Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Carrie by Stephen King

52 reviews

hiddenfallacies's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Carrie is a landmark achievement in horror for many reasons. It's the start of King's long and celebrated career, a novel that centers around women and places their pain at the epicenter of its plot, and it created a cultural memory that endures to this day - one that empathizes with Carrie rather than demonizes her. Told over three parts that function as three long chapters, the novel tells Carrie's story in retrospect through a collection of articles, interviews, and varying point of views. Going through the past, present, and future of the ill-fated prom night, the reader gets to know Carrie and all she has endured. Above all else, this novel is a tragedy about Carrie White's last hope to become a person and the ways in which society crushed that dream.

The first of the three parts suffers the most, lacking the natural momentum and masterful framing that surrounds the prom night itself and its aftermath in the story. This fact alone is what keeps this novel from garnering five stars for me. The novel is also littered with the artifact of being King's first, lacking some of the grammatical and structural prowess he cultivated over time. It's also important to note that there's a fair bit of racism present throughout the novel, dropped in small phrases and cultural references that leave the modern reader wondering if King meant to include them to indicate moral failings of certain antagonists or the time period itself, or if he simply was ignorant of certain biases he held himself. I believe informing potential readers of this is crucial, as I was blindsided by their sporadic inclusion while reading, taking me out of the story.

Although King has published better novels, as well as worse, I believe Carrie deserves a space not only on an essential reading list for King, but for horror as a whole. It remains culturally significant and moving to this day. May Carrie White never be forgotten. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Religious bigotry, Fatphobia, Self harm, Sexism, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Car accident, Child abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Antisemitism, Alcohol, Cursing, Abortion, Classism, Drug use, Confinement, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Pregnancy

icephoenix44's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

its okay, i guess? i feel like the writing style could be a little better though. some of the parts describing the female characters felt male gazey.

i also dont like the attempt to replicate accents, it makes the writing more weirder and clunkier to read, instead of feeling more authentic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Death

Moderate: Car accident, Body shaming, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

also i really dont think the attempted sexual assault by billy towards chris near the end of the novel really added anything to the story, i mean yeah they are in a toxic relationship but it doesnt really adds anything and fslt like a random plot point as it was not mentioned afterwards

ed_moore's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

3.25

I read Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ as I am involved in a production of the musical in a week, and was honestly surprised how quickly events unfolded in the book. Carrie is about a 17 year old girl who is outcast in school and faces abuse from her fanatically religious mother at home, yet finds she has the power of telekinesis and uses such to get her revenge on the town that wronged her for so many years. 

The primary surprise was how early Carrie’s telekinetic powers were revealed, I was expecting this to be more of a self-discovery plot point and twist in Carrie though I am content to mention it in this review as it was more or less revealed on the first page. The ending also wasn’t left for the readers to theorise as due to fictional extracts from supposed non-fiction books written about the actions of Carrie White on prom night the ending was revealed early on and continually referenced throughout. I really didn’t enjoy the inclusion of these books within books as though aware of the story, it still very much took away from the ending and diverted from the plot, and any comments that foreshadowed were intentionally far too obvious. ‘Carrie’ was not a book written to leave the reader on edge guessing whatsoever, which really defeated its main draw within the thriller genre. 

Despite my prior knowledge of the story the narrative and writing was however still harrowing. Scenes relating to the menstrual cycle and also child and religious abuse were extremely graphic, and the final sequence of events was absolutely brutal and apocalyptic, likely written in a means to mimic the biblical ‘Judgement Day’. It was also enhanced in the graphic imaginings of such as the scenes were often repeated from multiple perspectives, which increased reader exposure to violence but also failed to add much to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Blood, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Child death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Body shaming, and Gore

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Body shaming, Death, Religious bigotry, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, Death of parent, Grief, Child abuse, and Cursing

Moderate: Car accident

alaskan_bull_worm's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Bullying

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Car accident, Child death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Body shaming, Body horror, and Gore

nicoletiff's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Car accident, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal death, Murder, and Self harm

ilariasbizzera's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Bullying, Violence, Sexual violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Death of parent, and Death

prymachenk0's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Fatphobia, Body shaming, Car accident, and Domestic abuse

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This is the first Stephen King book i’ve ever read and I really enjoyed it! I think this is very well deserving of its horror classic title! 

I really liked the vivid descriptions, I could really see the scenes in my head with how they were written. I also really like Carrie as a character, i think she’s really fascinating and i’m a huge fan of books about religious trauma so this was definitely a good choice for me. 

I’m knocking one star from my rating purely for the unnecessary use of the n word, i don’t think that was needed whatsoever and i know this was written in the 70s but still, it wasn’t acceptable then and it isn’t acceptable now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Rape, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Grief, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Mental illness, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Car accident, Child abuse, Gore, Murder, Blood, Body shaming, Death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fatphobia, Self harm, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia