Carrie
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.

Reviewing a book as iconic as this feels a bit odd. Almost all King fans have read it, it's been turned into a movie, that movie has had a sequel, and a remake is in the works. That, right there, should tell you something. But oddly enough, even though this is a groundbreaking novel for it's time, and even though it is a very good piece of work from when King was a novice writer, it does have a few flaws.

The most notable being that the characters are very two dimensional. Carrie' mother is the "religious fanatic", Carrie is the "high school misfit", Susan Snall is the "popular girl with a conscience", and the rest seem to be the "popular bullies". There really isn't depth to any of these characters.

Also, there is a glaring error. While it is mentioned several times that Carrie's father died before she was born, there is a part where her mother is remembering thinking about killing her in her crib when she used her telekinesis for the first time - and it says she was stopped by her husband / Carrie's father.

However, even with these errors, the plot is gripping and it's interesting to watch Carrie go from a sympathetic figure (who hasn't been made fun of at some point) to an unlikable villain (murdering almost her entire high school class and taking out most of the town).

In the end, as one of his earlier novels the mistakes are to be expected but the plot is well beyond a novice and was excellent proof of King's talent to come.

If you're a King fan and have not read this book, go and read it. Otherwise, I would still recommend this book but know that there are mature subject matters within.

My rating: Four out of five snails.