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Carrie
by Stephen King
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Signet (1975-04-01)
ISBN: 0451131134
EAN: 9780451131133
Binding/Media: Mass Market Paperback - 245 pages
Edition: First Edition
SKU: 419
Condition: Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Good. Slight wear along spine.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
An unpopular teenage girl whose mother is a religious fanatic is tormented and teased to the breaking point by her more popular schoolmates and uses her hidden telekinetic powers to inflict a terrifying revenge. Reissue.
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Amazon.com Review
Why read Carrie? Stephen King himself has said that he finds his early work "raw," and Brian De Palma's movie was so successful that we feel like we have read the novel even if we never have. The simple answer is that this is a very scary story, one that works as well--if not better--on the page as on the screen. Carrie White, menaced by bullies at school and her religious nut of a mother at home, gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers, powers that will eventually be turned on her tormentors. King has a way of getting under the skin of his readers by creating an utterly believable world that throbs with menace before finally exploding. He builds the tension in this early work by piecing together extracts from newspaper reports, journals, and scientific papers, as well as more traditional first- and third-person narrative in order to reveal what lurks beneath the surface of Chamberlain, Maine. News item from the Westover (ME) weekly Enterprise, August 19, 1966: "Rain of Stones Reported: It was reliably reported by several persons that a rain of stones fell from a clear blue sky on Carlin Street in the town of Chamberlain on August 17th." Although the supernatural pyrotechnics are handled with King's customary aplomb, it is the carefully drawn portrait of the little horrors of small towns, high schools, and adolescent sexuality that give this novel its power, and assures its place in the King canon. --Simon Leake
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Customer Reviews
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Carrie by Stephen King
Rating  (5)
Date: 2010-07-16
"I absolutely loved this book, as well as the movie." Carrie the main character was a very shy, and unusual girl in this story, with unusual powers which she learns to control more and more, after doing some research on her own from books she checked out from her local library. A religious fanatic of a mother is mostly to blame for Carrie's troubles, along with class mates who love nothing more then to poke fun at Carrie for being differant. But when one of her school mates asks her boy friend as favor to invite Carrie to the school prom, here's where the trouble begins. And where Carrie is given the motivation to demonstrate her powers to her fellow classmates and faculty." This book will keep you up at night, as it is one of those that once you pick it up, you cannot lay it down till you've finished it!" Prom night will never be the same, after reading this one! "Stephen has done it again!" I give it five stars. Garry E. Lewis Author of "The Curse of the Devil's Wolf Strap," and "The Rileyville Mystery."
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Great Start By King!
Rating  (3)
Date: 2010-07-14
I saw Carrie (1976) several years ago, and remember hiding behind my couch for a good part of the movie. The same thing happened with the 2002 made-for-tv movie about a year after that. Why, then, did I decide to read the original source material for my year of nightmares, you ask? I wanted to start reading Stephen King, and decided the beginning was the best place to start.
To be honest, I started this book last October but only got around to finishing it now, lol. Anyway, the book, for the most part, was pretty slow. There was definitely a feel of anticipation to the flow, and you could always tell something was about to happen, but it didn't. Not until the end, or close to it, at least.
I like the way King told the story: through letters, newspaper and magazine articles, books, and interviews. And then of course, the actual narrative structure, told mainly in Carrie's point of view, but also the other character's. It shifted back and forth between the two story structures very nicely and swiftly.
My favorite character would probably be Sue Snell. She appeared to be just another one of the bitchy girls, much like Chris, but turned around to be a completely different character... she was actually dynamic, and had a different side she learned to show. A side filled with love, care, and honesty. Chris was a total bitca, as was her boyfriend, whose name escapes me (lol and I like JUST finished :P). They were definitely the villains of the book, alongside Margaret White, who I will get to later.
The story was more of an depressing one than a scary one. Sure, there were creepy and eerie parts, but overall, the novel felt like an emotional metaphorical journey of a girl on the verge of adolescence, and who didn't know how to deal with it .The supernatural element was added by King, I assume, to fictionalize the story more and make it seem like something that it wasn't.
The only character I found to be actually frightening was Margaret White, Carrie's mother. She tried to kill her daughter! No sane person does that. She's overtly religious and thought Carrie was the spawn of Satan. Um, okay. For one, you're the one that conceived her! Do not ridicule and abuse your daughter just because you can find no other way of escape. Bitch. Rot in hell.
So, the ending was also pretty creepy, but in the naive way... like, the letter the woman wrote to her sister was so full of innocence, that it was just sad and creepy knowing what might come and happen.
So, in the end, this novel was a great introduction into the mind of Stephen King, and I recommend it to everyone.
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Eh...
Rating (3)
Date: 2010-06-17
I caught the last half of the 1976 film adaption of "Carrie" on TV a few years ago. The red prom scene made a lasting impression on me, and I decided to revisit it by reading the book last night. The general plot was as captivating as ever, but its presentation greatly detracted my enjoyment. The frequent interruptions of newspaper article, interview, book, and letter excerpts, all dated after the events of the story, pretty much gave away the entire ending. This was really irritating for me because I was trying my hardest to pretend I didn't know what was coming. The format stilted the flow of the book, especially during the climax, so much that by the ending I was skimming over the excerpts even though at that point they carried much of the plot.
I found myself slowly disengaging from the story also because of disbelief. The excerpts seemed to explain too much background and reason behind the events of the story. I don't know the 1970s that well, but I think modern society generally rejects the idea of telekinesis and other paranormal activity. If I were to guess the aftermath, I would say the majority of the world would chalk it up to a freak accident and only a few would believe/know the truth, and fewer would have the guts to publish their beliefs. I found myself scoffing at the articles that explained telekinesis as a recessive trait only dominant in females - that seems like a little too much scientific support. And by the time people started hearing Carrie's thoughts..eh..I wasn't into the story anymore.
The characters often seemed way more mature and understood more than was realistic. Even the prom scene didn't make complete sense - why would Carrie use her powers as an afterthought? I thought the premise was that her power exploded out of her control when she was in emotional agony...the movie did Carrie more justice in the end. I'm probably biased because I saw the movie first, but even then, beyond the plot, I wasn't very impressed with the book.
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Disappointment
Rating  (2)
Date: 2010-06-09
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
As one of Stephen King's new readers, I've had a pretty good run. I've read two Stephen King books that I loved and one that I liked. This is the first bump in the road on my path to reading more Stephen King. I didn't love Carrie and am sad to say that I wasn't really impressed with this book.
The first thing that I disliked were all of the interviews and newspaper excerpts that were frequently used. Things like that are usually used in a more subtle way. Not only does he give away the entire plot by doing that, but in every single instance it took me out of a story that I was not completely into in the first place. I fail to see the effect that this had. I understand that he used it to sort of tell the story, but wouldn't it have been more effective to simply let it unfold naturally instead of reading it all second-hand? Anyway, that right there sort of bugged me.
I guess the biggest reason that I didn't really like Carrie was because I just didn't care about a lot of the characters. I felt there wasn't enough background on them. Sure, I sort of sympathized with Carrie (it's kind of hard not to), but at the end of the novel I was like "Hmmm, it's over". I felt no turmoil for the events that unfolded. Usually, I find thoughts creeping in days after reading Stephen King's works and I'm still thinking about the characters. With Carrie, I doubt I will.
So, while Carrie was a quick read, I was majorly disappointed in it. There were some good parts (the end was gripping), but you can really tell that this was Stephen King's first novel. It hasn't put me off reading any of his other works (mostly because, besides this, what I have read is great), but I wouldn't recommend it for any first-time King readers who just want to get a taste of his books before truly committing. I'd say to pick something else.
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About a period, pigs blood and a prom
Rating (3)
Date: 2010-05-23
As a big fan of Stephen King's earlier work, I found Carrie a bit disappointing (before reading on, note the existence of plot spoilers). The strange, 16-year-old late bloomer's initial surprise at the sight of blood, having started her period (for the first time ever and completely uninformed about the process of menstruation), while standing naked in a communal shower with her classmates, turns from fear to humiliation as her bullying peers pelt her with tampons and sanitary napkins, which they all somehow happen to have conveniently at hand (the logistics behind such a happening seem unlikely). Guilt-ridden, a popular girl gains a conscience and, trying to redeem herself for participating in the pelting (with tampons) incident, tries to redeem herself by conning her handsome boyfriend into taking the telekinetic girl to the prom. Expectedly wary, Carrie agrees, though must first foil her religious-zealot mother's attempts to prevent her from attending. A trip to a farm by a bad guy and his unsuspecting accomplices yields a bucket of pig's blood. If you don't know what happens next, you have not been paying attention. After a surprise (rigged) crowning of Carrie and her date as prom king and queen, blood begins to spill, literally and figuratively. Carrie gets revenge on a colossal scale against those that chose to do her wrong, and others that didn't. The story's format, told through various sources, including interviews, book excerpts, and incident reports is merely a distraction to an already unlikely story. Of the dozen or so SK books I've read, this may be my least favorite. Better: The Dead Zone by Stephen King, Firestarter by Stephen King, Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber, The 3 Faces Of Eve by Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley, and Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen.
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