“Carrie” Book Review

Stephen King is pretty much the Steven Spielberg of the literary landscape. Arguably, there’s never been any other writer who’s been as successful as he is. His constant output of work, which has culminated in more than sixty published books during his career, is filled with many, many classics. The Shining, The Stand, Misery, Under the Dome, the list goes on. His books have sold over 400 million copies, which is even more impressive considering that he’s worked predominantly in the horror genre, a genre often ridiculed. And yet, things weren’t always like that.

            Before becoming a published author, King had a pretty rough lifestyle. When he graduated college, he got a job as a teacher. However, in order to sustain his wife and children, he got a second job at a laundry. Despite his two jobs and the fact that his wife was also a college graduate, he was pretty much penniless. Until one day, he published his very first book, Carrie. 

           Carrie is the cornerstone of the Stephen King legend. The book was a bestseller and was shortly adapted into a feature film. Seeing great potential in the literary business, King went on to write other books, like ‘Salem’s Lot and The Shining, which also became bestsellers. However, after all these years, does Carrie still hold up?

            To begin, Carrie is about a teenage girl who leads a miserable, depressing life. All her classmates constantly bully her at school; she doesn’t have a single friend in the world. Things aren’t any better at home. Her mother is a religious fanatic who sees evil in pretty much everything. She regularly looks her daughter in the closet to punish her for even thinking about boys or a social lifestyle. One day, Carrie has her first period, an event that causes enough stress to become fully aware of a terrifying fact: she’s telekinetic.

            First off, considering that Carrie is a horror novel, it needs to be said that, well, it’s just not that scary. Sure, maybe back in the 70’s when it was first published it was scary, but someone reading it today will be surprised to see that there aren’t many horror set pieces in the novel. However, it is disturbing, perhaps even creepy. This is a depressing, depressing story. Carrie is pretty much the most miserable teenage girl one could possibly think of. And while things seem a little brighter when nearing the end, there really is no happy ending. There are only three characters throughout the novel who show any care and love towards her, but any small act of compassion they exhibit comes biting them back.

            The novel’s greatest strength is, perhaps, its structure. The novel is told through a third-person perspective, but intercutting all the real-time scenes are little excerpts from books, newspapers, and eyewitness accounts detailing the life of Carrie White and the horrible events that happen at the book’s climax. It’s a really creative way to tell this otherwise simple story. It really gives what’s pretty much a high school drama/horror novel a much grander scope. Some of the accounts are downright creepy and the book and newspaper excerpts make an otherwise otherworldly story of telekinesis a little more palpable.

            However, there were a few times where these second-hand excerpts weren’t used to their full advantage. The first example is how King decides to reveal Carrie’s telekinetic powers. In the very first page of the book, during one of the real-time scenes, King tells us that Carrie is telekinetic. No questions asked. During the following couple of pages, we’re shown, during the real-time scenes, strange things happening around Carrie, as well as book excerpts that detail some of the intricacies of telekinesis. It would have been a much more clever way to reveal to us Carrie’s powers through intuition by using these scenes and book excerpts. But no, King instead flat out told us she’s telekinetic in the very beginning of the book. Show, don’t tell.

            The second example would be the climax of the book. Initially, we’re told about the horrible events that befell Carrie White through eyewitness accounts. That is just brilliant. It makes it all the more creepy for us to imagine the events that happened through the eyes of terrified, confused individuals. However, King later on narrates some of these same exact occurrences by writing real-time scenes written in third-person perspective, showing us Carrie’s point of view. First of all, we already pictured these scenes in our heads through the eyewitness accounts, and second of all, it’s just much more effective when we picture these images through the victims’ point of view. These scenes are just ineffective and completely pointless.

            In conclusion, despite some faults, Carrie is still a very solid novel. It still feels unique, and that’s a huge achievement considering that this was King’s first book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars