Carrie

Though lacking some of the style and poise of later King works, Carrie is nonetheless a chilling tale from The Master. Despite being an unlikeable personality, we feel sympathy towards the protagonist, Carrie, so at the end we aren't sure whether to condemn her actions or root for her. This is strange because King recently admitted that he never liked her, and felt that she deserved the abuse she got. Seemingly, he based Carrie White on two people that he taught before he took up writing full time.
As Stephen King's first published novel, released in 1974, no one could have predicted that Carrie would be the beginning of what would become the biggest publishing phenomenon in history. But it is surprising how well this tale of a young girl with telekinetic powers holds up after twenty-one years. Perhaps it is because the novel is still intense, still vivid, and still an apt commentary on modern life. Even after years of slasher films, mass murderers, and nuclear threat, Carrie still has bite. It is the classic Cinderella tale, with a twist. A twist so violent that the final one third of the novel burns with total wreckage, loss, and repercussions.
Carrie sets the stage for much of what Stephen King experimented with in later novels, but it is also a remarkably solid novel in its own right. Well written and chillingly realistic (even in the face of the supernatural), this novel will resonate for many more years to come

I picked this book up because everyone was raving about it and this is supposedly the best Stephen King book to start with if you haven't read his work before. (I know, I know.) I even managed to avoid seeing the movies and hearing anything about them so I only knew the most basic of things. I'm so happy I went into this book blind because it's a gem.

Margaret, Carrie's mom, was disturbing. Margaret was a controlling and abusive religious nut. I could picture her so clearly harassing Carrie and spitting bible verses at her. I probably should have been disturbed by Carrie but I couldn't be after reading about everything she endured from her mother and all of her peers. It's scary to think that everything that happened could have been prevented had she been born into a different family, even if she still had the TK gene. This book takes the popular debate of nature vs. nurture and blows it to smithereens. When someone is the product of a monster and therefore treated like a joke, how do people expect her to act?

I really liked the format of this book. Having official and academic articles as well as a first hand account outside the White family dispersed throughout the book created a nice contrast. Because some of these other accounts were throughout the book, a lot of the events that happened were known prior to them happening. This made the book very character focused and man are Stephen King's characters brilliant. I can't wait to read more of his books.

Stephen King's first book, Carrie, is the story of Carrie White, a nerdy girl who has the power to move things with her mind. Living with her repressed mother, a religious fanatic who is almost comically over-the-top in her fear of sexuality (a theme that King would later treat with a more subtle hand in most of his later books). In the book's justifiably famous opening, 16 year-old Carrie starts her first menstural cycle while in the shower after gym class. The other girls in her class have a rather cruel, if all-too believable, reaction to Carrie's fright and this sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Carrie being invited to prom by the most popular (and apparently the only genuinely nice) boy in school, yet another terribly cruel practical joke being played on Carrie, and finally Carrie White's revenge. King's narrative alternates between telling Carrie's story and presenting "evidence" in the forms of excerpts from a survivor's memoir, articles in Esquire and Reader's Digest, a nicely off-center psychology textbook, and the reports of the government commission set up to cover up the implications of Carrie's final rampage. It all comes together in an effective but rather jagged mosiac that confirms that King had talent from the beginning but still makes for an uneven read. Indeed, King's trademark ability to create a cast of credible characters isn't extremely evident here with the key exception of the title character. Carrie White is, for all intents and purposes, a nerd and the pain that she feels and her conflicting responses of self-loathing with self-righteous, almost arrogant fury at how she is treated will be almost painfully familiar for anyone else who spent high school in that outcast social group (it certainly brought back a lot of not-quite cherished memories for myself). Its almost saddening to discover that King himself disliked Carrie and held her responsible for her misfortunes because his recreation of her pain is so spot on perfect that one finds it hard to wonder how her creator couldn't have felt badly for her. No, she isn't always sympathetic and her final, destructive vengeance is carried out with intentionally murderous intent but its hard not to understand how her hatred was generated at the hands of the often thoughtless cruelty of teenage culture. I don't know how someone who was popular in high school might react to the book but as a former high school nerd, I can say this brought back a lot of uncherished memories and Carrie's plight kept me enthralled despite the many times when the book felt rather uneven.
Though it might not matter much in the overall scheme of things, King also does a good job of making credible Tommy Ross, the jock wiseman who agrees to be seen at his school's prom with the school's most unpopular student, an action that sets forward the book's apocalyptic conclusion. Ross's noble choice in asking Carrie to the dance is not an entirely credible action and King, at times, is obviously trying to convince himself as much as the reader that this could actually realistically happen. However, in his few scenes, Tommy Ross is drawn as a sympathetic, believable character and is presented with such skill that one comes as close as possible to actually buying into the credibility of his actions. Though a relatively minor character, Tommy Ross is an early prototype for the plain-spoken, intelligent but unpretentious, defiantly blue collar characters who would make up the majority of King's future protaganists.
Back before he became THE Stephen King, Stephen King was a generally down-on-his-luck teacher living in obscurity in Maine and making a few extra bucks selling a few well-written horror stories to racy magazines (some of which, King has often recalled, ended up going out of business before getting around to publishing his fiction). Though it wasn't the first book he completed. It is a novel of a writer still searching for his voice and who is writing in a genre that he is not totally comfortable embracing. Indeed, while the novel can be labelled a work of horror, it still contains signs of the insecurities and pretensions of the not-yet succesful King with Carrie's story, at times, being forced rather roughly into a metaphor for the whole decline of society in general. However, this is all probably meaningless nitpicking because in the end, the only that matters is that Carrie -- whatever its flaws -- is still a gripping read that grabs the reader's attention for page one and shows signs of the talent that would later make Stephen King a brand name.

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.

I can't hold up CARRIE as an extremely deep or enlightening novel, but it was one that I had a lot of trouble putting down at the end of the day. It takes a fairly simple premise and milks it for all that it's worth. It's not particularly frightening or scary, just a simple, tense story told very, very well.
The characterization is really nothing to write home about here. The people have their places and their actions to perform, but don't really exist in all three dimensions. I didn't find this to be a problem though, as I wasn't expecting anything particularly outstanding in this department. However, one character's shallowness did begin to annoy me after a while. The eponymous Carrie has a mother, of course, and to describe this woman as a clichéd and one-dimensional stereotype would be to pay a compliment to the characterization. I'm not particularly offended by the single portrayal of an over the top, religious, fanatical fundamentalist, but the sheer superficiality began to seriously annoy me. Now, obviously, the book is set up in a way that the reader isn't supposed to empathize with this insane woman, yet I felt as if I was being hit over the head with this crude caricature. Having a character that the audience can boo and hiss at is one thing, but to draw a person whose very presence in the story made me want to hurl the book the length of the room is another thing entirely. If she had just been a little toned down, I doubt she would have been nearly so aggravating.
The story-line is quite simple and probably known to many more people than have actually read the book (or seen the film). But this doesn't work against the book. Indeed, the story constantly undermines climactic moments, by telling us the events far in advance of their appearance in the narrative. Nearly every shocking event that occurs in the book has already been mentioned in the little asides that are scattered throughout. This is a very effective way of heightening the tension. Learning a lesson from Hitchcock, Stephen King knows that it's the suspense rather than the actual blood that keeps an audience hooked. We know precisely what's coming, but it's the journey itself that is of supreme importance. With every hint the book drops, the tension is racked up a notch. By the time I reached the conclusion, that I had already anticipated, I was completely spellbound.
CARRIE is a simple story of childhood bullying, nonconformity and revenge, with a healthy sprinkling of horror thrown in. The characters don't need to be terribly deep, because anyone who ever interacted with children know these people already and can fill in the gaps. It feels slightly uneven and sloppy in places, but that certainly isn't enough to derail the whole book. This was the first Stephen King book that I'd ever read, and based on my enjoyment of this one, it certainly won't be the last.

Carrie is of course entertaining, what King novel isn't?, but it does have it's problems. Carrie is about an outcast in a small rural town named Carrie White. Carrie has a fanatically religious mother and is picked on relentlessly by the other girls in her high school. When the girls finally push Carrie over the edge in a horrifying scene in the girls shower, she realizes she has telekenisis, and she intends to use it.
Overall Carrie was an entertaining novel. What I didn't like is the completly unbelievable portrayal of Carries mother. She doesn't even say anything that isn't fire and brimestone or she doesn't do anything but pray and kick Carrie into the closet. Most of King's psychopaths are fairly believable, like Jack Mort in Drawing of the Three and Jack Torrance in The Shining, but he misses the mark this time. I also thought the villians like Chris and Billy were very one dimensional. They are not complex and they are totally unsympathetic.
I won't grade down to much for these problems because this is his first novel and it's a damn good first novel. I liked how he used newspaper articles and excerpts from books to fill in the background of characters. Overall if your a King fan you'll like this, but if your wanting to get into King, read The Shining or Salem's Lot, you'll like those better.

I finally got to read this book, and I'm very glad I did.
The main strength of 'Carrie' is definitely its story, which is simple, chilling and painful. The plot aches with tension as it unfolds, helped by the articles and books interspersed with the dialogue which foreshadow the violent conclusion. This conclusion is inevitable - things had to play out as they did because of the characters of the people involved - and this is one of the most tragic things about the story.
However, this book isn't perfect. I can well believe it was King's first novel because although it's a good read, it is in some ways rather amateur. My main complaint is that I would have appreciated more information about the 'villains' of the piece, that is, Margaret White and Chris Hargensen. Both of them are truly horrible characters, yet there's little or no explanation of why they are like this. Margaret seems to have been a fundamentalist from an early age, but we aren't told why, and considering that her religious beliefs go a long way towards making Carrie what she is, more information would not have been out of place. Chris has even less information, and consequently comes across as pretty two-dimensional.
The other main problem was that of Sue Snell. King seems to have been unsure whether she was as important a character as Carrie - although she contributes to the story by asking Tommy to take Carrie to the prom, etc, her own plotline seems a little superfluous. Her pregnancy fears are unexplored and difficult to empathise with simply because of this. I would have liked a little more interaction between her and Carrie simply because this would make Carrie's death scene with her less - unexpected. Sue just doesn't seem to interact with Carrie enough for the story to demand that she be present at Carrie's death.
However, I still recommend this book. If nothing else, it's a good read, and it does make you think about high-school politics and bullying and if you have picked on someone like Carrie you'd feel pretty guilty. It's a very dramatic story - the writing is vivid and you can see the scenes play out in your mind - and it lingers in your mind after you've read it. Partly this is due to the fact that you are both very sorry for Carrie and horrified at what she's done - it's very hard to make a decision about her. Also the realistic academic books, newspaper articles and courtroom transcriptions add a nice touch because they root the story firmly in the real world (I feel this is especially valuable when talking about telekinesis, as this has often been written about and is very much identified with ghosts and unreal situations.)
Read this book. You'll be left wishing King had said more about various things, but read it anyway...

Stephen King's 1974 novel "Carrie" was the fourth book King wrote, but the first he had published.

He based the book on two girls he went to school with who were shy and introverted and in the novel he brought both girls together and formed Carrie who possesses telekinetic powers who seeks revenge on her clasmates who have tormented her for years. In the book Carrie is also being raised by a Bible-thumping nut of a mother who only makes life for Carrie even more hellish.

This was the first book of King's to be made into a motion picture and it starred Sissy Spacek in the title role and garnered her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress, something rare for a horror movie. That film spawned many sequels and remakes with the latest to come out in 2013 and starring Julianne Moore as the mother.

I tried to read King's first novel years ago and just couldn't for some reason. I have no idea why. After reading The Shining, however, I thought I'd give it a try again and am very glad I did. The Shining was very good but I was a bit disappointed that some of the key scenes from the original movie wasn't in it. (that's Hollywood for you.) Not so with Carrie. That movie gave me the creeps as a kid and so did the book at 25! It's a fast read (200 pages) and jam packed full of action and suspense. The best part of this book by far is the character development. I felt so....bad is the only word I can think of....for Carrie in the end. The book really makes you understand and feel sorry for what she has had to endure throughout her short life. I'm not a very emotional person, but that just about made me tear up a little. That's what I look for in anything (books, movies, music, art)....some kind of emotion, whatever it may be. This one touches a few: it makes you very sad, at times mad, horrified, and scared. I've heard a rumor that King actually threw this book away after writing it and his wife retrieved it and made him send it in. If it's true, the entertainment world as we know it owes a great thanks to Tabitha King. Could you imagine a world that never had a Stephen King? Scary.

Raised by a very religious mother, Carietta White finds out that she has strong telekinetic abilities. Against the advice of her mother, Carrie - as a high-school student - tries to be accepted by the society of football players and cheer-leaders. But unfortunately she will discover that she isn't accepted at all. Being the victim of a cruel mockery, she want's revenge.

What I admire in Stephen King is his ability to show his readers that Evil comes from within us. In "Carrie" the cruel 'joke' makes her raving mad and she's responsible for all the sadistic violence that ensues (for the psychologists among you, is Stephen King responsible for the cruelty of his personage? In other words: is there really such a difference between fantasy and reality?). I think that an experienced writer like Stephen King is capable to draw a line between his world and the world of his novels. Anyway, Stephen King knows that our subconscious is not a nice old lady on a tea-garden visit but a nasty little devil.

It's a cruel world out there and where are the innocent? I'll send you a word when I find out.

...we have Carrie White, the mousey, constantly put-upon brunt of everyone's joke with the ferocious gift in Stephen King's first published novel. Originally released in 1974, it was a harbinger of the vicious talent King himself would demonstrate for blowing us all away book after book after book.

Carrie's is an apocraphal tale of the ultimate loser, the ultimate prank, and the ultimate revenge. It is also a razor sharp examination of the kid-Cuisinart known as high-school, its often comical and cynical tone belying King's own past as a weary English teacher. Thrown into the mix is the obligatory-for-70's-horror religious allegory, with mother Margaret White an overpowering vision of evangelical madness and Carrie her sacrificial Jesus figure. And King also taps into the taboo of mysterious and often terrifying female biologogy to unforgetably shock the audience...the opening is a shower scene as worthy of timelessness as Hitchcock's Psycho.

All the King's literary touches are present: excerpts from newsclippings and after-the-fact biographies to provide different access points into the story, the italicized
(my god will I string together another awkward compound sentence)
inner-thoughts of the characters, the telegraphing of story elements to sharpen the dread of the inevitable doom to come. It's all here, and while it may be as subtle as a nuclear first strike, it's never boring and always cathartic. Upon release it proved Stephen King a force to be reckoned with, as the master of disaster draws first blood.

The story of Carrie White, although not told conventionally, is a fast and fun read, if not one of King's best.

Carrie White is the student you probably remember from one of your schooling experiences: the plump outcast who never achieved any semblance of popularity and remained something of an outcast from the clique-based social hierarchy. I remember a girl like Carrie White well, albeit in elementary school not High School. King developes Carrie well, a character to be sympathized with but not pitied, a somewhat lowly character but not a pathetic one. Character development is also important in the characterization of Carrie's mother, who cannot be made too evil or over-the-top while still being oppressive, and King strays close to the line without going over.

But then again, people rarely talk about the characterization in a King novel, so I suppose I must devote time to the sci-fi element: Carrie White is a telekenetic, capable of moving objects with her mind. Like Ramona Quimby in Roald Dahl's children's book "Ramona", Carrie begins to train herself and develop her powers, until she is capable of essentially everything, something she proves in the tour-de-force latter third of the novel.

As mentioned, Carrie is not told conventially. King abandons the traditional novel format and instead tells the story as if it really happened, citing invented scientific studies, autobiographies, eye-witnesses, police reports and interveiws. This either adds to or detracts from the novel, depending on your opinion. I'm on the fence; while on one hand this is certainly fresh, on the other it seems perhaps King did not have enough material to fill a traditonal novel and resorted to this format instead. Similarily, I am tempted to give the book 5 stars, but the negative part of me is going to prevail, if only because the specific event that leads to Carrie's unleashing of her power seems poorly thought out for such a significant event. 7.5/10

I would really like to see King rewrite this book. Just to go back over and smooth down some of those rough spots, turn this book from a good horror novel with a few weaknesses into a first-rate horror/thriller.
Much of this book is good. The characters are believable, if a little static. The setting manages to help the story along without become too much a part of the action. King's explanation for Carrie's abilities, along with the behaviour of her mother, foreshadows the end long before it comes, but that's all right. Horror isn't about the shock, really, it's about the moments that lead up to it.
The only problem is, in a lot of places where you'd expect the story to speed up, it slows down. This'd be all right if it slowed up for a purpose, but it's usually just for a bit of someone's jounral of a scrap of a newspaper article. Later on, King would learn more about how to mix together mundane sub-plots with the horrific plot to make the horror build all the better, but here it feels more forced, more artifical somehow.
Still, for being the first book that every made me jump with surprise in a public place, four stars.

I saw the movie a couple of years ago and I thought it was ok, nothing that special. Not even a really good horror movie. So I never bothered to read the books. Well that was a mistake because the book is so much better than the movie…well that’s a hardly surprising, movies are seldom better than the book. Carrie is not a horror book in its essence, yes it has elements of horror, but mostly the book is just a tragic tale of girl who finally snaps, who after years of abuse, both at home and in school just finally just not going to take it anymore and she has power.

So she unleash hell. Big Time!

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about reading this book in 2001 is that I read it in the shadows of such horrific real-life tragedies as the Columbine High School shootings, and the more recent shootings in San Diego. I certainly don't want to be an apologist for Carrie, or for her real-life counterparts, but this novel should be a lesson--whether King meant to teach it or not--that the bullying and teasing and harassing kids can do in school has severe, negative emotional consequences on the victim. So first and foremost, this book is excellent because King is able to make his readers root for a character who exacts revenge on her tormentors in a most spectacular fashion.
"Carrie" also is a good read because of the use of "book" and "commission" references King sticks in throughout as a device to move the action along. This allows the reader to get a "distance" perspective of events even as the events are unfolding. It also lends "credibility" to the story, giving the reader the feeling that this story is factual, and as such, far more scary.

I have read just about everything that Stephen King has written and I can only think of a couple of short stories like 'the Mist', and maybe just one book 'Salem's Lot' that I enjoyed more than Carrie. Primarily the reason I enjoyed this book so much is that it is a real departure from his later day formula writing. This is one of Kings very first books and it is a little raw in comparison to his later work 'Shaw Shank', 'Bag of Bones', but in many ways that rough quality adds to the books appeal.

Of course, even if you haven't read the book yet (like myself until a couple of days ago), it will almost be impossible to be surprised by the ending. Who amongst us has not seen Sissy Spasek drenched in blood at her prom, it's an iconic American image. But that aside, this is a very enjoyable book because it really gets close to the 'horror' label that King has been slapped with his entire career. I can always get into a King book because it stumbles around the edge of terror, but am pretty much always disappointed because of his insane need to offer up a very happy ending. I'm sure that King has sold twenty times the amount of books that he would have had he continued on this edgier path. But I often think of what could have been had he been a little more daring. Its kind of like Elvis ending up singing Blue Hawaii in a Las Vegas night club when he had started off as such an edgy charismatic youngster.

Anyways, I highly recommend this book if you like King at all. If you have yet to read much King and are wondering where to start out, try 'Salem's Lot' as a novel, or even better, a collection of his short stories like 'Skeleton Crew.'

Carrie is the first novel of Stephen King's which I have read and which is not part of the Dark Tower sequence. It is also his first published novel which could mean that the writing was a little rough around the edges but damn, King can tell a story!

The title character is Carietta White. You know the girl. She was in your high school, just with a different name. She was different. Her family was different. The other kids flocked like vultures and teased her without mercy. You know the girl. She grew up mostly without friends. Even the other outcasts wouldn't go near her. Carrie's mother was ultra-religious and certainly stunted Carrie's social growth and skills. Even the teachers didn't really like her. This is Carrie.

But Carrie is different. Carrie has powers she barely understands. Carrie can make things happen. Telekenesis. She can move things with her mind. Under very stressful circumstances things happen. A rain of stones which only falls on her house. Exploding lightbulbs. Shaking bookcases. Things happen.

When Carrie has her first period in the girls shower after gym at the age of seventeen and thinks she is bleeding to death because she does not know what is happening the other girls are mean, like a pack of jackals literally smelling blood. Now it's begun. Both the novel and the transformation of Carrie White starts here.

This is Stephen King we're talking about. Things will take a turn for the worse and end in that famous prom sequence we've heard about and seen in the movies. Carietta gets pushed one too many times and her power makes her very, very dangerous.

Like I said, King can tell a good story. There is a bit of clunk around some of the edges, but King's writing has passion and we can feel for Carrie even when we see her slowly slipping and slowly cracking and slowly snapping. Carrie isn't the villain here, which would be a twist on a normal horror story. Carrie is a victim who snaps. A broken protagonist.

I didn't know that King could write this well. Sure he's sold a kabillion copies of his books, but from Carrie I think it's clear: this is a special talent. He writes books people want to read. The American Dickens in his first novel.

-Joe Sherry

Carrie

By Sai Hendrij

Stephen Kings Carrie is a book of the horror genre; it describes the isolation of teenage youth at an evanescent level. Basically often unseen by anyone who is not a teenager themselves or someone who can relate to that feeling. That's the main reason I recommend it to the teenage public more so than adults and much more so than the younger audiences.

To start, Carrie is a teenage girl who still has not reached puberty. Until now on her sixteenth year and with it has come a new type of power. The TK gene in her body is growing and is now taking affect and when her mother and the whole student body takes their cruel jokes a little too far Carrie will pull the strings in the biggest and worst, first, and last joke of her life

Overall review
All in all I thought that Carrie was an awesome book. Considering the fact that horror stories are the only ones I can really get into. I think Stephen King did a great job especially for such an old society he lived in. I feel that I should also commend on the news articles that switch time schemes from the past and present without being confusing about what was still happening. It was also a different kind of way of building suspense up to the pinnacle of the story.
This is a book you should definitely read.

Recommended for ages 15+
For alcohol sexual references and violence

...
Perhaps one of the most exceptional horror stories published the second half on the twentieth century, "Carrie" is a story that relates to every single teenager at some point in their lives, which is what makes this Stephen King novel one of his most powerful works ever. Carrie White is no ordinary high school girl, and the other students obviously knows this, and they treat her like living hell. But what they don't know about Carrie is that she is ready to snap--to abolish all of the shameful feelings that she has about herself, to quiet her critical, overly-religious mother, and to inflict revenge on those who have hurt her with her telekinetic powers. King portrays his Carrie in a spell-binding fashion, taking us through the tribulations of her first period, the secret love that she has for one of the most popular boys at school, and the riveting prom night in which Carrie's inner demons take full force. Although not long (256 pages), "Carrie" is the definition of a page-turner and a novel that should be read in one setting in order to get the full effect. A true trimumph of horror, emotion, and hate. Brilliant.

I haven't read much Stephen King, but I know how needless it is to mention that he is clearly the man one goes to when they're craving a tale to chill their bones and goose their bumps. However, his debut novel "Carrie", as it isn't a horror story, proves that he can do a lot more than that as well.

Carrie is a heart-breaking story about a misfit girl trying to cope with her social status in high school where one's peers, as we all know, aren't always the nicest people around. Sidebar: Carrie is telekinetic, meaning that she can move and control objects with nothing more than a thought. However, unlike one may have been lead to believe (this novel's reputation precedes it), Carrie isn't the true villain of this tale. What King has done here is created a documentary-style book with some third-person narrative mixed in, all to demonstrate how horrible teenagers can be to their peers. Even the most moral of the characters here are somehow transfixed by the mob mentality that overtakes them, pushing them into cruelty that they wouldn't have expected from themselves--cruelty aimed at one particular student.

The ideas King brings about here are timeless, as is his writing, but some of the pop-culture references he makes (I'm twenty years old) are lost on me. However, that didn't bug me as much as the switching back and forth between point-of-view in the climax. During the bulk of the novel, it was great to see things from other people's POVs. We saw through Carrie's eyes, her classmate's, her teacher's, and even fictional clippings from documents exploring Carrie's past. However, during the actual climax of the novel, it was a bit too much. The patches of story that were told through Carrie's eyes were the most interesting, as it fascinates me to feel pity for someone who, for all purposes, should be considered a "villain" by the end of the book. However, there is none of that black-and-white, this is good-and-evil end-of-story nonsense here. This book explores that grey area, quite effortlessly.

While this book wasn't perfect, it was an entertaining, sad, and disturbing read that kept me thinking about it long after I put the book down after each short reading session. With true-to-life characters that you can both love and hate, sympathize with and want to shake, this book--even with those pesky pop-references--is a timeless work.

8/10

'Carrie' is one of those pieces of popular fiction where just about everyone knows the plot - Carrie White, bullied and scorned teenager, has such a harrowing experience of puberty that she develops telekinesis with which she punishes her tormentors with. Of course, it's not that simple and it's a tribute to King that there's still a lot to enjoy in a story where I pretty much knew the plot step by step thanks to watching the movie beforehand.
Still, it's really best to concentrate on what's good here, because the only real flaw of the story is that I knew it already. And that's not really anyone's fault but my own. First off, it's easy to read, made up of first-hand experiences of the various survivors of the Carrie White experience, which we are told through retrospective newspaper articles has become somewhat of a legend. Thankfully this doesn't make the book appear disjointed, but has the effect of leaving the reader on a cliffhanger every now and then as we get to see the experience of 'Prom Night' from various people's perspectives, not just Carrie's. Also, surprisingly, King does offer sympathy to all of his characters and is mercifully unsparing with his unflattering description of Carrie and plump and covered with pimples. This isn't a romantic tale of revenge but one of horror after all. If some of the scenes have lost their potency - I couldn't help but feel that the much-hyped shower scene of the movie at the beginning of the book would have had more of an impact at the time of writing.
The bottom line really is that for anyone who hasn't seen the movie and doesn't know the plot off by heart this is a really great and highly original book. It's just such a shame that the movie is so famous, and such a landmark in the horror field, that the book might seem to some to be redundant. Well it isn't, there are plenty of surprises, and it's a very enjoyable book with very well mounted tension and fantastic characterisation. But it's impossible to view it from an objective status if you've seen the film.

Carrie is a novel that is often unfairly branded with the horror label because it was written by Stephen King. It's not a blood-and-guts, gory sort of monster or ghost story, it's a drama/thriller with supernatural elements that would probably be labeled a tragedy if that was a term used for novels. The oppression suffered by the title character at the hands of her merciless classmates and fundamentalist mother seems all too realistic, and a large portion of the book focuses on her torment in facing these real-life ordeals. The inclusion of her telekinesis, which finally empowers her to lash out at those who cause her misery, could be attributed to the fantasies of a young writer who had faced bullying and harassment himself in school hallways. Carrie is one of several stories King wrote about the bitterness and resentment young people experience as a result of social awkwardness and anxiety, including Christine and the Richard Bachman novel Rage. Carrie's most tragic quality comes from how King allows the character a brief moment of knowing how wonderful life could be, giving her a glimmer of hope that she can have the same happiness as everyone else, then subjecting her to traumatic pubic humiliation, followed by the murderous religious fervor of her mother. Their deaths, and those of most of the town's graduating senior class, bring the tragedy to a close and leave the reader to ponder the cruelty and worthlessness of ostracizing or harassing people simply for being different. The spring of 2014 will see the 40th anniversary of the book's publication in April 1974. As much a testament to Stephen King's longevity as a sad commentary on the lack of progress in bullying culture, Carrie teaches a lesson as necessary today as it was 40 years ago.

I read "Carrie" when I was in high school. Stephen King captured the essence of teenage life with great accuracy, I thought. At school people talked about the same things the shower girls in the first chapter talked about: parties, who's going out with who, who's dumping who, and a whole lot of other shallow topics that seemed really important at that age. For a first novel, King handled the dialogue well.
Everyone knows the story: a misfit girl finally gets her revenge on a town that rejected her. Being telekinetic is something I'm sure a lot of people would envy, even if they don't envy Carrie's plight. But ultimately the school and the town brought their destruction on themselves. No one can ever predict when someone will snap and wreak havoc. Bullied students who aren't telekinetic have to rely on less subtle means such as pipe bombs and guns. And usually, the taste of revenge is less than sweet. But the results they aim for are quite the same: heartbreak, grief, confusion and despair. Perhaps bullying should be a criminal offense?
I once read somewhere that when King was writing this novel he was so frustrated with it that he threw the manuscript in the bin. It was his wife who salvaged it and forced him to keep working on it. I also read that first novels are almost always autobiographical. Was King ridiculed in his youth? If so, then his international success as a writer is surely the best revenge.

<I> Carrie </I> is King's first novel not written under his Bachman pseudonym. And thank the good Lord that his wife fished this one out of the trash!
It's a thoroughly enjoyable, genuinely spooky story about a characteristically 'normal' town in (where else?) Maine where a certain put-upon little girl is slowly building up something terrible inside her.
A testament to how frightening <I> Carrie </I> is that despite the fact that the ending is telegraphed (you pretty much know who bites the dust before they do), it's still pretty damn frightening.
And what scares me more than that telekinesis stuff is Carrie's 'mama'. She's a religious nut who's probably not unlike a lot of evangelical Christians. She's a damn scary character and you could be living right next door to a 'Margaret White'. Beware, beware the sexually repressed born-again Christian!
All in all, Carrie is worth a read. If you can get the special two-in-one edition with 'Tommyknockers', even better! Read 'em both through and see if you get any sleep!

I chose this rating of Stephen King's "CARRIE", because of the interesting depth and qualities which clearly fill in the numerous gaps of the ORIGINAL movie back in 1976. I appreciate his writing style, which is a lot like my own, especially concerning the applications of detail of both events, and emotions, clearly bespeaking various textures and keeping the reader literally "begging" for more. I hope to buy it; I have always desired, with much personal zeal, to do so since its official airing in 1976 when I was only the age of nine.
A wonderful and intelligent read, and as said, highly enthralling and full of staggering complexity of emotions and descriptions and hypotheses which loiter behind what is being described and warranted amidst the framework of the characters in this graphic tale.
My 14th book, "CASINO CHILD; KING OF THE SLOT MACHINES" here on the store.com is likened to Stephen King's mentioned use of words which depthfully and dilligently describe the "whos,' and the "whys," only all of MY BOOKS, whether they are fictional or non-fiction, are surely based on complete NONFICTION-the life of this torture survivor, and I easily feel his wonderful literaly talents emanating copiously through these written words, which flow like a deeply concealed wound that only bleeds secretively and insideously, and eventually causing the victim, the sufferer, to die, but before dying, the character [s] sometimes claim victory over the oppressor and aggressor; like "Carrie's vvile hearted and wrongly informed mother" who was so graphically described, but I enjoyed his said descriptions and poignent warrant.
AWESOME!
Lama Milkweed L. Augustine PhD

author of 14 books, and the recent publication
"Casion Child; King of the Slot Machines."

Well, maybe the phrase 'kids nowadays' isn't quite all proper and may even be so obvious for saying this. But is the true horror in this book about Carrie's strange family and her own power OR is it what kids did to lead up to that night? I say the latter.

In this modern, kids-bully-over-the-internet-and-followed-by-suicide-or-the-victim-goes-on-shooting-rampage world I see this book as a good lesson for that. Sure, some may still argue about the power mentioned in this book but Carrie's ability is just the method. Change that to a gun, and you will see that the core message remains the same- do not bully anyone and do not be the part of anonymous crowd to just watch, and pretend there was nothing to be done. At lease Sue got somewhat of that, just a tad late.

Stephen King's first book is well written, and he paints an image of high school that most will identify with (peer pressure, bullying, interaction between very different social and economic classes). The plot centers around a young girl Carrie, and her struggle to fit into high school due to her extremely religious mother. Due to the movie's iconic images, I'm sure most people will know what's going to happen before even picking up the book. Still, it is an entertaining and worthwhile read.

My one complaint is that King writes in a journalistic fashion (including interviews, pages from other "made-up" books) to build the whole story about what happens to Carrie. The style (which King borrows from Bram Stoker's Dracula according to his introduction for Carrie) detached me from the story--it focused on POVs from side characters that weren't interesting. It also lessened the impact of some of the novel's suprises and twists. However, the book is worth checking out and much shorter than King's later and sometimes overbloated novels.

I have recently read King's 11/22/63, and since I'm a writer myself (unpublished), I wanted to learn how to break the story up using newspaper clipings, parts from fictional books and such. So I turned to the one of the greatest classics, Carrie.

I found Carrie's story to be more intense, brutal than the movie (but the movie wasn't bad as itself). Carrie is a fast paste book, no doubt, but it was very brilliantly written. I know King said it as "A young book from a young author," but Carrie really shows King's true talent.

For those who are thinking reading this book after watching the movie for God knows how many times, you must pick this book up. The story is a lot better (you get the chance to learn more about the White family), se the major differences between the book and the movie. It won't disappoint.

In 1974 Stephen King an impoverished high school English teacher, so poor that he couldn't even afford a telephone; when CARRIE was accepted for publication by Doubleday he received the news via telegram. The book received mixed reviews and the hardback printing sold less than thirteen thousand copies--but when it went to paperback in 1975 CARRIE became a publisher's dream, selling over a million copies in the first year alone.

The core story of a person possessed of unexpected powers who takes revenge on tormenters was not new, but King gave it an unexpected and remarkably insightful twist: he stripped it of supernatural overtones and set his tale in the hot-house and hormone-driven world of high school, where a herd mentality leads students to bully and torment any student who seems outside the norm. And Carrie White is very much outside the norm: unattractive, not particularly smart, and the daughter of a highly neurotic and abusive mother whose religious hysteria has warped both Carrie and herself.

When a particularly nasty episode of taunting occurs during gym class, Carrie comes to the full attention of gym teacher Miss Desjardin, who punishes the other girls involved with a lecture and a series of after school phys-ed detentions. One of the students, Sue Snell, is both embarassed and ashamed of her participation in the incident and resolves to make it up to Carrie: she has her boyfriend, Tommy, take Carrie to the prom. Another student, Chris Hargensen, refuses detention and is barred from the prom--and decides to make use of Sue's kindly gesture to exact revenge: she creates a truly hideous prank designed to complete Carrie's humiliation for once and all.

What neither girl, nor any one else, knows is that Carrie has discovered she has the ability to move objects at will: she is telekinetic, a gift she herself has only recently discovered. When Chris' prank is indeed successful, Carrie's powers emerge full-force and she turns on her tormenters, both real and imagined, turning the prom into a holocaust and continuing on to lay waste to much of the town.

Although he has created a number of exceptionally well-written novels, with 'SALEM'S LOT perhaps the most obvious example, Stephen King is not a literary writer per se, and this early work has more than its share of awkwardnesses. But there is no denying its power: CARRIE has a direct and very raw power that remains chilling more than a quarter of century after it was first published: dark, furious, visceral. It is a fast and very compelling read, a novel you pick up and then do not set aside until, exhausted, you reach the final page.

It also taps into something that we now see on in our newspaper headlines with depressing regularity: a growing wave of school violence. Over the years there had been a number of attacks on public schools, with perhaps the most infamous being the 1927 Bath School bombing, but such incidents were extremely rare and usually involved a disgruntled adult as culprit... until the 1980s and 1990s, when they became and sadly remain shockingly commonplace, with the 1999 Columbine massacre simply one of the most notorious of recent memory.

King could not foresee the future, could not know that such real life horrors were in the offing--but, as he indicates in a forward to the current edition of the book, he well recalled the pack mentality of school children and their cruelty to any one they considered an outsider. It is also worth noting that he was himself a high school teacher at the time he wrote the novel, and he was doubtlessly aware of the viciousness of high school bullies from an adult standpoint as well. In creating CARRIE, he seems to have tapped into the underlying rage that would explode at Columbine, Redlake, and too many other schools to count.

It is not surprising, therefore, that CARRIE's dark tale of high school brutality and horrific revenge makes it a novel frequently banned from public school libraries. But this may actually be a mistake. Although the details of the story are the stuff of fantasy, CARRIE contains a warning: even a mouse will attack if it feels cornered, and where the hyper-intense emotions of adolescents are concerned, that attack can be horrific indeed. It is a lesson, sadly, that our teenagers have been very slow to learn.

GFT, the store Reviewer

This is one of King's best books. It reminds me so much of my high school years. I can relate to Carrie because I was made fun of because of my blindness. I felt for her when she was being teased. This made me stop and think about how I did not let the teasing get to me to the point where I might do what she did in the book. I won't spoil the book for you. I will just tell you that King does a fantastic job of bringing memories back to any person that reads or listens to this book. It may also make someone think twice about picking on someone like myself or anyone else for that matter.

Like many, I unfortunately saw the movie before reading the book so there were expectations. Although most movie adaptions of King's work are not true to the source material, "Carrie" is an exception. The plot plays out pretty much like the movie (except for the ending), but it's still worth reading. The reason is that the book more effectively gets inside of the heads of the characters and you're left with a better understanding of the situation and feel more sympathy (or anger) towards the characters. This is naturally easier in this medium than in movies and King accomplishes this. Carrie is not a villian but a distraught teenage girl who has to deal with the typical problems of adolescence in addition to a borderline-psychotic hyper-religious mother. Oh, and she paranormal powers. The book does an excellent job at describing her tormented life and the odd behaviour of her mother. Motivations are better understood than in the movie and it's much easier to feel sympathy towards Carrie. Although most people think of the ending scenes when they hear of "Carrie", the build-up is the best part. Her and her mother make up a very twisted family. Their dysfunctionallity is fascinating and Carrie's demons will undoubtedly evoke sympathy, if not a little bit of empathy.

The book is barely a horror novel. The perpetrator of the supernatural crimes is presented in a sympathetic fashion and there is no monster except for the mother and Carrie's peers. Instead of being horrified, I was honestly pleased with Carrie's reaction. The supernatural elements could have been removed and not much would have been lost. For this reason, I would even recommend this novel to those who don't normally enjoy horror and fantasy.

It seems that Stephen King was following some sort of Template when writing this book. Because this book is so bare, so naked, so "should've-been-longer" that I'm surprised that it got so famous.
I won't go into plot details because it's been gone over and over in all the other reviews. The book is divided in three parts. The shower room and it's consequences, before the prom and after the prom.
The book starts at a breakneck speed with the shower room scene and slows down to a screeching halt afterwards. The pace only picks up when Carrie and her mother are on scene.
King wrote this book in a very interesting manner. He put up fictional newspaper and book articles on the story. Without them the book would be even shorter.
IT seemed to me that King should've elaborated more on Carrie's past. The other pranks the kids put on her.
Without the prom scene (Which is described to perfection) this book would've been a two star book at best. It literally saves this book.

Stephen King made a big, bloody splash with his first novel CARRIE, written in the early 70's and published in 1974. It ushered in a new era in Horror fiction. Instead of Gothic Horror dealing with vampires, or Frontier Horror dealing with werewolves, this was the genesis of Modern Horror: taking a modern-day dramatic situation using ordinary, everyday characters and letting the horror grow out of the situation and the characters.
I can see that, when the book was released, how CARRIE was lauded as a modern masterpiece. I guess it is; after all, it put Stephen King on the map and began the career of the most successful American novelist of our times. The advent of Modern Horror was momentous---and a cash cow---for the fiction industry. But I saw the film first (actually, at least three or four times before buying and reading the book), and by comparison, it disappointed me. I liked the narrative of the film better, I found Carrie more sympathetic in the film (for example, in the book, she knows she will kill her mother when she gets home) and I just flat-out enjoyed it more. However, for any Stephen King fan, I definitely recommend going back to the beginning, where it all started for him---and us.
RECOMMENDED; AGES 14 & UP.

Carrie is Stephen Kings first published book. I like how this story is told in a kind of interview style. It keeps it exciting throughout. Everyone knows the 70's version of this movie with Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. I would say that the book and movie are pretty close. There was a remake made in the 00's that is more accurate, but you get the idea. If you dont know what this story is about (there cant be many that dont) Carrie is picked on all her life and discovers she has telekenetic powers. She ends up "getting even" with everyone at the prom. The insanity of Carries mother, Margaret is the creepiest thing about this book. Anyone with a mother like that really has no chance of being normal. Lets hope there arent any others as insane as her in the world (although there probably are) Carrie is less that 200 pages, a very quick easy read. Like all other SK books, I definitely recommend it.

Though "Carrie" is definitely the work of a writer who is still finding his voice, it is a remarkably tight and gripping book, and remains one of my personal favorites of King's work.
The tale told by King and King's wife Tabitha, about how she literally pulled the first pages of the book out of a trash can, read them, and then encouraged King to continue with the story he had started, is somewhat apocryphal now. Nevertheless, upon reading the first few chapters of "Carrie" one can see what grabbed her attention. The reader is immediately involved in the story and irresistably drawn all the way to the end.
The story of Carrie White is that of someone who is essentially ordinary (almost painfully so), but with an extraordinary ability. How these two elements come together is the substance of the book, and there is a lot of substance here, both in terms of storytelling and thematic material. King's talent for strong character and capturing the feel of everyday life is already obvious in this book, and it is put to good use.
"Carrie" remains one of King's most compelling works, even 30 years after it was written. Thank goodness Mrs. King had the wherewithal to get him to finish it!

I'm one of the people -- and I suspect there are many -- who was drawn to CARRIE because I was always branded as an outcast and tormented by my peers. Since some publicity pictures of Mr. King show him wearing strong glasses, and since my own thick glasses were what got me into the let's-pick-on-this-guy category, I assumed that King had suffered a similar fate and that CARRIE had been inspired by empathy for the outcast character.
I was dismayed to discover that I'd assumed wrong. In his nonfiction book ON WRITING, King tells us that one of the reason he almost abandoned CARRIE was that he didn't like the title character. He also tells us that he occasionally joined in the harassment of some of his outcast classmates. Still, it's to King's credit that he could create a sympathetic point of view for a character that he actually viewed with contempt.
But there was one major problem I had with the book even before I found out where King was and wasn't coming from with respect to the title character. I felt he should have given us one major plot complication, rather than trying to balance two. The core of the story is Carrie's telekinetic power and how it enables her to punish her tormentor at the prom. But there's this insane religious fanatic mother she has to deal with, who I think muddies the waters a bit. I would have preferred that King write two books, one about the telekinetic girl and one about the girl with the insane religious fanatic mother.
Still, both of these are admittedly subjective complaints. The fact remains that King is a good story teller and can write speculative fiction in which the characters don't get overshadowed by the speculation. In this case, I also felt the snippets of court transcripts and other official documents were an effective touch. (In fact, I wish the movie had retained the idea of a government investigation into the incident.) The book deserves its popularity. I wonder, though, if this was one time when telling the whole truth was a bad idea.

Carrie is a novel that is often unfairly branded with the horror label because it was written by Stephen King. It's not a blood-and-guts, gory sort of monster or ghost story, it's a drama/thriller with supernatural elements that would probably be labeled a tragedy if that was a term used for novels. The oppression suffered by the title character at the hands of her merciless classmates and fundamentalist mother seems all too realistic, and a large portion of the book focuses on her torment in facing these real-life ordeals. The inclusion of her telekinesis, which finally empowers her to lash out at those who cause her misery, could be attributed to the fantasies of a young writer who had faced bullying and harassment himself in school hallways. Carrie is one of several stories King wrote about the bitterness and resentment young people experience as a result of social awkwardness and anxiety, including Christine and the Richard Bachman novel Rage. Carrie's most tragic quality comes from how King allows the character a brief moment of knowing how wonderful life could be, giving her a glimmer of hope that she can have the same happiness as everyone else, then subjecting her to traumatic pubic humiliation, followed by the murderous religious fervor of her mother. Their deaths, and those of most of the town's graduating senior class, bring the tragedy to a close and leave the reader to ponder the cruelty and worthlessness of ostracizing or harassing people simply for being different. The spring of 2014 will see the 40th anniversary of the book's publication in April 1974. As much a testament to Stephen King's longevity as a sad commentary on the lack of progress in bullying culture, Carrie teaches a lesson as necessary today as it was 40 years ago.

I enjoyed this book a lot, I had trouble putting it down. Part of the reason for this was the lack of chapters, but it was mainly because this is such a good book.
Carrie is a character that I empathised with a great deal. She faces daily abuse at home and at school -I was myself bullied at school although thankfully my home environment was supportive. I see her as being a kind and attractive young lady who does not deserve any of the abuse she receives. During the course of the book, she discovers that she has powerful telekinetic abilities. I do not see what her actions near the end of the book as revenge, but as what happens when a tortured individual 'snaps'. She didn't plan what she did, it was merely a reaction to the dispicable way in which she had been treated. No one deserves to be bullied, but it happens throughout society. This book sends out the message that bullying is unacceptable.
This book is excellently written with a good storyline and a strong main character, I would recommend it to anyone, this is truly a 'must read' book.

There has to be an outcast like Carrie White in just about every high school in America. I think that is why people can relate to this story. Not just because everyone knows such a misfit, but because at one time or another, everyone has had to deal with helplessness, ridicule or cruelty.
The book also deals with a girl becoming a woman and defying the wishes of her fanatically religious mother. By incorporating religion into the story, King is able to cast Carrie's telekinetic power as seemingly demonic while allowing the reader to feel genuine pity for Carrie.
While Carrie is able to extract a measure of vegeance, this is ultimately a story of tragedy. It is a lesson in the cliques and cruelties of high school and lends particular insight into the heights of human goodness and the depth of human evil. If this story is even remotely similar to what the world of girls is like, I have to thank G-d that I'm a man.
This is a great classic horror novel not to be passed over!

This is King's famous debut novel. Though until Brian de Palma made the film, few people had even heard of it. But the film version launched the careers of King, de Palma, Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, and others.
I admitedly have not yet scene the film version, but the book was great. King seems to be under the impression that this novel is very raw and unpolished, and perhaps he is right--I admit it isn't as polished as many books I've read, but I don't see this is a bad thing; if this is the case, perhaps it is what made the book so good. It was a very riveting book. King was also sucessful at getting at the emotional core of Carrie White, and other characters involved. It is a very worthwhile read, and goes by very quickly as it is only about 200 pages long (the original hardcover is 199 pages in length; I do not know the page count on subsequent volumes.)
I definately recommend this book to anyone fond of the Horror genre or King's work (sadly, many people--dare I say most?--who read King do not read any of the other works within the genre; this is sad because some of the other talents out there surpass him by far.)

This is a good book, I gave it a 5/5 because its scary in a way of what making fun of people/bullying can lead to. This book is about Carrie White who was made fun of her whole school life, especially after her first period. Carrie has telekinetic abilities by which she can control objects and in her past she made rocks drop from the sky. Her mom aka momma is over protective by controlling everything Carrie does. Which eventually led to Carrie fighting back and going to the prom night. The night that the chaos unleashed and set the whole city on fire.

I've read a few different SK novels. Some are a little meh, some too long, and others I found so good they've become my favorite stories of all time. IT remains his best work for me so far but Carrie is a great story too. It's a bit disjointed at times, maybe even hard to keep up at times with the different points of views and such, but overall it's a great fast paced read. Finished it in three days and well worth the read. You'll feel for Carrie throughout the entire book. The ending will make you question if you still do. The visuals are easy to see in your mind. It's scary and sad all at once. Best to check it out yourself and see if you love it as much as I did!

My main problem with Stephen King is that he is so blessed with talent and success that he has never had to learn to kill his darlings. In writer-speak (or at least aspiring writer-speak) the darling is that phrase/sentence/paragraph that sticks out and draws the reader's attention to the fact that you, the author, are speaking.

In Carrie, we see King's wonderful gift of characterization. We empathize completely with poor Carrie no matter how foreign her background is. It doesn't matter that she was raised by the sort of person that usually winds up muttering and shouting on a street corner, that her humiliation is so complete that it dwarfs our own, or that Carrie has psychic powers. We feel like we can walk in her shoes.

We get also get a hint of the wonderful writer's voice that fully flowers in later years and see a taste for experimentation and rapid pacing that seems to have wandered off and disappeared in his later books.

But man, so many similes. About every page or every other page there is an inappropriate or random simile hanging around like a hooker working a church parking lot (wink). King should stamp them out the same way he stamps out adverbs. Maybe one in ten are worthwhile, the rest jump out and say "Look mom! I can say something is like something else. Ain't it cool?" I mean, it's not just the fact that they are bad, but that he just flat out uses them too much.

So yes, his work is still enjoyable for the reasons mentioned. For most readers this bad habit is a minor nitpick, but they are so persistent that it starts to grate on a guy like me. King is/was obviously talented and intelligent enough to make these sort of simple edits. He just believes in himself so fully that he never has.

While his writing has matured in many ways throughout the years, his verbosity has expanded to the point that it is frustrating to me. It's like he's still gotta make rent and he's getting paid by the word. Carrie, for all of it's first-timer awkwardness, has wonderful pacing that reflects a writer still humble enough to think he needs to earn your attention.

When I read Carrie, I can't help but think that with just a little bit more critical thought and willingness to push himself, King could have been more than a best selling author; he could have been something great.

Carrie was one of the coolest books that I've read in my life. It is scary, funny, suspenseful, and has an enthralling story to go along with those other things. This book is about Carrie, a high-school girl that is misunderstood and made fun of. She can move things using mind force and she learns that what she has is telekinetic powers. After a boy asks her to the prom it looks like she is having a great time until she is prom queen and while sitting in the chair pig blood falls over her. She has had eough and is fed up. Destruction time!!! Carrie, using her telekinetic powers, destroys the whole city and gets her point across. She murders, sets fires, and has police from all over MAine have to come and fight. I won't give away the overall plot but you must read this book. Whether you are a Stephen King fan or just an avid reader you will really enjoy this book by the King of Horror. Don't wait another second before buying this book. You'll really love this enthralling book that will stand out forever!

Better than Brian DePalma's hit movie was the book that spawned it, Carrie, a worthy debut novel from the man who would become the top-selling novelist in (at least) American history. It's easy to explain why King has become so popular. Here, he begins a long tradition of believeable, relatable characters living in relatively normal places that have horrific, impossible situations cast upon them.

Without her powers of telekenesis, Carrie would be simply that invisible girl with no friends, no hope, ridiculed at school, berated and abused by an ultra-religious freakshow at home. In writing her, King not only sets up a modern fable of revenge, he also lashes out against teenage bullying, religious fanaticism, the powerlessness of ordinary, well-meaning authority, and the hell that is adolescence. After that, the supernatural is simply window dressing, a device meant to amplify what we already fear about ourselves as people.

I should say here, too, that the best way to experience this book (although a simple reading will do ya just fine) is to have the miraculous Sissy Spacek (yes, the same actress from the inferior, dated film) read it to you on the audio book. The effect is simply astounding.

(This review has been posted by Marcus Damanda, author of the vampire book "Teeth: a Horror Fantasy".)

I re-read this book, because I've decided to read all of Stephen King, revisiting the books I read as a teen and young adult. I love the epistolary structure weaved into the narrative, and I was often stunned by the writing itself. I may read it a third time, because I can learn a lot from this guy. I should have been learning from him for years, but I was not a careful reader back in the day.

His casual voice makes it look so easy, and it's impossible not to get caught up in the story, so a careful eye trained at how he does it can wander.

It's good to be reading Stephen King again.

Most people feel that after watching the movie, you shouldn't read the book because it will be exactly the same. Not the case here!!!!!! The destruction Carrie causes in the movie is nothing compared to the destruction she causes in the book! It is far from being exactly the same, and even if you have seen the movie and "think" you know the plot, the ending of this book will surprise you nonetheless.
"Carrie" is the story of a lonely, outcast girl with no friends or people to talk to. She is stuck with a religous fanatic, and quite frankly, a madwoman for a mother. Carrie is the butt of every joke, the person you can always make fun of and torment. Finally, after gym class one day, when the girls are in the locker room showering, she is pushed almost to the limit when she gets her period. She doesn't know what is happening (her crazy mother never bothered to tell her because she thinks that having a period is a sin), and thinks she is bleeding to death. The girls all laugh and throw things at her. But that is only the beginning of the story.
Carrie soon discovers that she can do strange things with her mind, such as move an object, lock a door, or make a candle fall over. She discovers that she can take control of a situation using her powers, and she also discovers something else...she can get revenge.
One night at her prom (someone arranged for her to have a date, otherwise she never would have gotten one), she is humiliated one time too many, and finally snaps, using her powers to cause death, destruction, and mayham!
Want to find out how this all ends? Read the book, whether or not you've seen the movie, and behold the true power of Carrie White!

So you think you know Stephen King? You think that he is all vampires and aliens? Well, let his first novel prove you wrong. Man, this book was strange, but very good all and all. King takes this innocent young, tourtured highschool girl and turns her into a person to haunt your dreams. Throughout the book you learn of Carrie White and her power to move things. Now, im sure most people have seen the movie, but the ending is so much creepier in this book than it is in the movie. It is a little bit slow paced, but it is all worth it by the end. It is the kind of scary that makes you shiver. Not like you are afraid to go to sleep, but more in a way that it is just so strange that it messes with your head. This is the book that skyrocketed King's career. His writing style was a little different back then, but not bad. I thought this was a really cool book and most definetly recommend it.

The Carrie of the book inspired as much empathy as Sissy Spacek's movie character, but the others much less so. In the film you felt some empathy for Sue, Miss Desjardin, and Tommy because of their empathy for Carrie. The teacher in the book is basically evil minded, Sue is a mix, and Tommy is on the good side. The most substantial difference is what happens at the prom. In the film, only a few of Chris's friends laugh (it's implied that the other laughter shown is only imagined by Carrie), in the book everyone laughs. In both book and film I'm totally on Carrie's side and applaud her actions; if I had her power in her circumstance I'd do exactly the same. In the book there is a final poignant interaction between Carrie and Sue. I should say finally I consider both the book and film masterpieces. If you want to know the root cause behind Columbine and such read this.

I'm beginning to re-read the entire SK library in order of publication along with author & publisher Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance Puvblications (go to www.stephenkingrevisited.com to join us). I hadn't read Carrie since shortly after it was published (40 years ago) and it was fascinating to "fill in the blanks" around the main part of the story which I remembered quite well. I have a totally new appreciation for just how good this story is...and from a very young King! He was born with the gift of storytelling.

Since it has been nearly 20 years since I read many of Stephen King's books, I thought that it was probably time to start going back and re-reading some of them. I decided to start in chronological order with Carrie. Carrie is the story of an awkward teen that has been continually picked on her entire life and finally takes her revenge upon the world using long-dormant powers. In a sick sort of way you kind of root for her to take the entire town out. At any rate it is one of Stephen King's best stories with enough pulse-pounding anxiety to make you want to read the entire story in one sitting. Thankfully it is really short and you can easily burn through it in a few hours. A true masterpiece from the master of horror.

So here it is. Stephen king's first book that he had published. This wasn't my first reading of stephen king. I had read INSOMNIA previously before reading this one.

Carrie is a blend of life, adolecent behavior, in crowds, blood, blood, and more blood. There seems to be an empahses on the blood.

I admit that the only reaction that I had in me, when I first read the book, was that of disturbing shock. I won't spoil anything here but there are many moments of 'ew' and 'I can believe that person did that' moments.

I was intrigued as to why stephen king used interviews and articles in his story. They were fictional but it did give the story a weight in truth. Clever gimmick, Mr. King.

I guess the book could be labeled as a tragedy. So, read it only if your are in the mood to be really down.

I choose this rating because this book was never dull from beginning to end. This so very creepy and sad and even made me angry at times.. I feel that Carrie didn't deserve to die. I feel like the things that happened to Carrie shouldn't of happen. She felt all alone and she was dealing with abuse and bullying all her life. What could she do. No one cared.

I read this book about two years ago, and I have been in love with Stephen King ever since. Before this book, I never really read. The only books I had read were the ones required for school and I despised those. The only book that I ever read for enjoyment was Where the Red Fern Grows, and that was when I was 8! I remember being in the library, seeing this on the shelf, and deciding, "Hey, what the heck, might as well give it a go." I sat down with this book and I never stopped. I read it in one day, in two sittings, only stopping once to go to the bathroom and get some water. This book completely sucks you in, and doesn't let go till the very end. The book is relatively short, the version I read was only 260 pages. This is extremely short, however, for Stephen King. Most of his books stretch from the 500 to 1000 page mark. In those, King tends to ramble a bit, but in this, because of the length, he kept with it. The only fault I really have with the book, was the "documentary" bits. The book will go a ways following Carrie, but then it will suddenly flip to an "aftermath" perspective looking back on the whole thing. I found this, while interesting, to be a tad jarring, and detracted from the story, and I found myself skipping most of these to keep with the story. All in all, I think this is a great book for anybody just getting into reading and wanting to read a short, fast-paced, scary book. If you want to get into Stephen King, and don't want to tackle the behemoths of It and The Stand, then look no further than Carrie. While not his best work, it sure isn't his worst.
Rating: 4/5

I've read both the book and watched the movie, and can attest to it's staying power. Although not as polished as his later works, the rough edges only add to the obvious torment our dark protagonist feels.
Contending with a bible-belt(?) mother and extremely evil classmates, it's a wonder that Carrie did not snap eariler. Her life seems dismal until she realizes that she has telekinetic powers that enable her to do the extraordinary.
Although the movie is low budget by today's standards (strings and wires are visible if you know where to look) this book remains very enjoyable because you can picture it happening any time. Even if it was intended to deal with the angst felt by the baby boom generation (and quite possibly the frustration women were feeling in narrowed roles)it remains relevant to my generation as well.

Sadly, I neglected this one too long! It. King manages to put faces and hearts to at least a dozen characters with brutal clarity. The characters are alive and his depictions are so spot on you smell the teen spirit and feel the hateful evil slithering within them. This doesn't just have to happen in Chamberlin; I think its every high school's story, whether the arena is the the gymnasium prom-floor or a the white-blue header of a Facebook hate page.

As with many of his novels, the first 75% rushes along at mach 3 and then you sort of know what's coming at the end - the big supernatural finale. You cringe when it does, but you keep on because it IS SK, after all, not Hocking and you just pray it makes gives SOME semblance of reason and closure. And does it? Well . . . like they say, getting there is half the fun, or in this case, ALL THE FUN.

Superbly written book, masterful crafted characters. Corny ending, in my opinion.

CARRIE is a terrific book on its own; as a debut, it is simply astonishing. King's first effort does not at all seem the work of a novice. I loved the device of using excerpts from books and articles supposedly written about Carrie White and Prom Night; these chapters give an almost documentary feel to the book. In fact, for some reason, this book reminds me vaguely of HELTER SKELTER, which was, of course, a true story.
Another thing that lends atmosphere to this is King's use of parentheses to show the reader his characters' thoughts and impressions (did he invent this? I can't think of another author who does this), giving the reader a real feeling of identity with the characters.
It is also a very moving book; in addition to being a jolly good horror story, the characters evoke real feelings of sympathy. Carrie's plight is a familiar one; King evokes the middle-class high school pecking order with devastating accuracy, and the story, ultimately, is not only scary, but very sad.
It made a very good movie, incidentally. I recommend both. I've read a lot of Stephen King, but this one is still my favorite.

As much as I love Stephen King (and I do) I'd never read Carrie. Perhaps figuring it wouldn't hold up to Brian De Palma's masterful film version. I picked up Carrie as part of a Stephen King reading group I joined. I'm glad I did.

Carrie is a lean and mean tragic thriller. The structure of the story is most likely already known to most people: Social misfit Carrie White is a pariah at school and has a very dysfunctional home life with a domineering mother. A surprise invitation to the prom leads to tragedy.

However, even knowing the story the book was very much worth my time. Even here in his first published novel, Stephen King is a masterful storyteller. The novel uses a semi-epistolary form with King's narrative broken up with sections containing excerpts from government reports (The White Commission), bits of testimony, song lyrics and even graffiti scrawled on desks. His characters are very well drawn (as is usual for Stephen King) and his narrative draws you in and keeps you wanting to turn the pages.

I found the book very enjoyable and well worth my time. I only wish I hadn't put of reading it for so long.

Stephen King's Carrie is not so much a classic tale of horror and retribution as a study of the effects of repression. Carrie White is bullied: by her class mates who see her innocence as a thing to deride; by her mother, a religious zealot who subjects her daughter to bizarre and terrifying rituals.

Carrie also has another factor that ensures it is just a relevant today. It's well written. King ensures that Carrie White's character is no mere thumbnail sketch. He gives her depth as well as flesh, and by the time she wields her terrible power upon a town bent on shutting its gates upon her, well...we're sort of on her side.

King uses several devices that made this book different in its day. The use of letters and newspaper cuttings reminds the reader of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Horror set pieces such as: when Carrie has her first period in the shower and the spiteful reaction of her classmates; the slaughter of a pig with a sledge hammer and the notorious bucket of blood set to christen Carrie as she's crowned queen of the prom.

It's good to see that Carrie has been branded a classic. And to think if it had been up to Mr. King himself the original manuscript would not be gracing the bookshelves of adoring millions, it would still be in his kitchen bin!

Carrie is remembered generally as a story about bizarre superpowers of the mind, but it is a far deeper look into the effects of bullying at school and abuse at home. This particular edition has a very interesting foreword by King that describes the two real-life girls that were his inspiration for the Carrie character.

Yes, there are supernatural powers involved. But even more than the (very good) film, we get a look at how very natural forces shape Carrie into someone that can use those powers for destructive purposes. The book is also more balanced, with the school principal being a sympathetic character rather than yet another bully.

Blood, blood, and more blood. Menstrual blood, pig blood. Gushing blood, thickening blood. Blood dripping from fingers, spilling on legs, splattering from buckets. And a sickeningly sharp portrait of a telekinetic girl cornered by her mother and her high school piers into a dead end which offered only one way out - death. I admit I was lost at times in all the accounts of the Prom Night massacre told by different participants in different mediums, but I loved the resulting climax, the tension and the masterfully woven sense of terror. Love Stephen King, love his work, loved Carrie.

This book has a great story. It's a little slow at times, but it's a nice length and still a pretty quick read. This is the first Stephen King book I ever read, and it definitely made me want to read more. (I've read two since, and am reading another now) The last 30 or 40 pages are incredible and definitely worth chugging along through the slower scenes. I was very impressed with how tense this book got and well it ends. It's a bit of a wait for the grand finale but once it comes you just can't put it down. Carrie is really sad, and takes a while to build suspense, but considering this is King's first published novel I'd say it's probably one of his better novels out there.

This is a good book, like most of King's works. This is far from his best though, but is still a notable work.
This book has 3 parts, but the frusterating part is there is no chapters! It can be very frusterating at times. But that is the only major thing that is wrong with the book.
Storywise, this is a pretty enjoyable book. It starts with Carrie getting made fun of and pushed down into the ground, then she gets her revenge. The ending of the book is better and more shocking then the movie, while the movie has some better parts.
Overall, this book does have its flaws, but is still OK. This isn't really a book for kids, but it is tamer then a lot of his work. Still, there is bad content for youngsters, and it is somewhat scary. Enjoy it, it is fun to read King's older works and compare to the new stuff.

I could tell easily that Carrie had to have been one of King's first novels just by the way it was written. Carrie doesn't read so much like a narrative, but as a collection of different viewpoints trying to tell the same story, one of a tormented young girl with telekenetic powers who exacts revenge on those who treated her badly.
In Carrie, we read selections from the "Carrie White Commission", convened to discern why and how Carrie practically destroyed her community, from Sue Snell's autobiography, which exudes some compassion for Carrie in the aftermath, among others. Overall, the effect did not work for me: I found the book confusing and the writing just subpar of what King has since delivered. I suppose since I had seen the film version before reading the book, that made Carrie tolerable reading.
If you're new to King, I recommend The Shining or Misery, and suggest watching the film version of Carrie instead.

Carrie, one of the best books I have ever read, has a dark and mysterious aura. With the reader not truly knowing what is going to happen next. I personally have always enjoyed Stephen King's distinctive ways of telling a story. I think he is one of the most descriptive authors of all time.
The reader generally does not expect what is going to happen next in the book, as the main character doesn't either. Carrie White is not a regular girl. Everyday she gets constant ridicule and jeering, to then share wit the reader her pain is truly makes this book irresistible!

Carrie White has never had a real friend, let alone a boyfriend. Everyday she puts up with crap from people who get treated like prince and princesses. Anybody that doesn't sympathize for this girl would definitely not enjoy this book. I recommend this book to anybody who likes a sufficient story, full of life and un-imaginable things.
Though, I do not recommend this book to people with a weak stomach. Readers beware; anybody who is not used to blood and gore is not fit to handle this. This is book is a fantastic novel, I will say that this is not for the squeamish. Over all, this is an excellent book for most people who are fans of semi-realistic stories, and or Stephen King.

This is the book that started it all for Stephen King. I have read it over and over, and maybe I should give it five stars, but I can't say that it is an outstanding book. very good, though, and very much worth the effort. The story is both narrative and epistlitory in that it is a series of documents that you are reading after the fact, the way that Dracula is written. this works well, but i think keeps the reader a little distant from the characters. For Stephen King fans, this is a must read. Highly Recommend.

Carrie is, of course, a great story and great novel. I read it about 30 years ago and have seen the original movie, Carrie, many times. I just finished re-reading the book because I want it to be fresh, as I plan to see the new movie.

I've always liked the story. However, being somewhat of a romantic, I've also always longed for a completely different outcome after Carrie accepts the invitation to the prom. The first time I saw the movie, I invented a "happier ending" in my head after seeing it. Too bad there is not an "altered ending" version where Momma gets her butt locked in the "praying room" (via Carrie's talent) while Carrie goes to the prom. Carrie is elected prom queen... BUT, somehow the blood never gets poured on Carrie. She senses it, uses her powers to make Chris pay for her sins with the car wreck and perhaps a bit less spectacular version of her telekinetic episode. Momma then gets thrown into an insane asylum where she belongs, and all turns out well with Carrie actually finally fitting in after everyone sees that she is a real person and how beautiful she really is. Perhaps Tommy and her actually fall in love and eventually marry. Ah... how sweet!

But NO, it's not to be here. This is a much darker tale. Even at that, I can't help feel sorry for Carrie and actually rooting for her revenge. You might say she, ummmm, took it a bit too far, though... :)

Although Rage and The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger pre-date Carrie, this was the first novel Stephen King ever published. The rest is history. Strange how things work out. The right time, the right place and the most popular author on the planet is born. Had Carrie been published today, would Stephen King be the publishing icon that he is now? Great question. What's the answer? I doubt it. As a first novel, Carrie takes us back to high school where Carrie White, the unfortunate 'out' girl is constantly tormented by the more popular kids. Her face is not pretty and her clothes are not fashionable and her mother is a phychotic religious fanatic and that spells ultra persecution for Carrie. But....she has telekinesis. Best not to f*ck with her. Right? No, lets dump pig's blood all over her at the prom as a joke. Kids will never learn and Carrie unleashes hell on earth to those who humiliate her and those who are just unfortunate enough to be there.

Great.

Wow!

Stupendous....

Not really. Carrie is a good effort by a man who would become a legend and that is really all. There is nothing extraordinary about Carrie as a novel. It could have been written by anyone. Stephen King finds his voice very quickly in his second effort 'Salem's Lot, but Carrie is faceless and often dull, just like the main character.

Carrie

by Stephen King

Review by ericapp

Chamberlain, Maine, where Stephen King's Carrie is based is a small, quiet town. That serenity all changes when an always-teased, outcast high school senior, who just happens to be possessed with telekinetic powers, is the butt of another of her classmates' pranks, and she decides to get even with the world. The story of Carrie, whose dominating life factors are her religious-nut mother and her not-so-nice classmates, is told through magazine articles and investigative reports by witnesses and classmates who survived her onslaught.

Carrie White is one of those on-the-outs types that exist in every class. You know the sort: that person has pimples but not friends, is shy, dresses different, is not like anybody else, and is always picked on. Having been raised by an off-the-wall, domineering mother, Margaret White, who believes dating, thinking about sex, and having relationships are sin, how could Carrie be anything but dissimilar? The difference between Carrie and the exile classmates that you and I know is that Carrie possesses telekinetic powers.

In the story, Carrie experiences her period for the first time in the school's locker room shower, and she has no idea what has happened (her mother never told her). Her classmates make fun of her, and they get in trouble for it. Sue Snell, one of the disciplined classmates, is distraught for her actions and wants to make it up to Carrie. Sue coerces her boyfriend, the popular Tommy Ross, to take Carrie to the senior prom. Not all of the seditious girls are as forgiving though: Chris Hargeson, another of the subversive girls, decides the senior prom is the perfect opportunity to really humiliate Carrie. After Tommy and Carrie are named king and queen and are on the stage, pig's blood pours onto Carrie from the gymnasium's ceiling. For Carrie, that's the final straw, and now it's time for revenge.

What I liked most about the book is that the characters--both the good and the bad--can be related to by most of us. Haven't we all at one time or another been nasty to those around us and also have been at the other side of the spectrum--picked on? When put in a defenseless position, a typical person will wish he either had the skill to fight back or a "special" power. Although not as good as some of his later work--like Pet Sematary and Christine--King does a good job of putting the reader in each of the character's shoes, and he also makes the characters and situations seem real. Also, the book is not nearly as gory or horrifying as advertised; it is simply a story of an out-of-the-ordinary girl who settles the score.

Though not King's best scribe, Carrie is an easy read, moves along quickly, and is always interesting. I would recommend this book for all readers.

***1/2 stars

Carrie is King's first published book, and I think it's one of his best up to date, along with The Stand and The eyes of the dragon. Carrie is a very unique character. She grew up under the surveillance of a very religious and controling mother who believed that everything related to sex was demoniac. In that kind of environment, the kid couldn't be anything but kind of crazy herself. That would be fine, if she wasn't motive of laughter in the school, and if she hadn't one very special power: telekinetics. The book is very easy to read. The reader must pay attention to every detail, so one can fully understand the subtleties of the plot. For example, the name of the protagonist is Carrie (a carrier) White (the innocence). Very good for a first try. Congratulations, Mr King.

This was the first book I ever read of Stephen King's and I was drawn in, hook, line and sinker (and a few other cliche's that come to mind). Perhaps it was that I was in high school at the time, and so are the main characters. Perhaps it was that I love the `58 Plymouth Fury, which was the focus of the novel. Perhaps it was that I love a blend of ghost stories and psychological thrillers, and Christine fit both. But I think it was all of these, and the magnificent style that Stephen King had; the way he pulled at your mind and made you feel with the characters.
The premise is not too hard to accept for any die hard horror fan: a car with a seemingly evil soul. But what draws you in is Arnie Cunningham. He is the quintessential nerd you either were, or knew in high school. You get to see this pathetec, yet lovable character taken from his own innocence by the evil of the car, and you get to see this through the eyes of his best friend. By the end you feel like you were Arnie's best friend too, right to the very end...
I have enjoyed many of Stephen King's novels since that day I picked this one up, but never have I enjoyed any of them more than this. Many have come close...but none were better.

They say the world will gobble you up if you don't stand tall.

They say the world is a nasty place if you don't know your way around.

They say being a grown up is tough.

I guess "they" never went to High School.

High school can be brutal; can be judgemental, and can be very trying. Kids bothering other kids. Kids making fun of other kids. And when your unpopular, you don't stand a chance in High School. That was the story of one girl called Carrie. A very unpopular girl, that got teased in school like everyone else, kept a secret that nobody knew. Carrie had a gift.

Carrie would concrete on something and it would move. At first scary, then sastisfying, then horrible. Carrie never thought that she would fit in anywhere and she was doomed with this "gift" for the rest of her life.

Then a kind, special thing happened. Carrie was accepted. She was floating on Cloud 9, thinking nothing can stop her now.

Except....(don't you just hate that word)...something happens....something horrible happens. The kids. The school.

And Carrie. Carrie unleashes her "gift" and the kids....well, let's just say they learned their lesson and they will never forget the unpopular girl called....Carrie.

This may shock people, but I've never actually read a work by Stephen King before now, even though I've heard of him. With Carrie though, intrigue outweighed my fear of horror and I was eagar to know, well, what made this book a classic.

I was hooked from the begining of the book, and I loved every aspect, from the narrative style to the characterisations. But if you're looking for horror, well, I didn't feel scared at all. In fact, I thought of it more as a psychological study than a horror story, with its predominant themes of bullying and a twisted bildunsroman story/ending.

A more detailed review can be found at: [...]

To treat it as just 'horror' would only do this coming-of-age-telekenetic-girl-having-her-period-for-nearly-300-pages, an injustice, because it is also an original modern All-american high school tale that is the solid writing undercurrent that carries the high concept pitch that floats on it, this his first novel saved from the bin by his wife who said 'hey, this ain't bad' while they lived in a trailer home, got King his first six digit check, the idea can be summed up the image of huge full size jesus swaying inside the neighbour's trailer living room with the daughter always kneeling down before it, King blatantly lived by the die hard writing tip #1 of -- write what you know... and that is why Carrie is so whacked out.

I read most of Stephen King's books about 10 years ago in high school, and recently I decided to buy them all and read them again. I started with "Carrie" since it was his first novel. It is less polished than his later works but he still has the same story flow that makes you keep reading. One thing I always liked about King's books is that he can change back and forth between subjects without losing you, and by making you interested in both of them. For instance, in this book the constant notes of the Carrie White commission provide premonitions of what is to happen later. Overall, I still like King a lot, especially his stuff before 1990. I'd recommend starting with this one if you haven't read his work before.

At its heart, this novel is a cautionary tale about the evil that can arise when a person is maltreated by society. Carrie's deadly powers are first manifested in this novel while she is being bullied by her classmates in the school showers, and it is the nastiness of her peers that leads to so much destruction in the end. Other themes in the novel include adolescent sexuality, religious fanaticism, and the aforementioned highschool bullying. There is plenty of emotional depth, pathos, and supernatural thrills to make Carrie a potentially GREAT book!

So why the harsh 2-star rating?

well, for some reason this very short novel (by King's standards) felt like a much longer read than it should have been. King chose to intersperse passages of news print, critical articles, legal extracts, and autobiographies into the main narration of the novel, which interrupted the flow of the story. For the first three quarters of the novel this intertextuality was a mild irritation, but then as the plot approached its climax King began to stuff more and more different extracts into the narrative, which made the pace unbearably slow (when really it should have been speeding up). i felt like i had to read through about 8 different accounts of the same event and it became very tedious! King might have been trying to make the story more "believable" by including all those extracts, but instead it produced the opposite effect!

Well, now I'm feeling a bit guilty about criticising a great writer's first novel, albeit one produced several decades ago. This obviously isnt King at the height of his powers. Its just a bit sad that the flawed structure of the story spoiled what could have been a 4-star, or maybe even a 5-star book. I'd only recommend this for aspiring writers who want to learn about some mistakes that should be avoided, or obsessed fans who feel like they need to read everything that King ever wrote. For everyone else, you might like to check out Salem's Lot or Misery (these are my personal fav's).

I never saw the movie, but I knew about "the prom" through scenes you would see here or there. I think that's why I didn't enjoy this as much as if I never heard a thing about the book. Still it's a really good read even if you do know about "the prom". Nice and short (I wish more books edited this way).

King does a great job walking the line between unbelievable and plausible. He gets how human behavior varies with the clever banter he has between his characters, just a joy to read. I'm a late comer in his fan club and I'm looking for my next King novel to read. Recommend!

'Carrie', Stephen King's first novel, is truly remarkable writing! Most authors don't have quite the stinging debut they hoped for, but this book deffinetly did, even today. The story is about a teenage girl named Carrie White who has a trumatic life, where home isn't safe, school isn't safe, and she isn't safe. She grows up with her psycho catholic mother who often locks her in the closet, and at school is constantly cutdown. cutdown doesn't even describe the humiliation and torture, the hell of carries life is the true horror in this story. So all of a sudden Carrie snaps, things start happening when she gets overwhelemed, and she starts gaining telekentic powers and hurting and killing anyone who stands in her way. I appreciated King's writing and description. He truly is a genius of his craft, and creates a realistic cast of characters. The story is really depressing, but if your like me, you enjoy reading the humiliation and torture, and keep reading in your morbid giddiness. This is my first Stephen King novel I have fully read, and I have never seen the movie, which makes the book much more fun. This is a classic.

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.

While I have seen the classic horror movie many times over the years, this was my first time reading the book. I was surprised that it was part narrative and part documentary style, which made for an extremely enjoyable read. I think it would have really improved the movie to take on that same format. I marvel at King's creativity!!

The story is about a teenage girl named Carrie White 17 years old who has a trumatic life. Her mother, Margaret White, has a very strange view of Christianity...forcing Carrie to go into a small closet and pray for forgiveness even after minor events. Carrie can be in there from 6 hours up to 24 hours (Not allowed out to even go to the toilet) Almost everything is seen as a sin in Ms. White's eyes

Carrie has no friends at school and is the target for all bullies. She is tripped over regularly, jeared at and laughed at regularly. She just wants to be part of the group but noone will have anything to do with her.

Carrie finally gets a break when Tommy Ross asks her to go to the Prom. Little does she know that her hateful classmates are planning a surprise for her.

You will come to feel Carrie's pain and rage and come to loath the teenagers making her life a living hell. I highly recommend this story. I don't give many 5 stars but this deserves it maybe even a 6 star!!!!!

As with virtually everything Stephen King has written, this is enjoyable reading. It is also a quick-read for anyone who is intimidated by the length of some of the author's later works. I think the basic premise of this story appeals to many people because Carrie is, in many ways, the ultimate underdog, a girl terrorized by an insanely religious mother, victimized and persecuted by her peers, and alienated from the world around her. Everyone in life has been a victim or a bully, and I think the story of Carrie White does impart an important lesson to the folks out there who are treating someone they know the way that Carrie's classmates treated her. For those of us more sympathetic to Carrie's plight--the high school "outcasts," the "poor," the unpopular, the nerds, etc.--the story really matters here. Many of us daydream about the revenge we will exact from those kids who made fun of us all those years ago, and Carrie White shows us that revenge is not all it is cracked up to be. Carrie's "triumph" costs many innocent people their lives, and it doesn't really do a whole lot of good for Carrie herself.
You don't need me to tell you why you should read or re-read this book. This is Stephen King. By this point in time, unless you are just coming of age, you have already read this book if you are one of King's legions of fans or even if you were ever curious about this man's phenomenal success. Even more of you have probably seen the movie. While the movie was pretty faithful to the book, not even the magic of cinema can convey the true weight and atmosphere of this (or any other) book. Carrie is also King's first published novel. This is very important to would-be writers--clearly, King was still learning his craft when he wrote this novel, and thus the process of reading it provides any potential writer with a great learning experience. The format here is significantly different from King's more mature work. The story is told through several "voices," including a third-person account from a "survivor," extracts from research articles and newspaper items based on the events, as well as a more traditional author's voice. Thus, we get several perspectives on the characters and events. The story is not as fluid as it might be because we switch from one viewpoint to another as the tale unfolds. While I much prefer the style of King's later works, especially in terms of getting inside a character, King still infuses Carrie's world with realism and believability, proving that he can create masterful atmosphere and mood with any number of literary tools.

"Carrie" began the authors career as a horror writer. It is a rather small book, about a girl that is bullied at her High School. In this novel, King demonstrates the quality of writing that has made him such a best selling author.

As with all of Kings novels,"Carrie", has an interesting plot, a great set of characters and is very well written. If you want to see how it all began, give this book a couple of hours of your time. You won't be disappointed.

Extremely strong character development and strong dialogue mark all of King's work and Carrie is no exception. King is a wonderful weaver of tales. When I read this book while in my teens, I was bored with it and just didn't get it. Reading it again as an adult, I can better see all of the inner turmoil that the characters are facing. It's also interesting how he breaks up the narrative with exerpts from real sounding commission reports, news stories and post-event accounts of the events of prom night. Truly a well written story of the terrible things that adolescents do to one another and what might happen if the right person is pushed past her threshold of tolerance.

I beg to disagree that his work is flawed although SK himself claims it to be too raw. I enjoyed reading the book & watching the movie as well. Carrie is indeed a popular figure & has travelled from generations to generations. & upto these days, I can still clearly remember Carrie/Spacek's naive face. I couldn't wait for Carrie to punish her bully schoolmates for they deserved to be gotten back for all their mischievousness. But kids are kids & so be it. I just wished that Carrie was able to control her powers & punish only the guilty & not the innocent ones. But had it been that way, the ending would have been less tragic, & therefore, would have had a lesser impact.

"Carrie" is always marketed as a horror story, but its main appeal is almost sociological. The telekenesis comes into effect when Carrie feels very upset or angry; it is really a story of a poor, young girl, who is bullied at school and at home and becomes unbearably upset at times. The 659 [if I remember right] who die in the book gives a feeling of, "Couldn't all this have been prevented?" The ending is pretty bleak. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a Stephen King book, as his books usually have something upbeat to finish on ["Pet Sematary" is another exception]. As far as horror goes, this is pretty serious.

I love this to bits and I am a 20 year old male. I have had similar experiences to Carrie in some respects [obviously not in terms of menstruation!]. People who have been bullied throughout school like this better than others, I have found. I have also noticed that Popular people from school [which I can't help writing with a bit of resentment still] find it harder to sympathise with the girl.

Carrie is the story of a high school girl- the bottom rung of the social ladder, violently oppressed (and repressed) by her fanatically religious mother- who matures into her telekinetic powers and in the end is pushed to use them in a tragic and devastating way. The story is good, but not outstanding, and it's not the type of Stephen King scary that will creep you out at night.

I think the main value of Carrie lies in the moving depiction of the experience of a girl who has been bullied and picked on her whole life, and the brink that she eventually reached as a result. In the end, though Carrie White takes on the role of villain, the reader still deeply sympathizes with her (contrast with Jack Torrance in The Shining).

The presentation of the story is slightly annoying. Narration constantly shifts between first person, third person, newspaper articles and a book being written about the events in the story, which is somewhat jarring. And a lot of the writing is just plain bad (which King freely admits- Salem's Lot was an improvement tenfold). So I'm giving the book three stars, though the story deserved four.

Anyone who is (or aspires to be) a serious King fan must read this book though, despite its foibles. This is where it all began. Also, seeing how hard work and practice can tremendously improve the craft of writing should be an inspiration to young aspiring novelists who read Carrie along with some of King's later work!

I DEDICATE THIS Review TO WOMEN ALL AROUND THE WORLD OF ALL COLOUR,RACES,RELIGIONS,NATIONALITY AND CREED...(ALL WOMEN ARE EQUAL,IN MY EYES....Nigel..)

In this remarkable novel,SK makes his debut.An unlikely but good book.It has a good dose of horror/suspense and it is one of the best books I have ever read...

It is simply about a teenager from Maine,named Carietta White(Carrie).From the beginning of the story we see who her mother(Margaret white)takes advantage of her,making her feel stupid and left out.Similiarly in school,Carrie is always the "Black sheep",she has not friends and she is always picked upon.She is very unusual and strange,at least to most people,especially the ones in the book(story).(but I would say quite frankly that I didn't see here as anybody but a normal healthy teenage girl.)

At the beginning of the story we also see that Carrie has her first period while taking a shower at school.She is laughed at and all the other girls throw toilet paper and tampons at her.This is her first big humiliation.(I am a guy,I know not much about a period,so please forgive my use of the term openly)

Anyway,back to the plot:Carrie soon realizes that she is Psychic.She starts to practice using her powers gradually.It seems as though she had the powers since birth,but the powers were dormant until puberty or at least she was unaware of it.

So,so far we see this:a very unusual girl with psychic powers and a stupid mother.

The story initially and mostly circulates around these facts but things get a little messy towards the middle and end.

Allow me.....

It is later revealed in the story that the psychic gift is sort of genetic.Carrie's mother explains alot of things,but she is still a bad mother.

(but I still can't hate carries's mother,because most mothers are sort of protective over their children)

Soon Carrie gets her first friend Sue.Sue feels sorry for Carrie and helps her to get a date for the prom.

This date is Tommy Ross...

Meanwhile,one of the bad girls,Chris,is unable to attend the prom.So,she sets up a nasty revenge against Carrie.Believe me when I tell you,Chris is a very jealous girl and if she can't have something,no one else can,especially Carrie.

So Chris arranges a trap for Carrie.(Two buckets of pig blood)

She sets it up for the pig blood to fall on Carrie's and Tommy's head while at the prom...

The plan eventually succeeds.

Tommy is badly injured.

Drenched in pig's blood,Carrie is laughed at,for the last time.She runs out of the building.She then remembers her psychic powers and decides to use it for revenge.

She starts to close all the doors.She then turns on all the water sprinklers,wetting everyone.

But with a combination of water and electricity(from the appliances)....some were electrocuted.

Eventually a fire gets started.And things start to burn!

She walks toward her home,burning everything within a certain radius of her powers.

When she reaches home her mother tries to kill her,telling her that she is the spawn of satan.She eventually uses her powers to stop her mothers' heart beat,killing her.

Eventually(this is the good part of the book),while Carrie is walking on the streets(going I don't know where)she seens Chris and Chris's boyfriend driving towards her,to bounce her.

Carrie uses her powers to diverge to car,killing Chris and her stupid boyfriend.

Sue eventually catches up with Carrie.Carrie doesn't kill her because she realizes that it wasn't Sue's falt but Chris's.

(During the battle with her mother,Carrie was stabbed,I forgot to mention it,sorry.)

So,now,talking with sue Carrie eventually breathes her last breath and speaks her last words and just,dies.(this is the sad part,I guarantee you that it would bring tears to your eyes,or maybe not)

But this book is definitely good,I recommend it with all my "Psychic" powers.

Enjoy.............This review was written by Nigel....

Stephen King is Stephen King, he's always good. I heard about this book a lot but only now decided to read it to the end.
The story is really enjoyable, just only the moments about the letters freaked me out sometimes, but that's okay.
I think every person would act like Carrie if people laughed at him or her as much as the children from her school. The book makes you realize that no person in the world deserves a mockery, just think a little deeper before you sneer somebody.

King's first published novel is one of my favorites! It's simple yet very well written and hard to put down. Basically about a girl who discovers her telekinetic ability and full potential after suffering a traumatic event in the girls' locker room at the hands of her peers.A perpetual victim of a religiously psychotic mother and bullies at school, Carrie just wants to be liked and fit in but finally is pushed to the limits....

Exciting book, really liked it, finished it in two sittings

Well the book i read was by Stephen King one of the greatest authors ever. Well I think this book was most interesting because these things that happened to carrie can really happen. Like being fiscally and verbally abused. Also when he stated the fact that she was sixteen and had her first period in front of everybody, i mean she has already been picked on and laughed at all her life i mean what worse could happen besides getting tampons and napkins and pads thrown at you. Well trust me you will have more to read, and also she found out that she had telekinesis whoa thats another thing coming for you.
But the most part is can't believe the way her mom treats her. Her mom tries to act like she is the most holiest person in the world, and even when she creates sins her self by abusing her daughter and throwing her in the closet for hours and not giving her food. But when she finds out the cutest boy Tommy wants to take her to the prom she thinks nothing else could go wrong. Well she was wrong about that. She thought since she was with Tommy everyone would want to be her friend. Even though she wasn't the prettiest girl or really skinniest girl she thought every thing could actually be normal for her.
But the day of the prom she actually was the prettiest girl in the room nice red dress her breast all out. Even Tommy didn't believe that it was her when he picked her up. She was a totally different person from when he first asked her to the prom. But the ending a can not tell because it is far to interesting for me to go and ruin it for you so just buy or rent the book and start reading. And trust me all that reading it is worth it.

I first read King's CARRIE when I was in the eighth grade. I am now a high school sophomore and this novel still remains a favorite. It's a tale of an outcast who discovers that she's been blessed, or cursed, with the rare and incredible powers of telekinesis. This means she can move objects and make things happen merely with the power of her mind.
Both home life and high school life are nightmares, almost literally. King opens the story with Carrie getting her very first period in the locker room after gym class. She's up in arms about what to do - at 16 she has never experienced nor heard of such a thing. Her classmates turn vicious and scream chants of "Plug it up! Plug it up!" started by truly cruel Chris Hargensen. The girls then hurl tampons and sanitary napkins at her from the broken machine on the wall. Poor, helpless Carrie stands there, utterly confused and humiliated all the same, looking "the part of the sacrificial goat." The "fun" stops when Ms. Desjardin, the gym teacher intervenes, slapping Carrie to snap her out of her hysterical fit.
Carrie is sent home early that day. Out of all the girls, Sue Snell feels the guiltiest and wants to make it up to Carrie. So she convinces her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, to take Carrie to the prom. If you've seen the 70s movie, you know what goes down at the prom. If not, read and see.
At home, Carrie deals with a religiously fanatic mother who never spoke about menstruation because she believed it was sinful. Mrs. White is a single mother who preaches, what she believes to be Christ's ways, all through the neighborhood. When Carrie is "bad" and "sinful," she gets thrown into the prayer closet to "pray for forgiveness." Everything in Mrs. White's mind is sinful. And because Carrie's father died, she has no one else to turn to for help.
This novel, at times, is honestly horrifying. Lovers of scary stories (and King) are sure to enjoy this read. Some complain about the passages of Carrie White and her telekinesis but I found them to be the ideal story tie-in and quite useful to explain Carrie's past and further talk of her powers. If you've seen the movie, you may almost feel as if it's a must to read this book but that really isn't the case here. The book stands wonderful all on its own.

Carrie was one of the first King books I ever read. It’s a classic. You have a young girl, who is relentlessly tormented by her peers and domineering mother, with unimaginable powers. The style it is written in makes it seem as if all the events actually occurred instead of being manufactured in King’s brilliant mind. If you’ve never read the book—King’s first major publication—you definitely want to check it out. It’s a great read.

Carrie is the story of a young teenage girl who is hounded by bullies at school and hounded by her nuerotic mother at home. An example of the craziness of her mother is when Carrie gets her period. Carrie was never informed of what this is and thinks she is dying. She turns to her mother who beats her and tells her she is of the devil and that she must pray for forgiveness. Carrie soon learns that she has telekinetic powers and can use it to her advantage. The climax of this story involves Carrie and her wrath against her schoolmates. You won't believe what they did to her and what she does back to them. This is a terrific King book!

I think this is a must read before entering the dog-eat-dog world of high school. Carrie is a blunt revenge tale with a desolate human feel; you weep for Carrie. The story format is similar to the House of Leaves, citing various government/civilian studies foreshadowing the tragedy. This is Kings first published novel, blessedly short, and a must read.

Considering that this is Stephen King's first novel, this is an amazing book. In "Carrie," King does his best job out of all his books at developing a character that the reader can really just feel for. He gets you to feel so sorry for her for having to put up with all of the things that happen to her, whether it be at her school where she is constantly tormented by her peers, or at her home, where she must live with her psycho-religious mother. While doing this, he also manages to develop a diabolical plot that leads up to one of the most stunning climaxes of any novel. I definitely recommend that you get this book.

Stephen King's first novel Carrie is a classic film of horror.

Sissy Spacek portrayal of Carrie White. Her performance was

amazing on film, combined with performances by newcomers

William Katt, Nancy Allen, John Travolta, and Amy Irving. This

film is worth buying on DVD.

This brings me to the unabridged audio version of Carrie (7.5 hours, seven CDs, Simon & Schuster Audio). This audio narration is done by Sissy Spacek. I like Spacek's simple narration. There is a problem with her narration. She has lost Carrie White's voice in her narrative effort. As a simple story, she does a great job . . . but you have to feel for the Character of Carrie (and you don't).

In the audio version of the book, you can understand how this material seems slightly dated and needs a slight updating.Which also brings it down a notch

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

Oh my, this is great pre-modern King work. The introduction alone is great.
I'm sure you have at least seen the movie, which I've heard is good, but in the words of (insert famous person here), "The book is always better than the movie."
Anyway, back to the book: it switches from first-, second-person, and news/ interviews from the aftermath.
I say "the aftermath," because after Carrie gets mildly frustrated, she kills 409 people ( and 18 are still missing ). Int he aftermath, a "White Commission" ( no doubt modeled after the Warren Commission ) is set up to investigate the "disaster".
Conclusion: Carrie gets telekinetic (TK) powers. Carrie gets mad. Chamberlain gets destroyed.
P.S. Sorry if I ruined the story for you :-)

Carrie is a novel that you should read before seeing the films because of what really happens the night of the prom. And in there she was heavy now that is all I'm going to say now read the book it's actually a lot better has all books are and different so get this i picked my copy up at a weis before seeing the newest one and i wasn't disappointed.

If I remember right this was the first novel that Stephen King sold, and the first to be made into a movie. It is a great story, about a girl entering late puberty, scorned by her classmates due to what they perceive as her weird way of dressing, controlled by a hyper religious mom. Carrie develops telekinetic powers and the tables are turned on everyone who torments her. Great character development and a well known horrible ending. A great introduction to King for those who have not read the story.

This book is fabulous and horror filled because it tells the TRUTH about human nature and the microcosm that is high school. Though written in the early 70s we still see the same types walking the halls today-the Carries, the popular bitchy rich girl, the Sue Snells and Tommys and so on. In the film, Carrie is the beautiful Sissy Spacek. Sissy would never be the Carrie that is in this book, that Carrie we are told has stains under her armpits....Carrie's humiliation and the destruction she unleashes are not to be missed. This is vintage Early King, he says its raw and somewhat disses it, but it is his best work.

I want to open by stating that I am a 'tried and true' King fan -- I love his novels and shorter fiction (Okay, Tom Gordon is a stretch). Carrie is definately a successful attempt by King to create characters that continually haunt the reader. Margeret White, for example, is a truly psycopathic, terrifying character who literally ruins our heroine, Carrie. We believe the insane, abusive zealotry found in Mrs. White; she neverendingly haunts our imagination, with large upper arms and daddy's bible in hand. Additionally, Carrie is drawn as a character teens and adults find appealing; we empatize with her view of society and its inherent cruelty. Carrie, furthermore, is an unleashed but polluted beauty or a Blakeian 'Sick Rose.' Although King is sucessful in his creation of character, it is the linear and occasionally predicatable plot that detracts from the perfection of the story. The progression from Carrie's womanhood and maturing of her TK power to her all out frustration with momma and the tantalizing teanagers works well, but King's plot/subplot development is not at its peak. Instead, King seems to apply a more creative narrative structure -- a structure of clippings, testimonies, and journals that clearly works well. Carrie is an example of King's earliest success that shows his expertise in riveting character development.

CARRIE is the third novel I've read by Stephen King. The other two are BAG OF BONES and THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON. I liked CARRIE the least of all those books, but it was definitely a fast and sacry read. Margaret White, Carrie's mother, was very cruel and entertaining and the newspaper articles and interviews are intriguing and fun to read. CARRIE was also a good book because it wasn't long at all and the dialogue and writing was easy to comprehend. The greatest characters are Sue Snell and Tommy, the best people King ever thought up in his creative head. CARRIE was fine by my entertainment standards!!!

I know this is minor complaint, but I couldn't figure out how old Carrie was in the book. Everyone assumes that she was sixteen. The Shadow Exploded (p. 54), a book frequently referenced that gives detail regarding Carrie's life, notes she was born September 21, 1963. However, the program given out to the students attending the Chamberlain High School Spring Ball had the date of May 27, 1979 printed on the front cover, making her fifteen. Further, the newspaper reporting the rain of stars happening on August 17, 1966 mentioned Carrie as being three years old when, in fact, she was only two. Finally, we know that Sue Snell and Tommy Ross were in the same senior class as Carrie. Sue mentions in her book that after graduating Chamberlain Jr High with Carrie, she set her sights on college, while Carrie was in line for secretarial school. Anyway, the point is, assuming they were all about the same age and in the same class as Carrie in May of 1979, doesn't it seem odd that they were all fifteen or sixteen at the time of high school graduation?

I had been planning to read a Stephen King book for a long time, and I decided why not start with first, and most classic, book CARRIE? I started reading it on Saturday Morning. I was done with it by Sunday Afternoon. The first two paragraphs of CARRIE just reel you in, and it's a hook you're glad to be stuck on.
CARRIE is about a character named Carrie White, who is the one outcast that everyone only pays attention to when they're in search of a good, cruel laugh. There's one thing they don't know about her, and that is that Carrie is telekenetic (T.K.), a mental condition where the effected mind can be capable of amazing feats, sometimes even deadly ones...and when a girl like Carrie has that power, no one knows what might happen. Stephen King shows all sides of the story beautifully by having various characters revolving around Carrie, and all the well-thought-out bits of information about Carrie herself from books, court testimonials and such.
I give it only four stars out of five because near the end of the novel, there was more action than I wanted, so I became slightly bored. But as soon as it went back to Carrie's Point-of-View, I was once again hooked.
This book, in itself, is very shocking. The sexual terms that Stephen King uses in his writing are always shocking, but for some reason, I wanted to read more of the shock material. I think that in our minds, we always yearn for what we're reading to go over our usaual boundries, and CARRIE most certainly does that.
Because of the shock material, I would recommend this book for anyone older than a very mature twelve year old. It's a great book to just sit down with, read, and enjoy the ride!

I have never seen either Carrie movie, but I have to say that this book is haunting. The writing style is a little odd at first, but it works in this book! You really get sucked into the life of Carrie and begin to feel bad for her. This isn't just the story of some crazy person with super powers, it's much more than that and Stephen King does an excellent job at making the characters come to life.

I read Carrie many many years ago and just recently I decided to reread Stephen King from the beginning. Of course, this was the first published so this was the first one I read. This book still kept me up in the middle of the night reading, it gave me very weird dreams, and when I finished it, I still felt like I had just finished a work of genius. This book is very scary, very bloody, but it kind of reads like nonfiction, which to me makes it even more scary. I love this book, and I highly recommend it to all my customers.

I can understand how some people can find Carrie amazing. King has a great way of telling a story. He's so descriptive and is easy to read. He has a lot of literary elements he uses in his writing as well. As for the story as a whole, I found it a little cliched. Don't know how many times I've watched a movie, TV show, or read a book about someone with super powers that can levitate things, shut doors, etc. Pftt... The opening scene in the shower with her period was nasty. The killing and super religious mom isn't my style. It felt like just another teen "coming of age" novel that was just plain crude from the characters (though credit to King).
I also got confused with the different newspaper articles, books from different authors, etc. mixed in. It felt like they didn't belong where they did, at least they could have been at the end, or in a sequel/prequel.
Not for me.

I first read this book in high school and could not put it down. The memory lingers strongly to this day. You are drawn into the pages by the realism and situations that King weaves. Who can forget the awkwardness and cruelties we all faced in high school. We all knew someone like Carrie who was the brunt of the most cruel jokes and pranks. I say the movie did not do justice to the book. For one thing a movie cannot capture the emotion and clarity of things that King so masterfully writes. It's no wonder he became the great author he is today. A sheer masterpiece like this one is a real credit to his talent.

I've been one of Mr. King's "Constant Readers" for years. However, my reading of his tales began with Gerald's Game and, until this past year, I never read anything published before it.

I now realize how unfortunate that was! The past few months have allowed me to rediscover Stephen King in an entirely new light. I finished Carrie this evening from my Kindle. (I've been THRILLED about all the classic King works popping up reguarly, as of late, in Kindle format. KEEP THEM COMING the store!) While it hasn't been my favorite of the older works (Hey I read It and The Stand during this team; tough acts to follow to say the least!) it was an utterly captivating read. The printed version is some 200 pages, and it did feel such. It's a must read, for... well... anyone.

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.

I have to say that I was suprised by this book. It was my first time reading a Stephen King book, and I thought I would get confused with all the science fiction stuff, but I was confused very rarely by this book. In some ways I thought it was better than the movie because the book goes into more details of all the characters lives. I liked that it was a lot different than the movie, and I didn't feel like I was reading the movie script. I think this book is great for anyone who's a Stephen King fan. This was very good considering it was his first book.

This is a pretty good, short, and gory book. I finished it very fast and loved it. It is about a High School girl with telekinesis. She is unliked and at her school, until she is asked to go to the Prom with a very popular guy. She thinks it is a trick, but he gets her to do it. They are voted King and Queen of the Prom and everything is going great until they play a bad trick on her. She unleashes her power and soon the whole city is in ruins.
I recommend it, it is a quick book. I was a little dissapointed, but I guess I was expecting too much.

I read Carrie because Stephen King described creating the manuscript and ultimately selling it, his first mega sale, in his fabulous 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.' Having watched the Carrie movies, I felt familiar enough with the storyline, but reading the novel gave me a newfound appreciation for poor Carrie. It reminded me how much I hate high school bullies. This is a horror story, but the scariest parts involve very mean, very human bullies. The telekinetic stuff is a sinister bonus.

I first read this book when I was about 15, and a freshman in highschool. My closeness in age to Carrie made her situations all the more real to me. I loved all the details King provided...the school locker room, Carrie's house, her clothes, the way her body looked, even the painfully intimate details about her period. I guess all the little facts and detailed descriptions made me feel as if I had a bond with her somehow.

This book also made me a little nostalgic for the 70's. Not having lived throught that decade, I really enjoyed the 70's teenage culture and references. I wasn't too keen on King's use of newspaper articles, however...I would have preferred narration...but nevertheless it was an interesting way to reveal background information.

Even though I've read this book countless times now, I still have the feeling of being so utterly powerless as it progresses. I wish I could intervene and stop Chris and Billy's plan...but the tragic ending is always inevitable.

I wonder if this book was Stephen King's only as well as his first published novel, would he be remembered at all today? Possibly he'd be a footnote, known to trivia buffs as the man who wrote the novel on which the mid-seventies Brian De Palma mega-hit movie version of Carrie was based. But the fact is this was just King's starting point and thirty years of great work has followed. Carrie was the one that started it all, and for that reason it deserves to be read, but as for its own merits, well, I dunno, I just never quite warmed to this disturbing little book, and read it only after I'd put a dozen other King books behind me. But to each her own.

While the constant intercutting between the fictional print articles and book excerpts with Sue Snell's flashbaacks to Carrie's tragic life are a bit jarring, it remains a unique novel that began a marvelous career that many of us are still talking about today. And it is a sigh a relief to know Stephen King made the same mistakes that I did with my own first novel, Dothan, ten years before reading it (mistakes that have since been corrected in subsequent editions).

Flawed, but still an amazing first effort through and through.

Carrie is, of course, another eerie novel by Stephen King. I recommend this novel to anyone who appeal to dark eerie novels about the human psyche of loneliness. This novel ties the sick and demented perspective of religious fanatics. I will admit the novel has rather dull sections especially towards the middle pages. Though others may enjoy this section I found the plot to be over hyped and rather dull by it drifting from the dark lonely theme of the novel. As the novel progresses to the climax and resolution suspense is well built. King's ability to switch back and forth between character point of views and articles that portray the main story is perfected. The creepy mindset Carrie contains at the end of the novel is brilliant. This is yet another excellent novel by Stephen King. The movie did not do this novel justice and I highly recommend reading the novel and not watching the movie. The novel contains the unique elements King intended to out stand in the novel.

I decided to grab this book on a whim, because of all the hoopla surronding the new movie (Carrie 2: The Rage) which is loosely based on the first movie, which is in turn based on the book. I am pleased to say that this was a unique book; a simple premise of a girl who didn't fit in taken to the extreme! I read the whole book in just under a day, and this tale just screams justified vengence, and left me whirling in the end; an incredible first book by Mr. King (it IS after all twenty five years old, and has aged remarkably well). Here is a 22 year old guy putting his thumbs up for a true classic!

I believe this was King's first published novel. I know this was the one that started his career.

I've read this book twice. The second time around, it was like reading it the first time again. It's interesting, engaging, full of believable characters, and has a killer plot/theme as its base. I have not read a lot of King's books, but this IS a good one. Way better than the movie, in my opinion; though nothing beats 'The Stand', even though it is over 1000 pages.

It's hard to believe King had such a hard time getting this book published...it is by far the best ficticious book on the supernatural that I've ever read, and King's greatest work I first read it in high school, and can't resist the urge to reread it every few years.Every bit as powerful as the movie, even more so because of his unique (at the time original) way of telling much of the story through news clippings.Add to that the fact that it is a short, light, easily read novel that doesn't get bogged down and wordy (alas, it's perhaps the only King novel that can make that claim), and you have a real winner!

King's 1973 novel carrie is one of his best ever and when he finished writing it and decided he didn't like it he actually threw it in the trash. Thank god his wife tabitha fished it out and convinced him to publish it, otherwise we would have been robbed of this classic king masterpiece forever. This was my first SK novel and it has lots of great momments (especially towards the end of the book) that are just unforgettable and a book you absolutely can NOT miss if your a new SK fan, trust me on that one.

This was a book that I read and didn't really enjoy. It was confusing to read and was too gory for me. The book had a good story line but wasn't my type of book. I have read a few other Stephen King novels and have enjoyed them tremendously but this was not one of them. To me it seemed confusing how the story jumped from telling about the past to reading about what people said about it in other books. I can usually read books that jump back and forth but this book made it really difficult. What the people in the book did seemed so cruel that it was hard to read. It just made you almost mad at them. If it would have been written a little differently it might have been fine. I had trouble picking the book up again and finishing reading it but you want to know what happens in the end. In some ways it had suspense but not enough to hold my attention. This book could be considered well written to some people and most likely is but it wasn't written in a way that I consider good. It defiantly had potential and could have been a book I enjoyed. Maybe one day I will read it again and it will be, but at this point I don't think it is. I think this book is for, for one, a strong reader who can understand complicated writing and for two, I recommend it for someone who can take the gore and how mean the people were to Carrie and how Carrie got revenge. I would also recommend people to read it for themselves and make there own judgement because I make it sound like a terrible book but you could enjoy it.

I finished carry last weekend and WOW!!! I loved this book. It hooks you in right from the beginning. We can all relate to it because we all been through high school and know its not always fun. This is a creepy book, I think what makes it creepy is just how sick some of these characters are. King does a great job of making the reader decide who to root for in the middle and conclusion of the book. For those who seen the movie and are unsure if you should read the book....read it! Way better then the movie and I think you will be suprised at some of the things the movie left out...

It's always tough to read/watch something when it's story is so well known and its influenced so many other works. Carrie is one of these kinds of books. I had already known the story and wasn't surprised by anything in the story. Still, I'm impressed that this book was released almost 40 years ago, as the bullying theme is more relevant today than it ever was. I enjoyed the way that King incorporated different viewpoints, it helped counteract the fact that the book was predictable. Since the events at the prom were discussed throughout the book, we weren't supposed to be surprised by the ending. At just 200 pages, the book isn't meant to be a classic (although ironically, it is considered one).King himself considers the book "raw" and isn't too fond of the book, though he hasn't downright disowned it. I agree with King; this won't change your life but it is an entertaining and faced paced read.

Overall, I'm glad I read it and I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested. It is a must read for anyone who is a hardcore King fan, but then again you have probably already read it if you are. I have not seen the 1976 movie, but I will most likely see it in the near future. Today is two days before the release of the remake and there is not one review available. Anytime there is an embargo so close to a release date, it is likely that the critics will not like it. It's unfortunate since the trailer looked promising and Moretz is a good actress. I also feel like the story is hard to mess up. Guess we will see.

As a man who lived in a house full of women, and author of True Monsters (The Shepherds Wolf), I know second hand about the social pressures that happen to a high-school girl. Considering this excellent contemporary novel is written by a man who had never gone through high-school as a woman, I found it made teen females a little more understandable.
Is it the definitive experience? Of course not. It's a S.E. Hinton novel mixed with Robert Bloch.
It is a gripping, and nuanced piece of work written by a man at the start of his career, and his life.
Would Stephen King written this kind of novel today, post accident, information-age saturated culture? Maybe. But it would be a very different novel, and as such should become part of English reading curriculum, if only for an example of the lifestyle's of teens living in a different era.

Carrie is a story that almost everyone knows, basically because the movie is such a classic and to this day is watched over and over againg by old and new fans of the story. The novel however is even better. The movie isn't too distorted and basically is the same as the book, however what makes the book even better is the fact that you understand a lot more about Carrie and some of the other characters, but mostly Carrie. The story also continues on a bit longer and the action of the end events are much more exciting. After reading the book I watched the movie and was amazed at how much more I actually understood the movie. For anyone interested in horror or Stephen King, this is a most. It's King's first published novel, and it's also one of his shortest which makes it nice for a young reader or some who just doesn't have time to read a thousand pages of the Stand. The book really is great and I feel it gets looked over a lot because the movie was and is still so popular, but while the movie is great the book is a lot better.

I have recently just finished reading the book titled Carrie By: Stephen King. I feel that this book has got to be one of my favorite books that I have read in a while. I like to read and when I read books like this it really makes me want to read more. This book, unlike others gives you a feel for what the main character "Carrie White" has been going through for her whole life. Carrie White is just a really nice innocent girl who just want to have a couple of friends but is constantly picked on by her peers. Then when she goes home all she has is a religious mother who forces her to pay horrible prices for her "sins." She doesn't have any friends and her mother won't even let her have any friends, she says it is the "devil". One day just like any other day she goes to school and goes into the locker room just like she would any day. After P.E. she gets out of her clothes and steps into the shower with the other girls to wash up when suddenly she feels blood running down her leg. The other girls tell her it is her period but she just doesn't listen, she tought she was dying. The other girls started throwing tampons at her. From that day on Carrie has been tormented for life she couldn't even go to school with out being told something.
She was invited to the prom by this really nice guy and she decided that she wanted to go. She went home and made her dress and went to the prom. When she arrived there something so horrible happened you wouldn't believe that teenagers could be so mean to one girl.
Once you read this book you will just fall in love with it. Once you pick it up you won't want to put it down, you will be up all night reading it. I have read a couple of Stephen King's books and I really enjoy them. If you have read any of his books you would know what I mean. What suddenly brought on this idea for this book. Was he tormented in his youth, or was his wife? If so his writing has been his worst revenge. I recomend this book to all of my friends and family members and especially you!It is a really great choice of book for anyone into mystery and horror types of books.

It was a good book but not great. This is my first Stephen King book I have read. I plan on reading a few other books he was written, but wanted to start reading his very first book. Can't wait to start reading some of his other books such as It, The Shining, and The Stand!

I LOVE Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels, but I have to admit that Carrie was pretty dissapointing. It was his first novel, and you can tell by its sloppiness. It hardly seems like the same author. I had to force myself to press on at times and the whole pig farm scene was disgusting. Those kids were truly dispicable, so much so that I was turned off. It's just a VERY mediocre book compared to the likes of Misery, Rose Madder, Pet Sematary, and The Shining. Outdated and overrated, and just not very good.

Carrie is included in nearly every list of "great Stephen King novels", but to me it was not scary and pretty boring. I never felt any sense of anxiety for any of the characters, and never had the can't-put-it-down experience that I've grown accustomed to in other King stories. I expected a lot of Carrie, and it really disappointed me. I especially was bugged by the "nobody remembers what happened, but here is a vague description of what may or may not have occurred" climax. After the whole book points towards the scene at the dance, the action is more or less skipped over.

As for the book's positives, for one, it is short. I suppose it's better to read a short book and be disappointed than a long one. Second, it is a pretty interesting read if you are looking into the mental and social state of an outcast high school girl. It is interesting how he is able to show how her background makes her different from the other girls, and how she gets relentlessly picked on. Carrie has a sort of good anti-bullying message, but of course the bullied girl getting her revenge by killing her peers kind of dilutes any positive message that could be received by teens.

king's first book didn't show his real greatness. this is much more "simple" than his later works. we got a girl terrozised by her mother, teased by her schoolmates. however, it turns out she has powers. now there are some good psychological reflections, but not as great as the psychology in K's later works. some lovely details, not in so much depth as, yes, later. and K's writing style is much simpler here. not that it's bad, but it does not show K's greatness. but it's a good read, and not of his worst

Carrie, by Stephen King, is an intense novel guaranteed to make the reader wonder about their current surroundings. A high school girl, Carrie White, who has been deprived of many luxuries, is the school's outcast. Her mother, the cause of most of her pain and misery, forces Carrie to be an outcast, not only in her school, but an outcast of society, by not exposing her daughter to "normal, everyday life" occurrences. Also, Carrie is not what one would call an "ordinary" child. She has been blessed with a sixth sense, telekinesis. The people of Chamberlain, Maine, all believe that Carrie is a devil worshiper and choose to have nothing to do with her or pick on her because she is "different." Who knew she would actually reprimand the people.
Among the many great qualities of this novel, is the introduction of reports taken and written during and after the destruction of the high school's junior/senior prom. These features add a nice twist to the book in that the reader can see both perspectives, Carrie's and the townspeople. King places them into the novel to add just enough information to keep the reader interested.
The format of the novel adds to the story too. King presents the story as a flashback of the nights events. Foreshadowing of the "incident" is evident in Carrie. The reader is not aware of what is coming up but knows there is some kind of drastic event about to happen.
This novel has no bad qualities to it. It is presented in a way that keeps the reader interested and involved while placing the reader in a horror story.
I recommend this book to anyone who remembers his or her high school years. Carrie is a unique horror novel that proves that anyone's high school experience could not have been worse than Carrie White's.

The book "Carrie" is a rip-roaring venture full of shocking surprises around every corner. Just prepare for some unexpected curveballs thrown your way. You couldn't expect anything less from Stephen King. This author is known for his strange and abnormal story lines.
Carrietta White, more commonly known as Carrie or that freaky girl, is a miscalculated seventeen-year old that has no friends and is the target for all bullies. But that's not the only problems she has. Her mother, Margaret White, has one ethic and that is Christianity. Most may say her methods are a little over the top and pretty twisted. Almost everything is seen as a sin in Ms. White's eyes and if Carrie "sins" no good can result from it. Nothing ordinary comes from the White household; just ask the neighbors. They've seen some bizarre phenonmenons coming out of that eerie home.
Because of everything Carrie undergoes, she is full of vengence. Though, part of her still longs for love. Unfortunately, the evil overcomes the good and Carrie must have sweet revenge. What will come from this ill will? "Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is Carrie."
When you read this novel, you will come to find that it is extremely difficult to put down. You will come to feel Carrie's pain and rage and come to loath the teens making her life a living heck. At times you will feel spooked and frightened of what is to come, but you will continue to read. At times you will feel sick and queasy, but you will continue to read. At times you will feel dazed and confused, but you will continue to read. At times you will be full of grudge and spite, but you will continue to read. This book will keep you intensely reading all the way to the last page. You will learn to love the famous novel, "Carrie."

Many people see Telekinetic as a disease, but for Carrie White it is not only a disease it is a thing people use against her to tease her. The trouble for Carrie White all started when after gym class all the girls went into the locker room to change except for Carrie, because Carrie was scared to change in front of everyone, and her mother Margaret called it a saint. So Carrie went into the locker room, but she never changed or showered, she just sat there and watched. One day though in the locker room, Carrie had an unexpected surprise, she had gotten her period, and was scared and had no clue what it was, why it was happening, or what to do. So when the gym teacher came in to tell the girls to hurry and get to there next class, Carrie was crying and said she was bleeding to death. So the gym teacher had fronted her on what was happening and she needs to clean herself up.

She just continued crying, and sat there, and told the teacher she had no clue what to do, and so the gym teacher understood, and told the rest of the girls to go to there next class. So the girls went to there next class and the teacher helped Carrie get cleaned up. So after Carrie got cleaned up, her teacher went over with her once again the steps of menstruation. Once Carrie got back to her class room that's when all the teasing had started, she got called names and made fun of and they just wouldn't stop. Why most of the people hate her so bad in the first place, is because of Carrie's mom Margaret white. She is a very religious girl, and has problems with a lot of things and thinks everything and everyone is a saint and fake. In this story you will read the consequences of growing up telekinetic in a small town were no one understands her.

The kind of person I think should read this book is a kind of person who likes to read books that are frightening but in a way realistic. The age range I would say should be around 14 and over, because of all the violence and serious things that are taken place in the story. How I felt and thought of my book is sad in parts, anxious to find out what would happen next, and otherwise I felt scared. I thought it was a very good book, because in ways it taught you some things like on how not to tease or hurt anyone in anyway, because you don't know what will come back at you in the future.

Wow! What a great book! Out of the 4 Stephen King books that I've read (pet semetary, thinner, salems lot), this one is now my fave. This is a very disturbing story about a girl who is an outcast, large in part due to her religiously fanatic mother. She is often the center of jokes and harassment by her peers, and..well we all know how this one ends.
Let me say that this is much better than the movie. All the extra detail that this contains, and the graphic descriptions, make this worth the read.

In my opinion this book is still one of Stephen King's best. Simple idea, unexpected plot, excellent automosphere, direct horror. This book reads like a true story indeed, so many documents and scenes are so vivid and you wonder whether it is merely fabulous or not. Via this book Stephen King tell us he is a born story-teller. BTW, After reading over 10 of King's books, I must say that I still love his early direct, earnest style rather then the recent psychological, sinuous, over-embellished one.

Ah Carrie Mr. Stephen King's First Book and to tell you the truth a modern Classic (At least in my opinioun)

Carrie tells the tale of a girl whos name is well you guessed it Carrie. Carrie White. Carrie is a girl of Seventeen who goes to a regular high school but Carrie is not all the way normal she gets made fun of and things like that.

The Story though really starts out in the shower of the girls locker room in Carries high school. Carrie dosent really like to take the Showers because well she'll get made fun off Carrie takes the shower (despite not wanting to) and something that can go wrong well it dose go wrong Carrie has her first Period of the only thing is that she dosent really know what this is because she has never been told about it Her Mother (well basicaly a Crazy Christan Lady (Something King tends to write about sometimes) has never told her about this or anything related to it. Carrie gets made fun of and worse she gets things like pads and Tampons thrown at her untill the Gym teacher interviens, the Gym teacher later sends her home.

Things get a little tricky however when Carrie Finds out that she has. . . Powers, Strange powers that she dosent know what to think off. King has given us a powerful read here that i would highly recomend a good first read for fans and a good first published for Mr. King. 5/5

Everyone's seen the movie. Or if not, you're definitely aware of the infamous prom scene. No? Then let me recap: Carrie White, high school reject, is being charitably crowned prom queen by the student body--but at the height of the ceremony, someone dumps a bucket of pig's blood on her. She then reacts as any angst-ridden, humiliated teenager might: she simply goes nuts and sets the town on fire with her awesome telekinetic powers. A fictional case study, Carrie interweaves story with "historical" documents that examine the devastating tragedy long after it occurs. As King's first novel, Carrie acts as an excellent gateway to the rest of King's work about the supernaturally inclined.

I've never read any Stephen King before, but I am trying to change that. I thought that Carrie would be a good first start. To be honest, it was a little slow at first, though definitely interesting! The book is divided into 2 parts (technically 3, but Part 3 is less than 10 pages long), with no chapters, which made it difficult to stop and start reading - although part 2 was so good I read it in one sitting!

The story is classic, but there was a lot that I didn't know in the book, so it was completely worth it.

As I see this book in the store I'm thinking to myself " Man this book is way to small."If you are a King fan like me you are used to books like "IT" and "The Stand" and most of his others books.Then you see this little 245 and kinda laugh.Being a King fan I bought it.Man was I wrong for laughing.This is a definite page turner.This story of a girl mystified me.I don't know how he compacted such a story in so few of pages.This is one you must read.Don't pass it by.

I am not going to say much, but I just didn't find this book all that compelling. After reading Stephen King's On Writing, this book was a bit of a letdown -- especially because he makes some of the errors he warns against. Of course this could be because it was his first novel, but I didn't find the writing all that great. Some metaphors were trite or even a bit forced and laughable at times. And I certainly didn't find the book all that scary. Carrie was more of a two-dimensional figure t ...more I am not going to say much, but I just didn't find this book all that compelling. After reading Stephen King's On Writing, this book was a bit of a letdown -- especially because he makes some of the errors he warns against. Of course this could be because it was his first novel, but I didn't find the writing all that great. Some metaphors were trite or even a bit forced and laughable at times. And I certainly didn't find the book all that scary. Carrie was more of a two-dimensional figure to me than a real person. I haven't given up on King, but was not that impressed.

"Carrie" is a diary of sorts for every girl who has ever been put upon by the high school crowd. King is so good about getting into the minds of angst-filled teenagers, that I felt as if I was reading my own diary, instead of a novel. I saw the movie first, and I rushed right out and bought the book when I was fifteen. And two years ago I gave a speech in my college communications class on why "Carrie" was my favorite book. This book is a god-send to anyone who had to take crap from the kids in school (like me) How many times have we all fantasized about reigning down a fiery death on those who have humiliated us. Instead of doing that we can read King's fantastic novel, and get our kicks that way. I recommend this novel highly.

I read this book a long time ago (or at least started to) and have seen the original movie probably countless times. I picked this book up at a second-hand store and decided to give it another read and maybe better understand the book. I finished it in one sitting.

While the ending isn't as great as the original movie's ending and I found the fake medical journal excerpts to be annoying (as well as the lack of actual chapters) I still thought it was a pretty good book. The one thing that I think the book achieved that the movie lacked was giving Carrie an actual voice. In the book you get to know so much more of what's going on inside her head as well as see how she deals with her powers as they grow. I also think that the book gave you a better understanding of Chris and Billy - the way their relationship was.

Overall I think that the book and movie should go hand and hand.

Some, King among them, say this first book is raw. While that may be true, put this novel against nearly every other non-King horror book, and understand how good it really is.
It is terrifying and original. At the same time, however, it forces everyone to look into their high-school personalities and ask "what would I have done?" Most like to think they would have opposed Carrie's abuse, but few can say that honestly.
It's no Stand or Shining, but it's quick and freaky.
(A quick clarification: Carrie is not based on two of King's students, but rather two of his fellow classmates growing up.)

... Carrie by Stephen King
Stephen King with once again a terrific novel. Although it was published in 1974. It was the first time I had read it. Just like most of Kings books. This one is a Science fiction thriller that you can not put down because the vengeance and chilling acts of violence take place on a regular base. The main character is Carrie White. She has the ability to encounter Telekinetic Powers and becomes a mass murder. With Kings quick-moving dialogue the novel never leaves you spellbound and hungry for the next twist in the plot.
Once Carrie starts her horrifying rampage of revenge. As a reader it makes you feel complete sorrow for the receiver of the horrible harassment she dealt with from meritorious amounts of classmates. After reading the novel it should make you think twice about hurting others self-esteem and have a whole new perspective on what our world is like.
After being placed in a complete different state of mind. I have realized this horrifying terror story is satisfactory for any type of audience. With the exception of the reader that don't enjoy reading about death and Science Fiction. I would recommend this to anybody especially if you enjoy Stephen King. I don't believe there is enough word to describe what kind of chilling suspense that the book Carrie compacts. It changes your views and leaves you with a blank. Thinking to your self. What if that really happened?

The book dealt a lot with a teenage girl who was a complete outcast...P>This book was an excellent book to read. It makes you think about all of those that you have hurt throughout your years in school. As an example, the book had a teenage girl who was a complete outcast and no matter what she did, she could never fit in. When she finally thought that she was being accepted and got invited to prom, she couldn't have been more wrong. At prom, the election for prom queen was tampered with and she won. As a joke someone set up a bucket of pig's blood over the spot where she would be standing. When she stepped into position, the bucket fell down, covering her with blood. This ended up being the last straw for her. She locked all of the doors with her telekinetic powers and set the place on fire. Everyone inside with a few exceptions, burned within the gym. As teenagers we should think about when out making fun of someone could go too far. It is amazing when you sit down to think about it, as to how many of our peers we have hurt the same way that Carrie was hurt. Even though you may not think that all of the teasing and ignoring could make someone go to the extreme and kill their peers, it does happen. Just think about what happened in Colorado/Columbine. Somewhere along the line those kids didn't feel like they fit in and thye eventually started to hate their peers enough to kill and injure them.

Carrietta White Went To School Every Day And Was Picked On.By Everybody.Nobody Liked Her.Carrie Was Tripped,Yelled At,Humiliated Each And Every Day Of Her Life.And What's Worse She Would Go Home And Be Religiously Persecuted By Her Maniacal,Jesus-Freak,Bible Thumping Mother,Margaret.
But Carrie Is Learning Day By Day Also That She Has A Hidden,Undeveloped Talent-Telekenisis,Which Is The Ability To Move Objects With Her Mind.And So She Grooms Her Talent.And Waits...
Until Just Another Dirty Trick At School Has Her Classmate Sue Snell Feeling Sorry For Her And Asking Her Own Boyfreind Tommy Ross To Invite Carrie To The Prom Instead Of Sue Herself.
Which Drives Another Classmate Chris Hargenson Over The Edge.Banned From The Prom Because Of The Ridicule Of Carrie, Chris Has Had Enough.It's Time To Make Carrie Suffer The Ultimate Humiliation Once And For All.

Yes,This Is Stephen King's First Published Novel.Unestablished,Unknown,Fledgeling Writer Stephen King.But Already He Was Honing A Talented Gift Of His Own.Told In A Unique Style Of Diaries,Articles,Newspaper Stories,And In The First Person By An Actual "Carrie" Survivor,You Will Be "Burning" Your Way Through This Book To It's Final Conclusion.Yes,King Crafted His Style Better With Each New Novel,But This Is Where It All Starts.
The Only Two Critiques I Have Are That,Like King,I Wish He Would've Thought Up The Same Fate Director Brian DePalma Had For Margaret White.And That Final Scene With Sue Will Have You Screaming.As I Remember This Part Is Also Not In The Book.But Those Small Things Aside,I Highly Recommend It.

I have read two of Stephen King's books (The Shinning and Carrie) and I'm reading "Desperation" and Carrie is the best of his books yet! "The Shinning" was good but a little too gory. "Carrie" is more freaky and makes you think. I liked "Carrie" because I could relate to her. I was one of the girls that got picked on, not poplar and everything. So, reading this book really made me think. I'm going to see the movie if my dad will let me (hey, I'm only 12). So, read "Carrie". But, my advice to you, don't read any of his books at night!

For anyone who wants to start reading Stephen King, there is no better place than the beginning of his novel-writing career. Not only is it a dark small-town horror story, but it's simple and short compared to those intimidating broad spines you see on the library shelf. Perhaps after this book, new King readers will be more eager to tackle those larger titles.

The story feels like it could be real, except a few moments. It is also scary and very disturbing. People do terrible things and what this book teaches us is that we need to think of the consequences of our choices. People with extraordinary and supernatural powers may exist among us, they don't deserve to be treated like animals or monsters. Nobody deserve that...

Incredible read by Sissy Spacek of a Stephen King classic. Makes me wish someone would finally make a good film adaptation besides Brian de Palma's one. I loved his version, but it was missing a bit of something.

King's first novel to be widely read. The story of Carrie White and her life as she deals with bullying, and her life with an oppressive mother. As Carrie comes into womanhood a deep secret power begins to grow. A prom prank goes terribly wrong with deathly consequences. This book begins the public career of Stephen King and portends the brilliant career to come.

After reading The Green Mile, another novel by Stephen King, I decided to see if Carrie stood up to the same level of greatness. Regarded as "Gory and horrifying...you can't put it down," by the Chicago Tribune, Carrie entertains readers with an eerie story of a young girl growing up in Chamberlain, Maine as the focal point of others' ridicule and cruel jokes. Margaret White, Carrie's mother and also a religious zealot, plays a large role in why her daughter is always teased. Carrie possesses a special telekinetic power and often times expresses her bottled-up frustration by utilizing her power. One day at school, Carrie is asked by a popular boy to accompany him to the prom. Thinking the many years of taunting are approaching an end, she agrees to his request. Once at the prom, Carrie realizes she was wrong about the teasing, but this time her classmates take things a little too far and drive her over the edge. The future of Chamberlain now lies in the hands of Carrie White.
Carrie is a swift read, full of colloquial dialogue, horror, and various literary devices that make the story very interesting. I really enjoyed reading Carrie and plan to continue with more Stephen King novels. I recommend this book to all those in search of a good book, excluding young students because of the many sexual references that are found throughout the story. Overall I rate it four stars out of five because the setting often changes from past to present, causing some confusion.

Carrie and Cujo are my favorite books/movies that Stephen King has written. They both start off nice and easy. Once you are hooked, the suspense starts. I read both of these books into the early morning hours because I had to find out what happened.

This book is unlike Stephen King's other material because it is short and to the point. Whereas in some of his other books, he will spend 700 pages developing a plot, this story is told in 200 more-or-less pages, and it moves from the get-go. I love the style that he uses, interspersing tidbits from media reports, and the way that he inserts peoples' thoughts sporadically into the flow of thought. It is a scintillating debut novel for a writer, much better than most people's first works, and I would reccommend it to anyone.

Few books I have read have provoked a response like Carrie did. King leaves out nothing in his first novel which he said he just had to write for all of the Carrie White's of this world. Things shocking and downright horrifying are told in great detail by King leaving me stunned. Unlike most of his novel which take the first 100 pages to really develop, King draws you immediately into Carrie's world in the opening scene. We are left shocked and sympathetic for poor Carrie, just like Susan Snell. King also provokes sympathy for Carrie through the horrible treatment from her mother. We are kept glued to the pages till we can't wait to see what will occur on prom night. I won't ruin prom night for you but let's just say that there are a lot of surprises, especially if you know nothing about the book or movie like I did. The format of the novel is a little peculiar and it takes awhile to get used to. At times, I just wanted to get the story moving along but the articles give useful and vital information to knowing what was happening outside of Carrie's world and mind. Carrie is also not as long as most, but King utilizes every word on every page to touch our every senses of the imagination. The dialogue looks to be a beginner's but is still very good. I am just finishing up high school and I see the kind of behavior of Carrie's nemesis' all the time. Every high school in America probably has a scapegoat like Carrie in it. It helped me especially to really think about the things that I say to people and the way I treat them. After reading Carrie, it amazes me the way we hurt each other every day in life whether we mean to or not. I can't blame Carrie for acting the way she did, and do not feel any smypathy for the kids that died that treated her the way they did. Carrie is the real victim in this story and it's a tragedy that there are too many Carrie's out in the real world that just want someone to love them. I loved the book and I'm sure you will too. It will really make you think about yourself and how you interact with people every day of your life.

Not as good as anticipated. The book was hard to get into. For the most part, it reads like a text book, with news articles that completely take you out of the story. There are too many of them and they interrupt the flow of the story, making it a real chore to read. The first scene is great, a classic scene, actually, but once it's over you are bombarded with the news articles. If I wanted to read so many news articles, I'd pick up the newspaper and have at it. I don't, that's why I picked up this novel. King uses the articles to tell the story instead of a normal narrative, sacrificing an enjoyable read.

To put it bluntly, there are better Stephen King novels out there. I don't recommend newbs starting with this one. King had a great premise here but it wasn't executed well at all. A real shame, too. Anyone interested in this story might do well watching the movie instead, which was undoubtedly better.

I've been wanting to read this book before I see the new movie (which looks awesome), especially since all I remember from the original movie was how emotionally scarring getting your period in a locker room could be. I expected this book to be really creepy and disturbing, and it was. Somewhere, though, it crossed a line for me and I just found it really sad and heartbreaking. Poor Carrie :( Poor all those high schoolers that died at their senior prom, just because they laughed at her :( Poor all those random town citizens that were electrocuted just because they wanted to find out what happened to their friends and children :(

This book was really really good! I enjoyed it a lot. I think a movie should be made based purely on the book. In the movie we don't actually find out that Sue and Tommy were not in the *Pig blood* prank. Sue wanted Tommy to go to the prom with Carrie as a sort of atonement for her earlier actions (she made fun of Carrie along with everyone else). There is also the fact that Tommy had actually started to like Carrie. This is one of the most important things. And it is what makes Tommy & Sue such great characters. I was very sorry for Carrie in the end and also sorry that Tommy dies. Carrie was basically not a bad person but circumstances made her snap. I think the articles given in between from "The shadow exploded" and "The white case committee" made this book even more chilling. So everyone...do read this book. If nothing else, it tells us how people can just snap when they're subjected to extreme torture and cheap pranks. At least it will teach you to be kind to any "mortimer snurd" or misfit.

Carrie White was a weird little girl. When she threw fits...something broke, or moved. One day when she was a small girl, only four, saw her neighbor outside in a white two piece bathing suit. Carrie was curious and she wandered over to the yard, and saw the neighbor's `dirtypillows'. "What are those?" "Those are my breasts, Carrie" Carrie's mother was horrified at what she had seen. Mrs. White screamed and scratched her face, and called Carrie to her closet to pray. Carrie screamed and kicked inside, and suddenly it stopped, and there was banging and clattering above them. People on Carrie White's street were horrified. Stones and ice were falling hard from the sky. From that day, Carrie's mother knew something was wrong...Did she have a special gift? Or was it coincidence? Oh, it couldn't be coincidence...Carrie White had something...Carrie White had Telekinesis...a rare gift of the mind that would enable that person to move things, break things, bend things and even make very unexplainable things happen. Carrie White had that power...and she caused the damnedest things to happen to the people of Carrie's town.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I like reading the horror genre, and if you do too, you'll love Stephen King's Carrie. I liked this novel because it was horrifying, interesting and it kept my attention. King is a great writer, and you can almost feel Carrie's anger, sadness, fear, confusion, bewilderment, and embarrassment. The one thing I did not like about the book was: it was fast. King wrote it nicely, yet everything was happening quickly. I like books with a lot of action, but with spaces between each event. King did this, yet the spaces were not long enough. I like to read books that explain each little thing gradually working up to the event. Other than that, King did a wonderful job at making a great, horrifying novel. You should really read it today!
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If you like Stephen King then you have to read this book, simply because it was his first published novel. However I was very disappointed and I am very glad I did not read this book as my first Stephen King experience. It, to me is simply an average book. Once in awhile there are some scary moments but all in all I felt the book was a bit of a let down. If you are not a die hard Stephen King fan I highly suggest skipping this book, but that's just me.

I believe this was King's first breakout novel. I didn't care for it. I didn't really find any redeeming qualities in any of the characters and I just truly didn't care for the story. You can't please all the people all the time:)

I was not thrilled with this book. I found it a bit boring and at points hard to get through. A lot of it was too far fetched also... Yes girls can be cruel...but some of what the girls did was a little too far fetched.

This book is an almost disturbing in the showing the agony of the hatred and insanity some people are forced to endure. Steven King uses such imagery and brutal realism that makes you feel so deeply sorry for Carrie White's life. He describes events that show how truly hateful and vindictive teenage girls can be. King plays upon emotions when describing the extremes and bazaar events that went on in the White's household. Throughout the story King would use flashbacks to the night of the accident and the events of Carrie's life that lead up to it. He also used the testimonies of modern time people to help create a picture of what happened and how many people were affected by the life of Carrie White existence. I really enjoy Steven King's writing style. I think his techniques and ways of writing keep you interested and nose down in the book. I think that this book should be for teenagers maybe over 15. There is some gruesome and more mature subjects. Overall I think that Carrie was a good horror book, I enjoyed it.

This is a very good book about a girl named Carrie White who is constantly teased by her peers and mistreated by her mother. Her mother makes her beg forgiveness from God in a small closet over very insignificant things like having a first period. But, when she is invited to go to the prom with the most popular guy in the school, things go horribly wrong. I would reccomend this book to anyone who liked "The Shining" or "It".

King's first novel has incredible power, as incredible as the psychic abilities of the title character. It doesn't always work, unfortunately; the outtakes and quotes from fictional studies of the paranormal become a little trite. That's a mere quibble, however. The meat of the book is engaging and intelligent, and the characters are fully realized. While the novel lacks the polish of later novels (The Shining, The Dead Zone, Insomnia), it also lacks the bloat. Recommended.

Stephen Kings Premier novel Carrie, is the best Stephen King book I have read, it is fast paced, which is unusualy for him considering that The Shining was horridly slow.
Now comes Carrie the story of a somewhat tortured girl, with a bizarre talent. She has no friends and a psychotic mother. Carrie then is asked to the prom by a really hot guy.
Stephen King writes Carrie brilliantly, in a truly disturbing and haunting manner. A supurb book.

so it starts with carrie having her first period and then these girls teased her badly (ok).crazy mum (headache).but who the hell gets through so much trouble to gets pig blood instead of red paint.awesome ending though.

The story's old and the premis isn't exactly earth-moving but this classic from Stephen King is written in such a way that makes it seem timeless and brand new. Its really fantastic especially with the snippets from "text" about the book's event from after it happened. I really enjoyed this and would have loved to read it 20 years ago and I will still want to reread it 20 years from now. Good stuff!

I loved this book. It was the first Stephen King book I ever read, and because of it i suddenly fell in love with his writing.
This novel is about a young girl named Carrie White, who is faced with the everyday challange of trying to fit in. But when the Prom Night arrives for all the kids in Carrie's middle school, and when Carrie gets persuaded into going, hell is to pay when Christine Hargenson plays her grande finale joke!

I was a little reluctant to read Stephen King's Carrie. As I wasn't impressed with the movies and have been ridiculed for sharing Carrie's name, I wasn't sure. But as soon as I found it shoved behind a rack of books at a dusty public libaray, I knew it was serendipity. I was immediatley taken in by Stephen King's writing style. He makes you feel comfortable, and it doesn't seem like a horror story until something tramautic happens, as shown in It and Carrie. The point of the story is Carrie White, a girl who has been ruined by her religious fanatic mother and happens to have telekinesis. The story is told through interviews, newspaper articles, and some experiences of Carrie, all leading up to prom night. Stephen King is a MASTER, and of Misery, 'Salem's Lot, Night Shift, and Christine, this is his BEST.
Do yourself a favor. Read Carrie and be spellbound

Carrie written by Stephen King is a good book. It has many things to make it fit together. For example at first when she uses her so called telekinetic powers you don�t really know what it is, not until she goes to the library and checks out a book called "Telekinetic Powers". Then you kind of get the idea what she does when she either gets mad or just doesn�t want someone around. Also you can picture what they�re house looks like. The way you can see this is the good way Stephen King describes it. He describes it saying that they have crosses in every room and a praying room. Also about how her mother hates red, which tells you that she is really religious. Stephen King makes Carrie fit into the book perfect. He makes her have no friends and how he makes everyone hate her and make fun of her all the time. If it wasn't for those it wouldn't make sense for Carrie to have the telekinetic powers. She would not try to use her telekinetic powers to get everyone to leave her alone. She would have no reason to hate anyone because she would have a friend, and thats what would keep her together. Maybe she would use them to hate her mother with because her mother is really religious and while Carrie learns the truth about women stuff, her mother says its a sin. For example, her mother says to have breasts is a sin, but at school her physical education teacher tells her about women things and she learns its natural. Also her mother never told her about her period, but then at school after she thinks she is bleeding to death in the shower her coach tries to explain it is natural.

The first book Stephen King published... I can see how he became a successful author quickly! Carrie is a terribly bullied teenager with frightening telekinetic abilities. The story of her prom night is told from different points of view (Carrie's, other students, media, law enforcement reports, teachers, etc.), which kept the plot moving. Carrie uses her psychic abilities to enact revenge on all of the individuals who wronged her- causing mass devastation and destruction. I was entertained by the content of the entire book and intend to watch the movie adaptation as soon as possible.

They always say a book is better than the movie. In this case, they were right. I read this book many years ago and was amazed how well it was written for a first book. The main character, Carrie, was both strange yet it wasn't her fault. Her complete innocence of the world was due to her mother's shielding of her from the world. Both of my teenage girls have read this book and were thoroughly entertained.

I'm sure you've all seen the movie "Carrie" and it follows the book pretty closely. For most of the book, Carrie is a misfit girl with telekentic powers; an outcast from her high school social circle, just trying to fit in. She's severely sheletered by her mental religious mother that thinks breasts and the menstrual cycle are only given to women by God who are "bad". The punishments she brandishes on Carrie are shocking to say the least. But the ending is worth the wait.

This is the third Stephen King novel I've read, just ahead of It and The Shining. Of the three, Carrie I'd probably rate as number 3- it was King's first book, and there-fore, is weaker by the standards of his later novels, but a good book none the less.

We are introduced to Carrie White, a 16 year old girl is is chubby, hated at school, and has the power of telekinesis, or "TK" as it is referred to in the book. We follow her through an honest feeling of the awkwardness of being an outcast in high school- alot of people know that feeling, and the book hit's close to home. You'll recognize alot of the characters here, not as characters but as real people you'd known in high school.

King has a way of giving real life to his characters and narrative, which some authors still can't seem to get right.

All in all, a great book by a great author. One of the few times I've thought that the book and film version are both equally good, even at an apples and oranges kind of deal.

Just one question; who would pay 400 dollars for a hardcover?

It's been years since I read Carrie, and I recently decided to read it again. Yes, it's King's first novel, and yes, you can tell it is. Putting that aside, he still had the power to suck the reader into his world like he aways does. I wouldn't recommend Carrie for someone about to read King for the first time, but it's a great book for long time fans wanting a reminder as to why King is the master of macabre.

This book Carrie by: Stephen King was about a high school girl named Carrie White who has telekinesis powers. Her mother is abusive, her father died, She had no friends, no one likes her, and she is having a bad high school year. Kids made up stories about her; everyone made fun of her and blamed her for everything that went wrong. Some of the kids wanted revenge, for what had happened in the girl's locker room. Their way of revenge on Carrie is setting her up, to go to the prom with some boy and a tragedy had happened the night of the prom. For them doing that to Carrie the town had a big problem ahead of them. I felt that this book started off slow, and advanced on and got better. The beginning of the book didn't catch my attention as much as the middle and the end did. The middle and the end got better; it had more action, and more meaning. The book catches you in the moment, even though it starts off slow you don't want to put it down. If you haven't read this book yet you should, because it is good, once you get past the beginning.

This horrifying and gory book called Carrie written by Stephen King is by far one of the best books I've ever read. This fiction book is about a girl who grows up with only one parent, her mom. Her mom teaches her that natural every day occurrences are acts of the devil and that they're sins. When Carrie talks about or commits one of these sins she is punished by being thrown into a closet where religious things are placed and she is forced to pray for hours on end.
Throughout the book Carrie is tormented by others just because she is a quiet individual. She is mainly tormented for not knowing what menstruation is. Her peers physically and mentally abuse her. This incident is so big that the school actually is going to court with the family of the ring leader of the ones who did this to Carrie.
Carrie finds out that she has these powers when she gets angry. When the menstruation incident occurred a light bulb blew out because she was so angry. Another time she found she had powers was when a little boy was tormenting her while she was walking down the street she mumbled to her that she wished he would fall over. She turned around and saw the little boy on the ground with his little bike on top of him. Towards the end of the book Carrie is finally fed up with her high school bullies. While attending a school dance Carrie uses her powers and starts a fire. Almost all of the students in attendance are trapped in the fire. A boy named Billy who Carrie hates and Sue Snell who feels bad for Carrie talk 2 the cops and the press. They inform them that Carrie did it. They find Carrie a ways away when they take off in their car and she is dripping wet with blood, but its not hers. She is also holding a butcher knife. Carrie later that night dies at 2:00 am of hemorage and shock. They turn her body over to the state of main to investigate TK. I liked this book a lot. I would recommend it to anyone who like thrills.

The story of Carrie White, written by Stephen King, portrays the quintessetial outcast in a suburban high school setting. Constantly being the butt of everyone's jokes, Carrie finally unleasher her telekinetic powers in a horrific night of revenge. This novel gives an insight into the mind of the typical high school reject, allowing all to truly understand that the ridicule they are put through is unbearable, leaving them no one to turn to and unlimited power of destruction over everyone else's life and her own. A scene at the outset of the book exemplifies this excruciating torture that she is put through when Carrie, the main character, is horribly made fun of when she is experiencing her first period. As the novel closes, Carrie can no longer take the constant bombardments of everyone in her life, even her mother, and she ultimately explodes on the city as a whole, unleashing her telekinetic powers in a fit or rage brought on by a deceptive night of false popularity.

After seeing the movie I decided to read the novel by Stephen King. Out of all of King's novels, this one has the best story yet. Carrie White is a fantastic character. I love the fact that King had this idea of a shy, scared, and abused girl in highschool unleash her ultimate telekinetic powers to destroy her classmates. It kinda reminds me of the Incredible Hulk. Don't get Carrie angry, or she will kill you. The book does have a couple of drawbacks though. Possibly the greatest drawback is that King says nothing about Carrie's life between 3 and 16 years of age. Stephen King practically left that huge gap in the book. But you have to remember...This was Stephen King's first novel ever published. King also says in the intro that he needed money fast for his family and had to write this novel in a rush. But overall, if you love novels on power and revenge, then this novel is a must read. I gurantee you that after finishing the novel you'll say "Good for those [darn] classmates. They derserve it." To me this is the greatest revenge story ever written.

Carrie is one of my favorite heroines of all time! Having been bullied in school, I can easily place myself in her shoes and know exactly how she feels! This is one book I can never grow tired of reading!

Pick up this wonderful book and read it!

Carrie, where are you?
Carrie, give me your powers, I beg of you!
Carrie, will you go to the next prom with me?

An outcast teenager gets revenge on all of them who have tormented her. This theme really plays to our emotions.

The "nerd" in this story is Carrie. She is mistreated by her mother and ridiculed by her classmates. When she discovers she has certain "powers" to make things happen, things start to get out of hand.

This is a good, scary book that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Stephen King has, as with many of his books, created a chilling, suspenseful tale with Carrie. This is an exceptional read about a victimized, misunderstood, and sheltered high-school girl named Carrie who is eventually pushed too far. I found the method of writing to be very personal, haunting, and forthright which allows the reader to become connected with the pain Carrie endures. The feature that really draws me to this book is its believable plot. The only aspect that the reader may question is Carrie's telekinetic powers. However, scientific back-up of telekinesis is provided throughout the story. With this, I tended to find the plot more believable, which always makes a horror novel more chilling to me. Though it was short, I found Carrie to meet the expectations of any great horror novel. Carrie is a classic, fun and chilling novel that I would recommend to any fan of horror.

This book had me fascinated form the first chapter to the last. During the climax, the vivid images of everything that happened went through my head. It kept me up way past my bedtime (I'm 14) reading it. I couldn't put it down. I wanted to know what would happen next. The best part was undoubtedly the scene between Carrie and her mother which leads to Mother's untimely demise. A must read for anyone who enjoys King or sheer apocalyptic holocaust reigning down on Small Town America.

His first published novel, that is. (Rage and The Long Walk were written before this).

I came at this novel after reading many more of his books, and thus was a bit disappointed. It's a fairly slight novel. King has said that he tossed the story into the wastebasket due to his feeling that he was inadequate to the task of getting inside the minds of a young girl, and his wife rescued it and encouraged him to continue his efforts. His editor, Bill Thompson, said that he encouraged King to revise the story to make the characters more sympathetic, something that surprises me, since I always thought King naturally did this with his characters and wouldn't require encouragement to do so. King says he fleshed out the story with many inserted newspaper articles in the various styles of the respective publications, and this was one of the most boring parts of the story, for me. I think I've only read the story once, which is unusual for early King novels. After this first book, he became so much better.

Carrie was the first book I have ever read by Stephen King. It is a great horror story about a girl who basicly gets back at her enemies. Carrie has been tricked and tourched. She has a freak mom and sooner or later it all comes to an end. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes books about getting revenge, Likes Stephen King books, or someone who has never read Stephen King. It is a great first selection!

Actually, the book is not that scary but that's me who doesn't get scared easily. But the suspence is great, the story amazing and Stephen King has managed to delight me when I hadn't read anything from him yet. I had heard of the film but I never saw that classic of terror. I should though, even after reading the book. The fact is, the book is wonderful and you can't put it down. The author says it is 'raw'. Well, if this is what he calls 'raw' I wouldn't know what to call a masterpiece... You have to read this book. Because you will never see things the way you do now again...

Thanks for the great Novel. This book really makes you think about what it would be like if you had a gift like Carrie has and how hard it would be. Makes the reader wonder if they wouldn't do the same things Carrie does.

This one strikes close to home. So you understand where I'm coming from, I have to delve a little into my background. I'm a high-school senior. We have a classmate that is mentally challenged. Everyone bullies him. This is why I think it is important to make high-school students read carrie. Undoubtedly one of King's masterpieces (he has so many). You can tell, however, that this is his first novel. He has an excessive use of adverbs and some of his word-choice is not top notch. Aside from that, the book is amazing.

Carrie, a teenage reject, religiously victimized by her mother has had her dream chance of a lifetime. One of the most sought after boys at school asks her to the prom. Then there's the mayhem!

A brilliant book. Better than the movie. (TYPICALLY!)

Stephen King, the best writer in the world, bar none, has graced us with his first ever masterpisec, which paved the way for every other book, novella and short story he has ever written. A GEM! ;-)

A girl is terrorised by her completely insane whackjob fundamentalist mother. This has caused her to be a sheltered, shattered wreck of a personality.

She has telekinetic abilities, and that is one reason for her mother's horrific treatment of her. As a reclusive nerd type at an American high school she is not treated too well.

When a prom night very cruel psychological and physical prank combination traumatises her, she has finally had enough.

Carrie is my favorite book. I read it at least once a year, usually over the summer when I have more time for reading. I'm not a big fan of horror, but am a big fan of science fiction. This book raises a very interesting question: What if a teenage girl who has been turned into a social outcast by a mentally ill religious zealot mother, discoveres she has telekinesis? And Stephen King does a masterful job answering that question. Powerful stuff.

"Carrie" is a masterpiece! Carrie White resembles those of us who have been the outcast: the ones who were made fun of for what we liked, what we looked like, and how we acted. It's almost like a true life syopsis of teenage life and how they deal with their difficulties. And Carrie White, like many of us, didn't just suffer at school. The restrictions placed upon us as we grow, sheltering from the truths of life. Stephen King's wife was right when she took this manuscript out of the trash, handed back to him and told him to finish. And "Carrie" shows what can happen when someone cannot take bullying anymore: it's there, but the results are unknown until it's too late. "Carrie" is exceptional and shows that Stepehn King isn't just "one of the basic writers".

I had read Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, years ago and finished it in one night. It's shorter than most of his later work and pretty good for a first book. I recently listened to this unabridged audio version of the novel read by Sissy Spacek, who played the title role in the original film adaptation. Spacek does a fine job here and the book holds up well after 30+ years.

Surprisingly boring, probably because I already knew the story inside and out. King's work grew increasingly better in the years since this was written. The whole book centers on what happens at the end, so if you know about the pig's blood, the fire, and Carrie's ending with her mother, then you already essentially know the entire book.

THis debut by master Stephen King clearly showed that he was destined to stardom. But I'm not particularly his fan; I think he overwrites, he talks too much to get at his point!
Also, this stuff of all his plots happening in Maine is getting a little bit repetitive.
But, back to CARRIE. THe book is good, altough average and, according to King himself, a little bit outdated, but still a good novel.

I've always hated horror movies so never thought I would care for Stephen King. Yes, the book has been around forever and I've just read it. I did not particularly care for the style of writing that jumped between various "official reports" and the main story line. In fact I almost put it down for that reason, but I kept reading, determined to finish my first horror novel. I don't plan for it to be my last, but I hope the style of future reads differs to my liking.

The book i read was Carrie by Stephen King. The book was a little difficult to read... It was pretty much about a girl named Carrie was a misfit and school and she always got picked on. Her home life didn't help either, her mom was a jesus freak. Her mother didnt teach her alot so when she got he period in gym class she had no clue what was going on cause no one had told her. So you could probably understand how confused this poor girl was.
Some of the popular people thought it would be funny to make a big seen at the prom! So the most popular guy asked her out to the prom . the girl was so excited and on top of everything she won prom queen. But when she went to get the crown the spilled pigs blood all over her. Thats how it all started she started going all crazy . All in all i was a really good book it is very true to life, othere then the end, i recomend this book for anyone who would like scary books.