Carrie, Stephen King

Genre: Horror, Paranormal

The undisputed King of horror began his extensive career with a simple story about a telekinetic 16 year old girl who finally unleashes her full powers after one traumatic event that was curated by one of her primary high school tormentors. But is the book really worth the plaudits that it gets, or is it just typical teen girl angst in book form?

We start at the begining of the main timeline in the novel where Carrietta White (the titular Carrie) starts her first period in the showers at school. Ignorant to menstruation, she is visciously mocked by her peers and supported (in digust) by her gym teacher. This incident is the catalyst of the events that occur throughout the book; Ms Desjardin the gym teacher, feels overwhelming guilt at her own reaction to the incident, and chooses to give the girls detention for their actions during the shower room riot; Sue Snell, a popular girl at school, is remorseful, and asks her equally popular boyfriend Tommy Ross to ask Carrie to their prom- Which he does, and Carrie accepts; and finally Chris Hargensen, the antagonist in our book who is unapologetic and shows no remorse for her actions. She treats Carrie with disdain, more so when she is banned from prom due to her failure to show up for detention.

The story is complicated by Carrie's relationship with her mother, Margaret White. Margaret is devout in her religious beliefs, using her views to force a point home in Carrie that the devil is coming after her, first for starting her period, then going to the prom with a boy, and many events in between and thereafter. Margaret is violent and abusive towards Carrie, though Carrie loves her dearly, adding deeply sad layers to an already traumatized character. Carrie's relationship with her mother is both complicated and heartbreaking, with only one clear outcome for the pair which is clear from their first interaction.

Intended or not, there are many themes to this novel, as short as it is. The first is that it is a coming of age novel that covers a lot of the typical traumas that we all face as we grow into our teen years; bullying, social backgrounds and how they shape our identity, and also discovering our identity or lack thereof. Carrie has spent years being guided by her mother, not truly understanding herself or the world due to her mothers teachings, and doesn't have a clear view of who she is and how she thinks until she becomes "a woman," which incidentally is when her telekinetic powers begin to show again. These themes are also relevant in the characters of Sue Snell and Chris Hargensen; Sue recognizes her role within the bullying and is painfully aware of her social status at school, and chooses to be her own person independant from both by finding atonement with her actions towards Carrie. Chris, on the other hand, doesn't appear to show any self awareness of the above topics but embodies them quite heavily, and is shown as the constrasting character to Sue through her actions, not her thoughts or her words.

Sex and sexuality also show up as key themes throughout the book, as a lot of the novels primary actions seemingly take place after the female characters explore their womanhood in varying ways: Carrie begins to develop and strengthen her telekinesis following her first menstrual cycle; Sue asks Tommy to the prom when they are intimate and they make love, and she feels something for the first time; Chris is relentless in her abuse of her sexuality, by vainly attempting to use sex to manipulate her latest bad boy fling. In contrast, the novel almost implies shame towards female sexuality, as negative events follow each of these scenes. Sexual shame is also present in the extreme in the character of Margaret White, who makes various sexual threats and monologues of shame in varying ways throughout the novel.

Interestingly, in contrast, the male characters in the novel don't seem to have as strong a voice. They exist as tools merely to help drive the events of the novel, and the actions they take are not of their own volition but inspired by the women in the novel. The principal would not have agreed to give the girls detention if not for the encouragement of Miss Desjardins; Tommy would not have taken Carrie to the prom if not for the influence of Sue; Billy the bad boy boyfriend would likely not have pulled the prom night prank if not for the influence of Chris. As such, there is very little character development for the male characters in contrast to the female characters.

Carrie is shown to grow and become comfortable within herself as her powers develop, and for the first time in her life people begin to show her kindness. It seems to be the point that the powers manifesting is the start of what people would call too little, too late. She was destined to break down and get revenge due to how strongly her powers do manifest. Whether or not a change in her mothers influence would have dictated a change in her own direction is a question that only King himself could answer.

Sue Snell in contrast doesn’t follow peaks and troughs in her behaviour, but consistently goes downhill throughout the story, highlighting the remorse in her actions and the effect this has had on her life and her behaviour. The one interesting character is the mother who, just like the men in the novel, doesn’t seem to exhibit any character development whatsoever. She remains as pious and fanatical as she always had (which we are told through history and other peoples narrative of her character) but the one thing that does change is her opinion towards Carrie, though this is as a direct result of what she perceives to be as Carries’ behaviour and how her religious beliefs fit into this change.

The epistolary format of the book tells the story way very well. The newspaper articles, diary entries, interviews with characters from events past make the book engaging and drive the plot forward without giving the reader any direct actions. This brings more meaning to the plot and more history to Carrie and her mother, giving the story more breadth and heart and adds more to her plight and the understanding of her as a character through more than her actions, which is the intent. It fits to serve the story as well as it gives you the details from other points of view and sucks you into that world, not just the main character.

In contrast it does little to help the books pace. For the most part, it's fine, but it does become slow in places. Kings earlier works tend to default into exposition rather than action and this can very easily derail attention if you want a horror that it's a little bit harder hitting. Can you even categorise the novel as horror? In some ways, yes. In others, no. Is the book scary? No. Does it make your heart races. In places yes, but mostly, no. Can I read this in the dark without a flashlight? Yeah, probably. If you can see, that is.

It’s not the book for everyone. Not everyone appreciates King’s writing style and can find it overstylised or even dreary. The language is very much of it's time, but I love the epistolary format as it's well constructed and adds so much to the story.

This is the first King book that I read (I don't include Desperation, ick) and I loved it because it left an impression on me. As a kid, I felt her loneliness, her lack of identity and her shame for how she acts, that desperate desire not to feel like an alien to your peers, wanting your parents to understand you. It was extremely relatable. As an adult, the book really hurts to read. It makes me think about my relationship with my daughter and how my actions encourage her behaviour and vice versa.

So, I personally like it, I think it’s a really important (unintentionally) milestone book that had a significant cultural impact. The film is iconic, the book launched SK’s career and he’s now the biggest household name in mainstream horror fiction. It’s not distinctly horror but it is a very well written book that should be consumed by any lover of the genre at least once.

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