jethrien

Title: Carrie
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Horror
Thingummies: 4

Synopsis: Traumatized, telekinetic teen goes on a rampage after the worst prom ever.

Thoughts: The fact that this is a freshman novel is obvious; the fact that King is a supremely gifted writer is also obvious.

The novel mixes third person narration with interviews, transcripts, police blotters, and excerpts from memoirs and scholarly works. The fact that everyone knows the plot of this book does not actually constitute a spoiler--it's declared from the beginning. Much of the book is set after the events, as people study the evidence of the disaster years later. So you know from the beginning that Carrie is going to destroy the town and nearly everyone is going to die.

Which is part of why this book is so interesting. It's not really suspense, since you know what's going to happen. The inevitability adds to the growing menace. And it's the tiny details that really bring home the horror--the offhanded reference to someone's fingers being severed as he tries to open a door, for example. But King is just as interested in exploring the psychology of the characters as he is in scaring people. There are the two dimensional monsters one expects from horror, but they are minor characters--the Bible-thumping mother, the Mean Girl. The titular "monster" is a sympathetic, finely-drawn character. You cannot condone her actions, but you can understand them and mourn for what might have been.

This is somehow less horror and more tragedy. It has all the requisite gore and tension, but it also has a deep compassion that makes it stand out from other examples of the genre. There's a reason King's writing sells--it's just that good.