Carrie

Read in October 2023

Published in 1974, Stephen King’s first published novel takes us into the life of Carrie White, a less-than-popular high school student who possesses the power of telekinesis. As Carrie goes through puberty, her power seems to intensify, and she begins to learn how to harness and control/direct it.

Carrie has had a pretty rough go of things. Living with her over-protective and obsessively Christian single mother, having no friends at school, and living such a sheltered life as to not knowing what is happening when her period starts, Carrie is an easy target for ridicule, particularly by mean girl Chris, but when Tommy invites her to prom (at his girlfriend Sue’s request), and is actually kind to her, a glimmer of hope appears. Hope which is quickly diminished when prom night rolls around…

This was my first time reading this novel, and I very much enjoyed it. It’s told in an interesting way through a number of narrators, newspaper articles, interview notes and medical reports. While in some books this can be jarring, it worked really well in Carrie and kept the reader engaged rather than confused.

Like most of King’s books, Carrie has been adapted into a number of films and is a big part of pop culture and so, even though I knew the general plot before reading this, although I’ve never seen one of the films (so just picked up the general vibe through pop culture), it didn’t diminish the reading experience.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Carrie by Stephen King


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