Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Carrie

The most horrifying thing I’ve ever read. The only knock I have is the how the “stream of consciousness” sidebars are written. It totally pulled me out of the story every time. This is a masterpiece.

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bookishchaos's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Apparently I'm in the minority that actually enjoyed it? I finished this in one day. If you liked SK's older books like The Shining, Pet Sematary, you'll like Carrie!

Also I think Stephen King forgot how "suggestive" the ending was. Like he was going to write a sequel but forgot? Or decided not to?

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_grace_c_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is great; it's the novel that then gave us one of the greatest authors of our time.
All 242 pages are flawless; The story is about a girl who has some supernatural powers and the journey into High schools of the 60s and the religious mindsets around that time. Her limit is reached, causing her to use her powers to seek her revenge against her bullies, and ultimately everyone in her wake. This book makes you feeling many emotions and my heart broke for the abuse and sheltered life Carrie had to endure. The flow of the book is gripping; from the story telling of the events and the snippets of interviews and articles that followed 'Prom Night'. I was sucked in from the first page and read in the in 2 sittings.

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dalek_caan's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I felt like this was an interesting read from the lens of the book being a product of its time. While this may not be the view of the author himself, it is interesting that a lot of academics of the mid 20th century held that superpowers like telekinesis or the like was a plausible and almost inevitable latent human ability. I'm satisfied at having read it, but wouldn't qualify it as a must read.

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colin_s's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Quote:

“High school isn't a very important place. When you're going you think it's a big deal, but when it's over nobody really thinks it was great unless they're beered up.”

Setting:

Taking place in Chamberlain Maine in the late 1970s we follow out main character Carrie who is a 16 year old high schooler. While our story focuses on Carrie, the town of Chamberlain is a bit of a character itself and we see several aspects of it in our short time here.

Plot:

Carrie has been bullied most of her life and we join her on one especially tough and painful bulling session. When the teacher realizes what is happen (which takes her a while at first) she jumps in and sends Carrie home while punishing those who bullied her. This leads to the bully getting upset and looking to find a way to get revenge, little does she know Carrie isn't one to mess with.

Writing:

This is the first story I've read that is epistolary in nature and at first I did not care for it at all as it can break up the flow of a story pretty badly. However towards the middle and end I started to come around as the multiple viewpoint can help the emotional pulls of certain events. Stephen King's writing as a whole is very strong for a first published novel, I look forward to reading more of both his writing and epistolary novels as well.

Characters:

Our story Follows Carrie, the books name sake, as well as her mother and several of her bullies at school. Carrie in my opinion is the only fully fleshed out character as the rest sort of fit the singular mold needed for the plot. However Sue Snell, one of the bullies who tries to repent does start to become fleshed out more towards the second half of the book.

Pros:

Very quick read

Rich writing style

Cons:

Constant flipping viewpoint slows action

Fairly one dimensional characters

Recommendation:

First off this book doesn't exactly feel like a first published work. Stephen King's writing is very strong and unique way of telling this story helps it out a lot. I'd often heard that Stephen King doesn't know how or when to end a story and while the ending of Carrie isn't anything to write home about, it certainly doesn't leave you upset either. I strongly recommend this book and plan to read more Stephen King for sure as time permits.

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