A modern classic, Carrie introduced a distinctive new voice in American fiction — Stephen King. The story of misunderstood high school girl Carrie White, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge, remains one of the most barrier-breaking and shocking novels of all time.

Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is…Carrie

I have a confession to make – before Carrie I’d never read a Stephen King book. I’d always wanted to but all of the ones I’d been interested in looked really long, also I’m a total scaredy cat…I won’t be reading IT any time soon or possibly ever.

That said, I’ve been intrigued by the novel for a while and even tempted to watch it. I managed to pick up a copy of the book discounted and thought 2020 is the year that I finally read a Stephen King book…and I thought it was excellent.

The story centers a teenage girl in small town USA. She’s seen as quite strange by her peers and is controlled by her ultra-religious mother. But Carrie knows something that they don’t…she has a kind of talent. After an incident of bullying goes too far the whole town will see what happens when she’s push too far and humiliated by her classmates.

The novel is broken down in ways that I didn’t expect with interviews of people who witnessed the incident, papers from the investigation after and police reports etc. While at first I was a little confused by this I grew to enjoy the style and found I could build up a much better picture in my head. Having never seen the movie, it was great to come into this book with only my own imagination to guide me.

What I was particularly impressed by is how King has managed to portray a teenage girl in a way that most grown men couldn’t have. I didn’t feel like I was reading a guy writing a teenage girl which was a relief. Instead I felt an overwhelming sadness for a young woman that pretty much never had a chance.

This was a 4.5 star read for me it’s incredibly well written and while it might be considered a horror I think it also makes some crucial points about how much a person can take. Also it takes a lot to feel sorry for someone who kills as many people as possible and I really did. I’m already looking forward to my next Stephen King read, below.