Carrie (1974)

I read this book multiple times in junior high and high school, so I can't list all the read dates, but I plan on re-reading it again. ( )

As much as I loved Stephen King as a kid, I've been hesitant to revisit him as an adult. For lack of a better explanation, he's an author who's sold at airports, and I subconsciously have been too pretentious for that. I finally decided that I'm too old to be elitist without really knowing why, and I'm glad I did.

God, I love this book. It's surprisingly detailed for a first novel written by someone in his twenties. The shifts from traditional third-person narration to fucked up stream-of-conscious thought made me want to puke. The excerpts of fictional books within the book are genius, and do a great job of giving you just enough information of what's going to happen later while still leaving you with some suspense (though at this point, I can't imagine anyone being so far removed from pop culture that they wouldn't know). ( )

Carrie is a fascinating story about the dark power of female adolescence and bullying. Stephen King tells a great story, though the writing is not great at all. ( )

A fast read. Stephen King can certainly string sentences together so that the story flows very quickly. No trouble getting into or finishing this story. The story is definitely dated a bit with some racist imagery that probably was seen as more acceptable in 1974. As is almost always the case, the novel is better than the movie (but I still enjoyed the movie). ( )

Classic horror novel for an independent read ( )