Carrie by Stephen King: Book Review & Summary
Dive into Stephen King's classic 'Carrie' with our revealing book review & summary. Discover the telekinetic tale of revenge and supernatural horror.
Introduction: Stephen King Carrie Book Review & Summary.
Stephen King's legendary debut is about a teenage outcast and the revenge she enacts on her classmates.
Carrie White may have been unfashionable and unpopular, but she had a gift. Carrie could make things move by concentrating on them. A candle would fall. A door would lock. This was her power and her sin.
Then, an act of kindness, as spontaneous as the vicious taunts of her classmates, offered Carrie a chance to be normal and go to her senior prom.
But another act--of ferocious cruelty--turned her gift into a weapon of horror and destruction that her classmates would never forget.
Carrie White is no ordinary girl.
Carrie White has a gift of telekinesis.
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
But events will take a decidedly macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night as she is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her.
Book: Carrie by Stephen King
Carrie is a 1974 horror novel, the first by American author Stephen King. Set in Chamberlain, Maine, the plot revolves around Carrie White, a friendless, bullied high-school girl from an abusive religious household who discovers she has telekinetic powers. Wikipedia
- Originally published: April 5, 1974
- Author: Stephen King
- Genres: Horror, Horror fiction, Epistolary novel
- Pages: 199
- Adaptations: Carrie (1976), Carrie (2013), Carrie (2002), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), Carrie
About the Author Stephen King
Stephen King is one of the American novelists with the most readers and the greatest reputation in the world today. Born in Portland, Maine, USA in 1947, he studied English Literature at Maine State University.
In the mid-1970s, Stephen King rose to fame and was hailed as the "master of modern thriller novels" by the New York Times.
Since the 1980s, his works have always topped the list of bestsellers in the United States over the years, and his royalties have exceeded tens of millions of dollars.
He won the Bram Stoker Award six times, the International Horror Literature Association Award six times, and the O. Henry Award in 1996.
In 2003, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Book Awards for "inheriting the great tradition of American literature of paying attention to plot and atmosphere, reflecting the beautiful and tragic moral truth deep in the human soul".
He was awarded the Allan Poe Master Award in 2007-Lifetime Achievement Award. He is known for his horror novels, which vividly summarize the entire development of this type of novel. His works also include science fiction, fantasy novels, and other novel types.
But his works are far beyond the category of genre novels. He is not a cheap wholesaler of horror. His works go deep into the heart, question humanity, and show the soul.
What it achieves is a true psychological thriller is a true man. Not a literary master.
In the 30-year creative career of Stephen King, he has written more than 200 short stories and 40 books, which have been translated into 33 languages and distributed to 35 countries, with a total of more than 300 million copies printed.
What's more worth mentioning is that more than 70 movies and TV shows are based on his works, thus setting the Guinness World Record.
Excerpts from the original text
People don’t necessarily get better, but they become smarter. When you become smarter, you will continue to do things like breaking the wings of flies. You just figured out a better reason for doing this kind of thing.—— Quoted from page 78
Book Summary: Carrie by Stephen King
The most important precaution for reading a story is to remember that you have nothing to do with the story, but this is what a good story destroys in the end.
In this more than 200-page novel, there is a sentence: "The eyes are the only part of her body that has not been completely dyed red."
The difference between a novel and life is that after all this has happened, the novel has only seventy-four pages. This story begins with a girl’s menarche and ends with a fire that almost burns the entire town.
Of course, all this has never happened, no matter from which point of view. It may even be a conjecture of this girl in the novel, fortunately at least not in the novel.
I used to think that when I opened my debut work, I would get blood on my hands. After many disappointments, I no longer imagined it.
But when I opened Mr. Si's "debut" in a sense, I accidentally tasted the sweetness similar to menarche.
The painstaking work of reading a writer is actually very close to the break. Whether there is a second time is really a matter of life and death for everyone.
This novel obviously belongs to the kind that can be "do it again". The novel chooses a closed town. The novel chooses a mother who feels that she is a serious disease of female genital organs, including pregnancy.
The novel also selects a bunch of people who witness the misfortune of others but only laugh. In the end, these people almost all died. In this sense, I think this novel can be regarded as a happy ending.
This is a story about a child unless you have never experienced the stage when you were a child. No matter how far away you are at that stage, or in the middle of it;
this is a story about prejudice unless you have never been marginalized, never regarded as an outsider by a strange group. Unless you never feel about it.
The process of a person's growth is almost a process of constant contact with strangers. The path of the intestines where the pupa turns into a butterfly is full of doubts, crowding out, and hurting.
The biggest harm is that "Where did you get this confidence" can be a pupa turned into a butterfly, why can't you accept that you are a caterpillar for the rest of your life.
In this way, when you want to insult someone when you want to hurt, you can naturally accept that you are just a public spare tire.
That is to say, the original intention of hurting and insulting a person to the point of being exhausted is often just idle or idle.
In the novel, the injury suffered by the girl along the way is characterized as "everything seems logical and inevitable" so that she can get used to it, so she can also deceive herself into believing that all people are inevitable.
What people have to learn is to get used to being isolated, excluded, hatred and insulted, and more importantly, they need to realize that passers-by who are paying attention to all of this will turn a blind eye to these, not just because they are commonplace, but because everyone is busy.
If this is not a novel but a life, then the years will really be quiet and sunny. It's a pity that this is a novel, but fortunately, this is a novel: "Suddenly, all of this and the overwhelming criticism have reached a critical point.
The ultimate contempt, insult, and ridicule that have been sought for a long time have finally appeared. Fission." If you say Menarche is like breaking the seal, at this moment the little sister Jiali finally turned into a super demon.
"They want to extinguish my fire." At this time, the little girl doesn't care about "Her melancholy in an instant gives people the illusion of beauty." She will burn everyone's illusion with fire, the illusion that she can be bullied at will...
The novel depicts the scene of the massacre like a carnival: flesh and blood are flying, the fire is raging, no one can stay out of the matter, and no one can just laugh at one side.
Something will always happen in the novel, unlike in life, it can only be the same in most cases.
Nothing in life is the same, and the story is never really irrelevant to the reader.
Book Review: Carrie by Stephen King
Many readers always want to read good stories, and there are people who aspire to be writers who want to be inspired by good stories, but when you get such inspiration, how to play with it is what everyone expects, just like the Lord of the Rings.
The novel is not long, but after reading it, my hands tremble uncontrollably. I do not know why either. The novel is based on campus bullying and female revenge.
Under the superpower setting of "spiritual actuation", Carrie completes the rebellion against her mother and revenges her glamorous and stupid classmates.
The entire town of Chamberlain is almost destroyed by fire. Water flow and electric current.
When I was reading a novel, I couldn't help thinking about how shocking the movie scene should be.
The multi-angle narrative method makes people know from the beginning that this story will go to an irreversible and destructive ending, but the delicate psychological description makes people tempted to follow the depressed and bullied Jiali all the time to hope for the moment before the explosion. A short period of anxiety and sweet tranquility.
"Carrie" is such a story. If you just tell the story itself, this is actually a simple thing that cannot be simpler.
It's like a gossip topic between neighbors, which is very attractive and can be finished quickly. A girl with supernatural powers is always bullied.
She flies very badly, and finally one day she doesn’t want to bear it anymore, so she uses supernatural powers to avenge everyone... It’s such a story without a special unexpected result.
There is no particularly amazing plot. But the good thing about this book is that even if you know the ending of the story when you start to read, you are fiddled with the design in the story text. Even if you know what the next step is, you will read it patiently.
This is Stephen King’s first published novel. Before that, he had written three other books, but they were not published. After he became a well-known writer, it was published one after another.
In this story, you see the ubiquitous figure of the author. Because he set up a layout very carefully, readers can feel this deliberate, but at the same time this layout is wonderful, you know this is the author's writing skills, but it still makes people feel very happy.
The story revolves around the "Carrie Incident". Through flashbacks, various forms such as legal reports, reporter reports, client testimonies, special books, and death reports are used as stations in the story journey.
At the same time, in the novel, I will enter the beginning of the event again, through the perspectives of many parties, tell the plot of what I have experienced, see,n and feel, and the author will narrate the process at the time in a straightforward manner...
In this way, from one point to another, and then to the next point, readers will understand such a big gossip or the ins and outs of the event from different angles.
Of course, reading Stephen King’s novels, sometimes you have to endure the author’s rants or grinds. This is the characteristic of Jin's novels.
Because he wants to quickly construct an environment, no matter what kind of reader you are, he must build the story atmosphere of the novel in your heart.
The dangerous school, the girl who got into trouble, the introverted Carrie with low self-esteem, the nagging mother, the helpless teacher, and so on.
Even if it is a small supporting role, Jin has to spend a lot of space to introduce his background. Even if he only shows up on that side once or twice, or is just an insignificant person who doesn't even remember his name. Recently, I have read more of Jin's works, and I have gradually realized the intention of doing this.
Although sometimes I feel tired of reading these contents, he can really give people a different experience and feeling. This is more or less a different experience for you to read the whole story.
The atmosphere is very important in writing such novels. Especially the final climax of the novel, the cathartic, tense, and maddening plot also benefits from the perfect shaping of the atmosphere. The chapter of Kelly's Revenge is the most exciting part of the book.
When readers have been suppressed by Kelly for too long, the moment of eruption finally comes. The moment when it broke out was the moment when Kelly was stimulated, and it was very well created.
It's really like the method of creating suspense described by Hitchcock, it's like the time bomb under the dining table is counting down, and people at the dining table are still singing and dancing.
This passage is too exciting. At this time, the reader can guess in which direction the result will go, but you will still watch it happen with a faster heartbeat.
This is the joy of an 182-page story. Many large books, I'm afraid can't be so meticulously crafted.
If you have read a lot of Jin's books, then you will never be unfamiliar with this novel.
In addition, also talk about the protagonist Carrie in this novel. She is definitely a person familiar to everyone. Because you can see such people at any time in your life. And Jiali's story can happen at any time in life.
People look down on her just because she is inherently stupid and introverted, or she has a despised mother. Such people are everywhere.
Such as Ma Jiajue, such as the American campus shooter. They are suppressed by their surroundings and aren't abandoned by those close to them.
Therefore, they want to show their strength. They also want to see those who insult them show fear and fear.
Thus, Kerry used a supernatural power, Ma Jiajue used a hammer, and the school shooter used a gun, and the world became bloody ever since. The novel is an exaggerated story, but to a certain extent, it is true.
There have been such things before, there are now, and there will be in the future. So, what can be said? Be kind to the poor people around you, such as beggars, such as drunks, such as those you hate.
There is no coincidence in the book, just the kind of coincidence that makes people curse.
Everyone may become Carrie, everyone may also play the role of Carrie's mother, neighbor, classmate, or the innocent strangers in Carrie's life circle. Therefore, everyone may have a destined ending.
Stephen King is really a genius of psychological description. He has such an accurate grasp of the subtle changes in the psychology of boys and girls in adolescence.
The complex and multi-faceted human nature, the collective struggle with evil desires and conscience, the suspicion of one’s own hypocritical faces, the aversion and fear of the mediocre life that can be seen at a glance...
Except for Carrie and her perverted mother, The one who impressed me most was Su, the kind-hearted girl who survived but paid a heavy price.
She witnessed the demise of the monstrous anger that swept across the world, pierced by the searching eyes, shocked and painful and regretful.
The only dissatisfaction with the novel is the strong translation accent, which makes the wonderful dialogue and subtle psychological changes less intriguing.
When I can't bear it, I will restore their dialogue and mental activities in my heart, so I feel much more normal.
But when the scene is described, I will forget the discomfort brought by the translation accent, and I will be immersed in the world wholeheartedly.
Do not erupt in silence, but perish in silence. Carrie, Carrie, I wonder if you are lucky or unfortunate to have such a superpower.
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About Muhiuddin Alam
Muhiuddin Alam is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ReadingAndThinking.com. He serves as a consistent contributor to various websites and publications, including Medium, Quora, Reddit, Linkedin, Substack, Vocal, Flipboard, and Amazon KDP. Alam personally read numerous books and, for the past 10 years, has been providing book recommendations and reviews. Find Me: About Me & Google Knowledge Panel.
