Carrie by Stephen King

Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed... But one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction...

-- Goodreads.com description --

This book was a loan from one of my friends and the perfect Halloween read. I actually never read something creepy just because it's Halloween and I actually liked the experience! I have some other books on my Halloween tbr, as you can see in my Halloween themed Top Ten Tuesday list, but since I need to return this book to my friend, I decided to pick this one. Another reason is the fact that it was a short and quick read.

Now, I knew quite a lot about the storyline already, although I never even watched either of the movies. However, I still found this book very enjoyable. I loved the various perspectives on Carrie's story and the various mediums through which it was told, like newspaper clippings, parts from a diary form a survivor, police interrogations, academic paper, etc. This was an unique way of storytelling which I absolutely enjoyed. This was my first Stephen King book, and although I've heard so much about this author and his books already, I still didn't really know what to expect.

I did know that Carrie would be bullied till her breaking point, but I didn't realize how hard it would be to read about the bullying and abuse from her fellow students and even her mother. I actually believe, that if she had had a different mother, things would have gone completely different. 

Still, I struggled to read about the horrible things done to Carrie. I do feel, that this book offers the ultimate revenge. Carrie takes revenge on everyone who bullied and abused her in quite an epic way. Of course, this is not the way you should resolve your problems but I can really empathize with Carrie, but also with the other characters. Even at some level with Carrie's mom.

Minor spoiler: What bothered me though, was that Tommy seemed to genuinely enjoy taking Carrie to the prom but when the bucket hit his head, Carrie didn't even check to see if he was ok. She took revenge on everyone but I do believe Tommy did not deserve it. She should have shown even the smallest concern towards him. But I guess she was in shock and in some way I can understand that.

I think this is a perfect book to start reading Stephen King's books. It is short and quite well known. I also believe this might have been the first book he published. 

All in all, I really liked this book and ultimately, I give Carrie 4 out of 5 stars. In the future I'm probably going to pick up more of his books but I'm not sure which ones yet. If you have any recommendations, let me know in the comments down below!