Name: Carrie
ISBN: 9781416524304

Stephen King

An introverted girl with remarkable powers of telekinesis faces the horrors of teenage life and unleashes a few horrors of her own when she attends the high school prom

Carrie

Fiona Staczek

fira

She did not know if her gift had come from the lord of light or of darkness, and now, finally finding that she did not care which, she was overcome with an almost indescribable relief, as if a huge weight, long carried, had slipped from her shoulders.

Alesha Clifford

Macbeth hath murdered sleep and Carrie hath murdered time

First book of the master Stephen King and HOW GOOD it is, my god.. the story is told through so many different viewpoints, that makes it even better. To see Carrie through so many people’s eyes. One of King’s masterpiece for sure!

Denis Crepaldi

Belu

“Cristo mira desde el muro

 con su rostro impenetrable.

Y si me ama en su bondad

como ella me asegura,

¿por qué estoy tan sola?”

Carrie is an entertaining, fast-paced and tragic read. Relatively short, I enjoyed the often "out of order" storytelling format, with different ways of presenting the story, ranging from books on telekinesis to Carrie and her classmates' points of view. This is a well written story with intricate world building, but because I'd seen the movie adaptations, I feel like I spoiled it for myself. It was still enjoyable, but I also wouldn't classify it as a favorite, or even my favorite Stephen King novel. For a debut, it's spectacular, and I'm pleasantly surprised how well King captures the female high school experience. It's not often male writers can write convincing female characters this well, and I really found myself rooting for Carrie, even for Sue Snell.

Sometimes I can be leery of popular stories featuring Christianity (even such a warped and tainted view of it as presented in this book) but I feel the point in this novel is that Margaret White was misguided and wrong; the true religion is nothing like how she chose to live it. I appreciate that from King as well, and I hope others understand. 

Again, a good book but not one I feel I'll ever revisit, hence not giving it a full 5 stars. 

Amanda

Carrie is an entertaining, fast-paced and tragic read. Relatively short, I enjoyed the often "out of order" storytelling format, with different ways of presenting the story, ranging from books on telekinesis to Carrie and her classmates' points of view. This is a well written story with intricate world building, but because I'd seen the movie adaptations, I feel like I spoiled it for myself. It was still enjoyable, but I also wouldn't classify it as a favorite, or even my favorite Stephen King novel. For a debut, it's spectacular, and I'm pleasantly surprised how well King captures the female high school experience. It's not often male writers can write convincing female characters this well, and I really found myself rooting for Carrie, even for Sue Snell.

Sometimes I can be leery of popular stories featuring Christianity (even such a warped and tainted view of it as presented in this book) but I feel the point in this novel is that Margaret White was misguided and wrong; the true religion is nothing like how she chose to live it. I appreciate that from King as well, and I hope others understand. 

Again, a good book but not one I feel I'll ever revisit, hence not giving it a full 5 stars. 

After watching the 1976 film, my girlfriend gifted me the book. What can I say?sIt is a brilliant story, Carrie is a fantastic character and her life is so full of tragedy and sadness that it leaves no reader untouched. I'm not the biggest fan of the fragmentary style, but the passages from Carrie's perspective were simply captivating. The mood is dominated throughout by anger, sadness, hope and the finale could hardly be more tragic and powerful. The ending between Carrie and Susan left me really sorry, the pity for Carrie was great. She is simply an interesting character, you alternate between compassion and antipathy, her actions are disproportionate, but at the same time very understandable. It was just cool to read about such a strong and well-drawn woman, with all her flaws and strengths. The telekinesis was extremely thrilling and the relationship with her mother terribly tragic. I will definitely read this book again!

Emily

Cate

Mr. King kept me company on a 12 hour trip. Thank you, Lord King. 

Karla

I really wanted to give this a go for its 50th anniversary year, and after loving Pet Sematary, I knew I had to bump this one up. Believe it or not, I’ve been alive for 32 of those 50 years and managed to avoid pretty much all spoilers.

While reading this, which I didn’t know was any form of religious, I also happened to be listening to C.J. Leede’s American Rapture—which is an extreme examination on religion. Both of them start with a kind of deep dive into the bounds in which Catholicism is designed to hold down and punish women simply for existing. While Sophie’s family is simply force feeding her guilt on a biblical scale, Carrie’s mother seems to be well off the deep end. While Sophie is showcased to be so far removed that she truly doesn’t even know how the world itself functions, Carrie is so religiously uneducated in womanhood that she is unaware of menstruation, not even knowing herself. While AR showcases how religious families can be hurtful even within the Bible, Carrie’s mother using god like a hammer. Much more on the side of torture than praising.

I was surprised by how thoroughly this goes into the high school level of bullying. Because she is so sheltered, the other girls view her as weird, because she isn’t allowed to dress normal or use makeup, isn’t super skinny, they consider her ugly. The opening scene of the novel they throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her instead of helping her, solidifying just how other they view her. She is ostracized from her fellow classmates while she can’t even seek solace at home. Kind of similar to Neal Cassidy’s Schroeder that I just finished as well, that level of bullying could be seen as more than enough to push someone over the edge, and yet King’s novel adds an additional layer.

Right from the beginning, the reader understands that Carrie has telekinetic powers. She is not sure how exactly they work, or why she has them, nor are they very strong, but it’s something within her that she can explore. The novel mixes Carrie’s own discoveries with excerpts from scientific research and journals surrounding the phenomenon in a way that almost felt like King was creating his own superpower or mutant gene, even though that is not at all the direction of the novel. And Carrie is anything but a superhero.

And while there are definitely some issues where this is dated—primarily the descriptions of young girls, women in general, and some racial terms—I found it interesting that Chris’ boyfriend is displayed as the quintessential bad guy, his mistreatment of women being the main thing on display. It’s almost a commentary while missing his own mistakes?

And with that being said, Chris is the villain here. As a ringleader from the opening shower scene, she becomes wholeheartedly hellbent of ruining Carrie’s life…mostly because she got in trouble for doing a terrible thing? As the daughter of a lawyer, who is also displayed as an entitled idiot, it’s no surprise that Chris would blame someone else rather than doing some soul searching. This hellbent desire to get back at Carrie is the straw that breaks the camels back. The ending is fast, violent, and gruesome in a way I don’t think I’ve ever read before.

C. J. Daley 

I really wanted to give this a go for its 50th anniversary year, and after loving Pet Sematary, I knew I had to bump this one up. Believe it or not, I’ve been alive for 32 of those 50 years and managed to avoid pretty much all spoilers.

While reading this, which I didn’t know was any form of religious, I also happened to be listening to C.J. Leede’s American Rapture—which is an extreme examination on religion. Both of them start with a kind of deep dive into the bounds in which Catholicism is designed to hold down and punish women simply for existing. While Sophie’s family is simply force feeding her guilt on a biblical scale, Carrie’s mother seems to be well off the deep end. While Sophie is showcased to be so far removed that she truly doesn’t even know how the world itself functions, Carrie is so religiously uneducated in womanhood that she is unaware of menstruation, not even knowing herself. While AR showcases how religious families can be hurtful even within the Bible, Carrie’s mother using god like a hammer. Much more on the side of torture than praising.

I was surprised by how thoroughly this goes into the high school level of bullying. Because she is so sheltered, the other girls view her as weird, because she isn’t allowed to dress normal or use makeup, isn’t super skinny, they consider her ugly. The opening scene of the novel they throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her instead of helping her, solidifying just how other they view her. She is ostracized from her fellow classmates while she can’t even seek solace at home. Kind of similar to Neal Cassidy’s Schroeder that I just finished as well, that level of bullying could be seen as more than enough to push someone over the edge, and yet King’s novel adds an additional layer.

Right from the beginning, the reader understands that Carrie has telekinetic powers. She is not sure how exactly they work, or why she has them, nor are they very strong, but it’s something within her that she can explore. The novel mixes Carrie’s own discoveries with excerpts from scientific research and journals surrounding the phenomenon in a way that almost felt like King was creating his own superpower or mutant gene, even though that is not at all the direction of the novel. And Carrie is anything but a superhero.

And while there are definitely some issues where this is dated—primarily the descriptions of young girls, women in general, and some racial terms—I found it interesting that Chris’ boyfriend is displayed as the quintessential bad guy, his mistreatment of women being the main thing on display. It’s almost a commentary while missing his own mistakes?

And with that being said, Chris is the villain here. As a ringleader from the opening shower scene, she becomes wholeheartedly hellbent of ruining Carrie’s life…mostly because she got in trouble for doing a terrible thing? As the daughter of a lawyer, who is also displayed as an entitled idiot, it’s no surprise that Chris would blame someone else rather than doing some soul searching. This hellbent desire to get back at Carrie is the straw that breaks the camels back. The ending is fast, violent, and gruesome in a way I don’t think I’ve ever read before.

tbh i feel that way while on my period too :-/

༺ kat ༻

I support girls’ wrongs and in this case I support with a sense of pride girls’ right. My girl Carrie was absolutely right 

Aris 

Justin Staack

Matheus Villa

Esse foi meu primeiro contato com o King e foi uma experiencia relativamente mediana, o livro é bom, mas o formato dele não me agradou muito, essas paginas de jornais e entrevistas são legais e acrescenta muito a história, mas para mim como leitor achei meio “bléh”. Da cena do baile para frente fica muito frenético e eu amei demais. Enfim, eu tinha pretensão de ler o King por ordem de publicação, mas acho que vou pular Salem e ir para O Iluminado primeiro kkkkk.

this book is awesome, i could clearly imagine everything going on and the ending was very unexpected in a way.

kait

Do not waste your time with this book. If I could, I would give this book 0 stars. I found this book to be incredibly boring and I do not think this book is worth any time or energy. With this being King's first book, I really am not sure how he was allowed to write another one. There's so many things wrong with this book but what shocked me the most is the amount of racial slurs in this book and I believe one slur against LGBTQIA+ people. (TW: There is also 2 sexual assault scenes I believe). I am not sure why exactly these were included (some people say to show what language is used at the time) but they are 110% not necessary. On top of very problematic themes and writing, I just thought the book was slow paced and the writing was bland. I was pretty much just waiting for the book to be over. I am hoping that King has gotten better over the years and has stopped being problematic but I am not optimistic. Please just do not read this book, save yourself the pain.

Derek Graf

Why describe every female character’s boobs?

Shari Ilg

A wonderful read. This book is one of my biggest comforts in life. 

Carrie-Ivy-Viper

maria anna

i will never read another book written by a man

Really love the story and the idea not sure I am a massive fan of Stephen kings writing style will read more of his books though.

Rhys Connor

Really love the story and the idea not sure I am a massive fan of Stephen kings writing style will read more of his books though.

For me:

Story 5/5

Writing 3/5

I wish Stephen King would stop talking about underage girls' boobs

Megan Christensen

Grace M

I can’t believe I waited so long to read this book. Carrie is one of my all time favorite movies and the source material did not disappoint. I went in with lowered expectations, considering this is King’s debut novel, and was pleasantly surprised at how familiar he is with his distinctive writing style so early in his published works. I earnestly wish this book was 100 pages longer.

Great beginner book. This was my first book I've ever read " for fun " and it was fun to read and towards the end I kept saying one more page one more page. King is an icon for a reason 

Alexander Luevano

Short, fresh story with sad moments, especially the ending was unexpectedly emotional

Sometimes a bit too pervert/ many unnecessary moments/ language

Viktor 

My first thriller

Short, fresh story with sad moments, especially the ending was unexpectedly emotional

Overall great humor

Catching except for a few parts

Sometimes a bit too pervert/ many unnecessary moments/ language

Briar's Reviews

I have always wanted to pick up Carrie and I finally was able to find a copy of it. 

Since I saw many film adaptions of this book first, it was kind of weird reading the different viewpoints of the novel - but it worked. I enjoyed reading the different perspectives within the novel, it gave a special insight into the minds of everyone else, something many books lack.

I definitely didn't find it scary. It made me feel horrible for the treatment of the girl, and it made me understand why she was so evil, but I wasn't scared. The films left me a lot more horrified then the book did (and books have left me scared before. The first Temperance Brennan book did just that). 

It was well written - the writing style was strange at times, but it's easy to follow.

I was definitely amazed at the idea behind this book. How did Stephen King think this up? That thought went through my mind numerous times while reading. It's a wonderful idea and he did it justice.

Overall, it was a good story and I want to read more by Stephen King. He's quite the genius!

Four out of five stars.

Dimitris Papastergiou

I liked it. Not that much, but it was ok half the time and fun the other half. Here's the thing, growing up reading comics and having read LOTS of them, basically reading Carrie couldn't help but think that I'm reading about Jean Grey when she was young but the adult version. 

Oh well, lots of things Carrie did, were like powers to me, instead of a weird thing that "a witch would do", King sure tried to make it adult and serious as much as it can get, but.. it didn't do it for me.

I liked mostly the beginning and the end, which was great. I'm definitely going to watch the movies now that I read the book and hope I like those better, if not the same.

Carrie

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