Name: Carrie
Rating: 3.697432762836186 (818 reviews)
ISBN: 9781416524304

Stephen King

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

Carrie

Fiona Staczek

fira

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

Alesha Clifford

Macbeth hath murdered sleep and Carrie hath murdered time

Night Shift

Tim Pendry

This collection represents around twenty of Stephen King's stories from the 1970s. They are variable in quality and style so that the collection is really one for completists of King's work (who generally needs a much larger canvas than the short story) or of twentieth century American horror fiction. There are clues to other works as ideas are tested out - 'Jerusalem's Lot' is a Lovecraftian prequel to 'Salem's Lot', 'One for the Road' is another incident from the 'Salem's Lot' universe and the grimly pessimistic 'Night Surf' is an incident from the universe of 'The Stand' with a reference to the lethal 'swine flu' of that tale, Captain Trips. In that last story, you even get a clue to the cause of King's greatest contribution to the contemporary psyche, the turning of the clown from the modern harlequin, a figure of melancholy and laughter, into a figure of sheer boogeyman horror. In 'Night Surf', he refers to a 'fun house with a big clown face on the front and you walked in through the mouth' from the narrator's childhood. The reference is to the screaming mouth of an hysterical woman - 'nuff said. Some of the stories are potboilers that would have served for Weird Tales or even as scripts for Tales from the Crypt (which is referenced in one story) or the Twilight Zone. I tend to think that stories with twists in the tale are a fairly weak form of horror - the Alfred Hitchcock School of jumping to a 'boo' or getting a slightly nasty taste in the mouth. The Ledge' could be a study of cruelty by Roald Dahl. King is better than that and we assume that he did these for the money. Other stories contain interesting psychological studies - perhaps practice runs in characterisation for the novels. Two stories have little to do with horror as we conventionally understand the genre. 'The Last Rung on the Ladder' is a genuinely moving account of how unintended neglect and small incidents can, if not destroy lives, fail to save them. 'The Woman in the Room' is about euthanasia and moral choice with no demon or dark force in sight. These are both minor triumphs that makes one wonder what King might have written if he had only produced 10% of his eventual output and had concentrated his genius on literature as the 'New Yorker' might understand the term. But he made the right choice because, whether potboilers or minor works of genius, so many of these stories have been filmed that you can see that he taps into popular demand for solid narrative. Sometimes the idea is not up to the execution. The short TV version of 'Battleground' was a slick and highly entertaining short episode in a series but the story itself is just silly. On the other hand, 'Children of the Corn' is genuinely disturbing, a fine adaptation of the European fear of the isolated village community but set in the wastes (as an urban reader might see it) of Nebraska. This should enter anthologies of American literature as a representative of the fears of the mid-twentieth century literary mind as much as 'Call of Chthulhu' that of the early twentieth century and 'Teatro Grottesco' that of its fin de siecle. Some stories are well written, others less so - the influence of Lovecraft can be seen in more than one story but there is a distinctive King voice. Where Lovecraft sees great and sinister forces impinging on our lives at the margins yet existentially, King sees evil as less heroic but more vicious and more immediate in its use of our own technology against us - trucks, industrial machinery, the forgotten parts of our buildings (the latter better explored by Thomas Ligotti). The problem is not cosmic indifference or the use of us as pawns in some greater game but a truly nasty desire to do us positive harm and to do so remorselessly, without pity and perhaps for the pleasure of it. There are some stories other than 'Children of the Corn', 'Last Rung on the Ladder' or 'The Woman in the Room' to mark out and these have in common an ability to convey the inner fear of persons faced by horror and of necessity having to deal with it: 'Grey Matter' where a father turns into a slug of sorts, 'Sometimes They Come Back' where a teacher faces zombie hoodlums in his class and 'I Know What You Need' in which a young woman is stalked by magic. These stories show a sensitivity and sympathy for the victims of unnatural acts that is also found in the larger works of this flawed genius. This is definitely one for the compleat horror library but I wonder what civilians will get out of it. The six stories in the previous paragraph are very much worth reading at a level slightly above mere entertainment. The others you could probably take or leave.

'Carrie' was Stephen King's first published novel (1974) although his fourth to be written. It is an act of exorcism of teenage shame as becomes clear if you read King's own introduction to this edition. It is as not so much about bullying but the emotional result of doing nothing about bullying. You can come down in your sympathies on one of two sides. For Carrie as lumpenproletariat scapegoat and victim of the viciousness that is the American High School or for a largely innocent town and youth destroyed by her vengeful rage. This moral ambiguity makes this a major first horror novel. King himself tends to squirm a bit, recognising his own past cowardice and that of others, but countering that this is just what happens when you are an undeveloped human, a teenager. His instincts are towards the small town and all the lives lost -consequentialist to the core. But he knows he is on shaky moral ground. It is the honesty of his writing that shines through - Carrie destroys because she has been destroyed. The world as she sees it has done nothing (whether family or school) but been other than active or complicit in her destruction. One could say, against conventional morality, that her violence is heroic. She has been pushed into it by society (whether a lousy upbringing or 'normie' cruelty). The alternative to her existentialist revolt would be lonely suicide as was the outcome for one of King's own adolescent models. Given that Carrie is essentially super-normal 'psycho-kinetic' (which might stand in for any other apparent 'abnormality' like autism or sexual difference), the bullying of the adolescent school girls that drives her into extremity looks like the final effort at survival of her essential self. So, while King comes down clearly on the side of the small town and normality (as he does more obviously and cleanly in 'Salem's Lot' against the more obviously inhuman), he has the courage here to lay out choices for us - the freak's survival (though she be human) or ours (as the normal). This is not a trivial matter because the mentality and revolt of Carrie could be read back easily enough into the conditions that lead to at least some acts of terrorism. The book stops us short, forcing us to make some awkward and defining judgements on the nature of good and evil. If you do not end up with some sympathy for the dying Carrie after all she has gone through and do not despise the adolescent cruelty that led her to her murderous rage then you are implicitly complicit not only in the cruelty wreaked on her but on all similar cruelties on similar social scapegoats. The most interesting aspect of the novel thus lies not in understanding Carrie or the cruelty of adolescent High School girls but in the presentation of the 'good' normal people - Susan Snell, Tommy Ross, the gym teacher Rita Desjarfin. These people have all the right sentiments but their empathy tends to be retrospective, introspective and redolent of cowardice. They try to make things better only to make things worse. Whether intentionally or not, King has encapsulated the weakness of the American liberal. This is psychological horror at its best. The apocalyptic end far exceeds what any film version could do with the story but the reader's discomfort comes not from the cathartic death rate but from the way King weaves his fingers into our reservoirs of personal guilt and shame. The result is an odd mix of fatalism and implicit moral instruction. The reader is really being asked to absolve themselves because they are weak and can be no other than they are. Little can be done about endemic bullying and literary sympathy is about as far as we can go in dealing with it. There is conservatism and despair in this positioning. There is no questioning here of scapegoating or of the American High School system, only a vague implicit appeal to withdraw from direct complicity or engagement lest you make things worse. Maybe start by being kind from the beginning if you can. There is one flaw in the book that detracts from the whole. King (still at the start of his career) periodically introduces a tentative bit of literary experimentation that jars by splitting paragraphs with bracketed 'thoughts'. This is a shame because it works at the point of crisis but not otherwise. Fortunately, in Salem's Lot, King gave up on trying to be literary (the curse of culture) and went for what he was to do best - be a story teller of genius who writes extremely well. Otherwise, Carrie has all the hall marks of King - readable prose that wants you to keep reading. We can see why the book has been filmed three times. It meets the twin needs of exorcising Americans' ambiguous relationship to their formative adolescent high school experience and presenting an uncomfortable but decisive way of exorcising guilt and shame over 'normal' behaviours. But, at the end of the day, I am sure I am not alone in seeing Carrie, the individual, as the focus of my sympathy and the flaccid, cowardly, unthinking if (mostly) 'innocent' small town victims as far less interesting and, ultimately, far less worthy of redemption.

Chris Hilyer

This book was well written, but I guess that goes without saying.  Fast engaging read. I prefer more 'horror' in my horror but may as well knock this one off if you're going through King's early stuff. Finished in a day.

Great story, quick. The back and forth is a bit annoying at times but overall interesting.

Jonnie

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

Denis Crepaldi

Belu

“Cristo mira desde el muro

 con su rostro impenetrable.

Y si me ama en su bondad

como ella me asegura,

¿por qué estoy tan sola?”

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

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

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

Amanda

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

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

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

A young girl grew angrier and angrier - and a town writhed in pain ...
Carrie was not quite aware that she was possessed of a terrifying power. But it was enough to trasform a small, quiet New England town into a holocaust of destruction beyond the imagination of man. Innocent schoolgirl or vengeful demon, Carrie will make you shudder ...
--back cover

Nica

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

Emily

Cate

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

Karla

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

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

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

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

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

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

C. J. Daley 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

༺ kat ༻

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

Aris 

Nachtschicht

Justin Staack

7,5 Punkte
Briefe aus Jerusalem 5,5 Punkte
Spätschicht 7,5 Punkte
Nächtliche Brandung 7 Punkte
Ich bin das Tor 6,5 Punkte
Der Wäschemangler 7,5 Punkte
Das Schreckgespenst 7 Punkte
Graue Masse 9 Punkte
Schlachtfeld 5 Punkte
Lastwagen 6 Punkte
Manchmal kommen sie wieder 8 Punkte
Erdbeerfrühling 6 Punkte
Der Mauervorsprung 6 Punkte
Der Rasenmähermann 4 Punkte
Quitters, Inc. 9,5 Punkte
Ich weiß, was du brauchst 9,5 Punkte
Kinder des Mais 9 Punkte
Die letzte Sprosse 8 Punkte
Der Mann, der Blumen liebte 8 Punkte
Einen auf den Weg 7,5 Punkte
Die Frau im Zimmer 7 Punkte

Matheus Villa

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

A Volte Ritornano

Good enough book given the time it was wrote. Felt really sorry for Carrie. Loved Tommy and sue. That girl Chris and the guy deserved what they got tbh 

Katie Roberts

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

kait

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

Derek Graf

Carrie may be picked on by her classmates but she has a gift. She can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. This is her power and her problem.

To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie — the first step towards social acceptance by her high school colleagues. Until an unexpected cruelty turns her gift into a weapon of terror and destruction that no one will ever forget.

Claudia Beneyto

I have been waiting to read this book for a while now. To be honest, this is my first time reading anything Stephen King, and will most likely be my last. I can understand why people like him and his writing style; he tells a story with a purpose, in a straight-forward manner. However, i thought i'd like this book more than i did. It actually bored me at times, and felt almost like a pain to finish. During the first part of the novel i was expecting Prom Night to be a nerve-wracking, intense and pleasurable climax, but it failed to amaze me. To be completely honest, i was more entertained by the first part of the book than the latter, and i felt slightly betrayed by this. If you want to know Carrie, watch the movies. There are plenty of them, one better than others, but in my opinion all better than the book. The idea is pretty brilliant, but the execution failed to entrance me. The slurs were also completely unfounded and could have easily been avoided, since there was not a single black or gay person in the book, and yet Stephen King had to use them for some unknown reason.

Why describe every female character’s boobs?

Shari Ilg

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

2.5 of 5 stars

-----


All the horrible things that had happened to Carrie, how she was treated by her peers, even by her own mother, it was terrible and traumatizing. I felt really bad for her. Though it was really disturbing how a lot of people died because of what happened, all I can think of is this: out of all the characters present in the story, for me I felt sorry for Carrie the most. 

The story itself? It wasn't that bad but I don't like how it was made. I know that the events in the story was chaotic, but so does the writing. There are so much details that for me were just unnecessary. This was not particularly a long book but I kind of feel like it became dragging after the point where Carrie started her rampage. I didn't liked how it was stretched too much. I even skimmed a little with some parts and that wasn't a good thing considering the length of the book.

Overall, I'm not that impress. It was kind of unsatisfying and disappointing.

Carrie

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