Carrie

Surprisingly, out of the 21 books I've read of King, I like this one the least. I dunno. Maybe it was the fact that it was hyped up so much. Maybe becuase I spent most of my childhood fearing horror movies, expecially Carrie, because people talked about it all the damn time.

But what strikes me as odd was when my unlce bestowed upon me a pretty hefty collection of Stephen King books. Carrie, as you may know, is one of his slimmest books. 192 pages as a hardcover. I think the longest book I read of his was Duma Key, which was pretty decent, but the ending left me on a hook. That one was a gargantuan 1,104 pages. I haven't made it to his other tomes such as The Stand, The Dark Tower Series, or Under The Dome but I'm sure I will one day. And what with his newest book 11/22/63 coming out next month, I thought it only fair to make mention of this book.

We all know the story by now; teenage girl, going through a change, not popular, finds out she has wicked telekentic powers and, in a fit of rage after being dumped with pigs blood at her senior prom, wreaks havoc on the kids, the bullies and even her own abusive mother. The story was unique for its time and tripped a bunch of people out. It's what got King started.

But the book is clunky. It's a compilation of fake articles, interviews, sometimes recorded, magazine articles and a series of letters. I felt that there never could be a connection to Carrie as a sympathetic character. It felt like I was receiving all my information secondhand.

In any case, the premise is still scary, Stephen King is still writing, I'm still reading and it is still one of the most banned books in schools today. It definitively made an impact.