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A review by mirandab22
Carrie by Stephen King
3.0
It seemed appropriate for 'Carrie' to be my first Stephen King novel, not only because it is the first he wrote but also as it is the one I've found the most intriguing after seeing the film. In many ways, the book actually excels on the film, but in others it is less successful.
What surprised me was how the book was told from several different perspectives and was interspersed with news articles and novels that were released after the events in the book, detailing Carrie, her life and the science behind telekinesis. Initially I thoroughly enjoyed these segments, each of them adding more to Carrie's backstory or her 'powers' but these segments did become repetitive and occasionally failed to give the reader any new information. This also meant the book fell into the trap of 'telling' rather than 'showing' which did make for an easy read but also makes me feel as if 'Carrie' will not have such a lasting impact now I have finished it.
*Contains light spoilers*
What King manages to do well in this novel is his characters. Carrie's mother, Chris and Billy are truly vile villains that are completely irredeemable, but that is because he wants them to be. Fundamentally, Carrie is the true villain but the purpose of the book is to explore her character and the events that lead her to perform such an act in the climax of the novel. During the climax though, King still successfully manages in making the reader sympathetic towards her (and in some cases, rooting for her). The one character which truly shone through was Sue Snell - a girl who initially bullies Carrie but quickly regrets it. She felt like the most nuanced with King managing to balance out her guilt being the driving force in redeeming herself, whilst also recognising this was to appease herself more so than Carrie and reflected the impact teenage peer pressure can have on her.
King also successfully builds the tension throughout the book to the climax (which is probably why I read most of it in a day). King reveals in the beginning of the book of the destruction the town suffers from and certain character deaths which naturally increased my curiosity about 'how' and 'why' the events unfold. However, in managing to build the tension so effectively, the climax doesn't quite stick the landing. Perhaps this is due to already knowing the iconic incident that occurs (like most people I imagine), if I hadn't, then it might have felt more shocking - but this is where the book felt the most drawn out and repetitive from the multiple perspectives and articles he used.
There were a couple of other minor issues I had that I won't go into too much detail over - the amount of similes King likes to use, his use of the N word a few times (most likely a product of it's time though) and it seemed as if every female character was getting slapped at one point or another. The amount of slapping going on almost made it feel like a soap opera and was bordering on comical towards the end.
The problems I have are what ultimately brought it down from 4 stars to 3 for me, but I still enjoyed reading the book a lot and would recommend it to anyone who is curious. Whenever I choose to return to 'Carrie' though, I personally think I'll choose the film.
What surprised me was how the book was told from several different perspectives and was interspersed with news articles and novels that were released after the events in the book, detailing Carrie, her life and the science behind telekinesis. Initially I thoroughly enjoyed these segments, each of them adding more to Carrie's backstory or her 'powers' but these segments did become repetitive and occasionally failed to give the reader any new information. This also meant the book fell into the trap of 'telling' rather than 'showing' which did make for an easy read but also makes me feel as if 'Carrie' will not have such a lasting impact now I have finished it.
*Contains light spoilers*
What King manages to do well in this novel is his characters. Carrie's mother, Chris and Billy are truly vile villains that are completely irredeemable, but that is because he wants them to be. Fundamentally, Carrie is the true villain but the purpose of the book is to explore her character and the events that lead her to perform such an act in the climax of the novel. During the climax though, King still successfully manages in making the reader sympathetic towards her (and in some cases, rooting for her). The one character which truly shone through was Sue Snell - a girl who initially bullies Carrie but quickly regrets it. She felt like the most nuanced with King managing to balance out her guilt being the driving force in redeeming herself, whilst also recognising this was to appease herself more so than Carrie and reflected the impact teenage peer pressure can have on her.
King also successfully builds the tension throughout the book to the climax (which is probably why I read most of it in a day). King reveals in the beginning of the book of the destruction the town suffers from and certain character deaths which naturally increased my curiosity about 'how' and 'why' the events unfold. However, in managing to build the tension so effectively, the climax doesn't quite stick the landing. Perhaps this is due to already knowing the iconic incident that occurs (like most people I imagine), if I hadn't, then it might have felt more shocking - but this is where the book felt the most drawn out and repetitive from the multiple perspectives and articles he used.
There were a couple of other minor issues I had that I won't go into too much detail over - the amount of similes King likes to use, his use of the N word a few times (most likely a product of it's time though) and it seemed as if every female character was getting slapped at one point or another. The amount of slapping going on almost made it feel like a soap opera and was bordering on comical towards the end.
The problems I have are what ultimately brought it down from 4 stars to 3 for me, but I still enjoyed reading the book a lot and would recommend it to anyone who is curious. Whenever I choose to return to 'Carrie' though, I personally think I'll choose the film.