With a few Stephen King novels under my belt, I wanted to go back to where it all began (Carrie being King’s first published novel under his own name). I’ve never seen the movie adaptations — though I new the general premise going in: Carrie is a teenage girl with telekinetic abilities and a prom scene that involves blood and revenge.
What surprised me most was how the story is told. It’s not a straight narrative but a mix of perspectives, interviews, “research” excerpts, and foreshadowing — almost like Michael Crichton’s style in novels. That structure kept the tension high and made the book hard to put down. At around 300 pages, this is a shorter King novel, and he never really lets off the gas.
We get to know two character’s really well: Carrie herself and her mother. Carrie’s mother is a religious fanatic who sees women as sinful by nature — especially her daughter. Carrie lives in fear until she begins honing her telekinetic powers and realizes she doesn’t need to be afraid anymore.
Susan Snell also gets a good amount of page time, and while we see into her thoughts, I never fully got a feel for her. She seems to regret how Carrie was treated — especially her own role in it — but I couldn’t tell whether it was deep remorse or just a nagging guilt. Still, I appreciated that someone in this town at least tried to make amends.
Other characters — Chris, Billy, and Tommy — felt pretty one-dimensional. Chris clearly hates Carrie, but we never really learn why. Bill is just a violent, misogynistic jerk. And Tommy is a bit of a mystery: he does what his girlfriend asks, takes Carrie to prom, maybe even starts to like her… but there’s not much more to him than that. This lack of depth is really what brought my rating down. We spend a lot of time with several characters who remain flat.
That said, Carrie hits hard when it comes to theme. At its core, this is a novel about bullying. Carrie is relentlessly mocked, shamed, and abused — at school and at home. I was bullied a bit myself in junior high, though not nearly to the level Carrie endured, and by high school I was actually friends (or at least friendly) with some of those same kids. Carrie never got that chance. By the end, I couldn’t help but root for her, even as she burned the town down. The people of Chamberlain, Maine, got what was coming to them.
All in all, Carrie is a fast, furious read that hasn’t lost its power. It’s not without flaws, especially in characterization, but as a debut, it’s incredibly effective — and sadly, still very relevant. I ended up giving this one 4 out of 5 stars.
