I was pleasantly surprised when on my reading list for University Stephen King's Carrie popped up. I have never read any King and he has always been someone who's work I have been meaning to read, so i was glad of an excuse to do so.
The story of a socially outcast girl, whose overbearing christian mother has brought her up to almost ensure her isolation from normal society, Carrie wreaks havoc and destroys the the town in a rampage of revenge with her new found telekinetic powers.
Stephen King certainly has a gift of making the reader feel uncomfortable. From the first scene in the shower you pity Carrie as she is mocked mercilessly for her ignorance by her classmates. Carries character is very bland at the start of the novel. No matter how sorry you feel for her because of how harshly she's treated you still want reach through the pages and shake the unfortunate girls shoulders and tell her to stand up for herself. This element of the character made the novel more believable as we all know, or have met someone even if fleetingly who is like Carrie at the start of the novel. Even if it's not to the scale of how Carrie behaves is treated in the book.
Carrie does eventually turn around her act and say "enough is enough" and soon you wish meek little Carrie was back cowering in the corner instead of the destructive rampage that transpires. The shocking change between old mild Carrie and new catastrophic Carrie gives the chilling realisation of how far some people will go when they are pushed to breaking point and the damage they can cause even if they don't have telekinetic powers if the intent to destroy is there.
The violence in the novel didn't shock me as much as i expected it too. Possibly due to being from a generation that can yawn their way through watching the "Saw" films, which for what they lack in story content, make up for in amounts of bloodshed.
From a technical point of view I found the pace of the novel a little strange. Though their intention was to increase the "believability" of the story and give the chilling impression of reality to the fiction, I found the articles and interviews littering the text got in the way of the actual story. Also a lot was given away in these exerts about what was going to happen later on in the story, so if you like the satisfaction of already more or less knowing the ending when you get there, this is a great book for you to read. If, like me you prefer a little mystery at the end of your novels, this probably isn't a book you're going to love and read over and over.
Though I did enjoy reading it, it wasn't quite as good as I was expecting from the renowned Mr King. So, I may read a some of his other novels like The Shining before judging Stephen King too harshly.
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