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Pros: Captivating story told in a unique way, quite scary at times

Cons: Having seen the movie, some of the suspense was lost

My parents and I are going on vacation to Maine, and one of the things we are doing is checking out some of the places that inspired Stephen King's works. In order to get into the mood, I decided to start reading (or rereading) Stephen King's novels. I decided to start with the one that started it all- Carrie.

Although I'm a big Stephen King fan, I had never read Carrie before, though I had a basic idea of the plot. Carrie is a teenager who is made fun of and ostracized by the other kids. Part of the problem is her mother- a fanatical Christian who makes David Koresch (the crazy leader of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco) look harmless. The woman is completely psychotic, and Carrie's life with her is bizarre and nightmarish. Margaret White believes that evil caused Carrie to come into existence. As Carrie hits puberty and begins to develop, Margaret blames her development on sins that Carrie has committed. She regularly locks her daughter up, forcing her to pray for forgiveness for imagined sins. So Carrie has an extremely difficult life, unable to find peace at either school or home.

After a terrible hazing incident in the gym locker room, college senior Sue Snell takes pity on Carrie and arranges to have her own boyfriend, Tommy, take Carrie to the prom. Meanwhile, their classmates, led by a selfish spoiled rich girl and her juvenile delinquent boyfriend, scheme to humiliate Carrie in every way possible.

What no one realizes, of course, is that Carrie is no ordinary teenager. Rather, she has a rare power- telekinesis, the ability to move objects with her mind. As her power grows, she becomes more and more dangerous. Her revenge is brutal.

When reading about the way Carrie was treated by her mother, especially the abuse she suffered as a young girl, I wanted to jump right into the story and smack that crazy woman who abused her. However, I soon stopped sympathizing with Carrie when it became clear that she was on a course for revenge. Part of what makes Carrie such a universal tale is that so many high school students who are picked on have that desire for revenge- it is what has motivated so many school shootings and tragedies. Incidents such as these prove that Carrie is just as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1974.

Carrie the novel is a short read, much shorter than King's later works, and goes relatively quickly. It is

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