There’s a Carrie White in every high school. A girl born into the wrong class. The butt of everyone’s joke’s. The scapegoat to everyone’s problems. Poor Carrie White. She never had a chance.
To get your first period at 17, showering after gym, has got to be the worst. Having an overly religious mother who borders on the brink of insanity? Carrie White had the recipe for disaster.
But Carrie White was special. As she is welcomed into womanhood, so are her truth powers freed. Carrie White just wanted to be left alone, to live her life with her mother. What started as a gesture to counterbalance the guilt from fellow high school student, Sue Snell, turns into a night of terror their little town has never seen. Who is to blame? Carrie White? Or her tormentors?
A tight engaging tale told from Carrie’s point of view and epistolary format, this is a perfect quick Halloween read. There’s a lot of background to Carrie, and I must say I loved the ending a lot more than the movie version. Yes, it’s a bit dated, but this story is simple and pure at the same time. Even though everyone knows how it ends, you’ll race to see just what kind of destruction Carrie wrecks, and dare I say it? Cheer her on. (Maybe not the whole time, but certainly for two teens that deserved to be reckoned with Carrie.)
I love King’s first published novel. I wish I had read it earlier. He writes women so well, and although it reeks of the 70s, the story is still timeless. Most girls look forward to their senior prom. Pray yours never ends up like Carrie White’s.
Through a Seattle Looking Glass 