Horror story, one could categorize Carrie as the ‘evil’, but you feel for her and I would assume that 99.9% of Readers will be on her side.
To me, it’s a bit like Frankenstein, another book I could only read once because I felt so damn bad for Frankenstein’s monster, and in a way, Carrie is the Frankenstein’s monster of modern times.
Carrie was created by the abuse of her mother and the constant harassment and ridicule of her peers. Sure, there’s an argument in the book that her powers are genetic and I get that, but having telekinetic powers doesn’t necessarily equate to killing hundreds of your peers and burning down your entire town.
I feel like there could have been other options for Carrie if she hadn’t been treated like complete trash her entire life.
I loved how this wrapped up too, how the speed that the mixed media jumped around in the aftermath of prom night increased the intensity of the conclusion. I just thought it was so well done and then that final little snippet, PERFECTION.
I’m so happy that I took the time to reread this one. Even though Carrie’s story is a painful one, it’s also powerful and absolutely one that will stick in your mind once your done.