Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Carrie

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Carrie by Stephen King

26 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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icephoenix44's review against another edition

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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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cryptofauna's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

woah!! okay i can def see how this launched his career. just amazing.
scary in its honesty and dark but it all feels so authentic? although it is more tense/ a thriller than i think it's a horror story. the events are horrifying but it wasn't scary or spooky in the traditional sense
i also feel like knowing the vague plot of this book because of how popular it is kind of added to the tense vibe because you know whats gonna happen at prom but carrie goes anyway.
well written with an interesting style (i do really enjoy a book that's a completion of different sources) but I did find it a little hard to keep track of sometimes, but i think it was mostly the kindle formatting making everything look the same w no breaks in between perspectives occasionally
read all in one day (especially as i tried to beat my kindle battery)

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ilariasbizzera's review against another edition

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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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lay_kone's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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madelinequinnee's review against another edition

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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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