Carrie: Review

Carrie White and I have a history together, she was my first: Carrie was the first novel I ever read from cover to cover in one go. I’ve since only done that with two other books, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The novel Carrie almost didn’t see the light of day, after King threw the start of it away, believing he didn’t know enough about teenage girls to be true to the character. His wife, Tabatha, retrieved the pages, liked what she read, and encouraged King to finish it.

The horror in Carrie doesn’t come from the girl herself or the telekinetic powers she is realising she processes, but more from those around her, namely her mother, Margaret White, and a girl at school, Christine Hargensen. Margaret White is a religious zealot, whose twisted view of the Bible and Christ, which are far removed from the truth, makes what she does to Carrie throughout the novel truly terrifying. She believes that everything she is doing is for the good of Carrie’s soul: the beatings, the verbal tirades, and locking Carrie in a cupboard full of violent religious imagery; all of it is the way in which she can get rid of the power of the Devil she believes is in her daughter. As Carrie grew up, and glimpses of her power started to show themselves, Margaret tried to kill her daughter, and when she failed she believed that it is her own weakness stopping her from going through with it. Carrie’s fear of her mother builds up inside her, waiting for something that will trigger the pent up release.

This is where Christine Hargensen comes in. She is what I call a typical high school bitch. She has a group of followers that are too scared to go against her, and because her father is a lawyer she thinks she is untouchable by the authority of the school. When Carrie gets her first period, and believes she is bleeding to death, which due to her mother's religious convictions she hasn’t told Carrie about it, Christine leads the rest of the girls in a session of taunting Carrie. Afterwards, though the other girls believe they may have gone too far, Christine, because of the punishment she receives from the Principle because of the incident, decides that Carrie will have to pay, culminating in a plan to get Carrie to the school prom and humiliate her further by covering her in pig’s blood.

One of the girls who was involved in the taunting of Carrie, Susan Snell, decides as a way of trying to make up for her part in it, convinces her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, to take Carrie to the prom instead of her, which he does.

Both the actions of her mother and Christine, unleash Carrie’s power resulting in death and destruction of anybody and anything that gets in Carrie’s path.

The novel is a good read, and is a worthy introduction into King’s work. This is the fifth time I’ve read it, and no doubt I’ll read it again and again in the years to come.