Book Review #23 – Carrie, by Stephen King

Hello readers!

I’ve came back to the classics for a bit and read Carrie, by Stephen King. Here’s my review for it!

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I’m pretty sure that I read two books by Stephen King already but while making this review, I figured that I might be wrong. I only remember reading The Shinning. I don’t quite remember much of it, other that I really liked it. But I had Misery and Carrie, here at home, siting and waiting for me to read them. I couldn’t wait more. I picked at random and Carrie was the chosen one!

Stephen King has a bazillion of published books and it’s honestly very hard to catch up. He’s one of the most successful writers of our time. Besides that, most of his works have been adapted to movies or tv series. Some, several times even. I love the adaptation of The Shinning (it’s my favourite movie ever) but the author actually hates it! To be fair, he hates most of the resulting adaptations of his work.

This story focus on Carrie White and the horrendous events of what is later known as the Night Of The Prom. Carrie is a very bullied teenager. Her mother is overly religious and basically controls her daughter’s life. That doesn’t really make Carrie’s life easier: her appearance, personality and relationships aren’t the best. Besides, she has experienced and noticed some telekinetic powers. It’s almost told in an epistolary format, with several articles for newspaper, books and reports combined with narration from many of the characters. 

In the tradition of Stephen King, this is a horror book. It’s super intense and suspenseful. All the material delivered by this particular format gives you a total insight of all views in the story. You know all the intentions of all the characters — there’s no such thing as secrets. It was very interesting to see everyone’s thoughts on the crazy things that happen throughout the book. Also, the portrait of the american high school life seems very well done, based on what I know from that traumatising and horrible experience. All the jocks, mean girls and horrible bulling.

Carrie, of course, had tons of depth but all the other characters with some relevance in the plot are very well structured and entertaining. I also love the whole religious stuff, the obsession with God and sins. I find that craziness very interesting. I don’t understand how one can believe in something so blindly, not even trying to question what their “God” tells them. King very well portrayed that. 

I’ve always appreciated King’s way of writing. I remember, vividly, almost getting crazy myself while reading The Shinning. It was exactly the same with this one. He has a wonderful way to convey incredibly strong feelings to his readers. That’s what I like in his books. They’re such emotional rides, with thrills and excitement all around.

This book, particularly, was incredible. The only down thing I have to point out is that everything takes a lot of time to happen. The plot itself is actually pretty small but it’s extended to its limit constantly. Since there’s a whole of different characters points of view the pace is slow and there’s lot of repetitive descriptions.

Either way, I really enjoyed Carrie. I absolutely love horror books and this one is a gem. I highly recommend reading it if you’re interested in the genre. If you already check out this title, please let me now what you thought! I would love to hear that.

Here’s my favourite quote:

Sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. It’s what you say when you spill a cup of coffee or throw a gutter ball when you’re bowling with the girls in the league. True sorrow is as rare as true love.

Thank you for reading guys!

Cat.