The theme of picked-on nerds who get revenge has always been a popular one. Unfortunately, lately it's been playing out in real life in some very deadly circumstances. Many school shootings had their roots in bullies tormenting "nerds" and "dweebs" until they couldn't take it anymore and took out their tormentors in a hail of bullets.
But what if one of those put-upon kids didn't need a gun? What if the class scapegoat could wreak a powerful and deadly vengence with the power of her mind alone? Stephen King's early novel, "Carrie," examines that premise with chilling horrorshow results.
"Carrie" is not King's only story to deal with a weird kid taking revenge on classmates. He wrote the novella "Rage" under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, and it can be found in old versions of "The Bachman Books" (it's now out of print in the U.S. because of its influence on real-life school shooters, one of whom was found with a copy in his locker and another of whom took actions that paralleled some of the scenes).
But "Rage" is reality based, whereas Carrie has King's signature foray into the world of the supernatural.
When we first meet Carrie White, she's portrayed as the stereotypical loser who acts as the scapegoat for the popular girls, as well as for pretty much anyone who needs quick self-esteem dose that can be gained by picking on the weakest link. Raised by a religious fanatic mother whose personal brand of Christianity bears no relationship to anything sane, Carrie doesn't even know what's happening when she gets her first period. Unfortunately, it happens in the school gym's shower, subjected her to even more ridicule on top of the trauma.
There is no mercy at home either, where Carrie's mother sees her period as proof of her sinful nature and uses it as an excuse to abuse her. Indeed, abuse is the story of Carrie's life, and natural events such as maturing into womanhood are turned into filthy and shameful examples of her "badness" that are deserving of vicious punishment and damnation.
But Carrie has a special secret. It's not just physical changes that herald her entry into puberty; she also has telekinetic powers that are gaining in strength. While these powers showed up earlier in her life, she now realizes that they are stronger and that she can learn to control them.
Scapegoat + special powers = recipe for disaster, particularly since this is a King book. Things come to a climax at the school prom, where Carrie is attending with the wildly popular Tommy Ross (his real girlfriend, Sue, feels remorseful for participating in the abuse of Carrie and sets up the date secretly as a way to make it up to her).
Although Carrie's mother tries to prevent her from attending, the girl now realizes that she can get her way via her powers. Her terrified mother backs off but sees this as further proof that Carrie is evil and begins to believe that she must be eliminated in order to be saved.
Unfortunately, Chris, a snotty and arrogant girl who is barred from attending the prom as punishment for torturing Carrie, decides to take the opportunity exact a cruel, embarrassing, and very public revenge at the prom. Anyone who has scene the movie will know quite well what she plans to do; once you've seen the picture of Carrie drenched and dripping with pig's blood, you never forget it.
So what happens when the person you pick on has a terrible power that you don't know about? What happens when you push that person to the brink? King portrays it in a vivid climax that goes all the way from the school gym, which becomes a lethal trap, through the streets of the town and to Carrie's own home in a final showdown with her mother.
I won't go into any more detail than that because I don't want to ruin the tale, even though the plot is rather straightforward and predictable. It's still good to read it in King's own words as he conjures up gory mental images that will stick with you for a long time.
One interesting facet of this book is that while Carrie would seem to be a sympathetic character right off the bat (the underdog being picked on by the unpopular kids), you don't instantly like her. King portrays her in a way that allows the reader to see her awkwardness and unlikeable traits. Granted, we learn that much of this is due to her horrifying upbringing, but we still get a glimpse of what brings out the predator instinct in the other girls.
To the committed King fan it's pretty well evident that this is an early work. While it's not at all bad, it doesn't seem to have the "polish" of his later novels like "Firestarter" and "The Dead Zone" (my two favorites). Those two were longer and delved more deeply into the characters' minds and motivations. You get a little of that here, but only a sampler compared to those two. I would love to have seen what he would have come up with if he'd written this book a few years later, when he really came into his own as a novelist.
Still, it's a guilty little pleasure; not a fine banquet like his best works, but a yummy little appetizer that will whet your appetite for more.
In an exclusive introduction written specifically for this edition, King looks back at the creation of his first masterpiece 25 years ago. Carrie Whit...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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