By Daisy Lawrence
My review of one of the most famous “Horror” stories by Stephen King. We’ve all heard of horror movies, and I personally don’t enjoy them. I don’t like being scared on the terms of movie directors....I like to be scared on MY terms. Actually I don’t like being scared at all. Which is why this book was perfect for me. “Carrie” is one of the least scary horror books I’ve ever read. I think it’s because I was easily able to separate the world in the book from our real world. I think it’s also because none of the things that happened (aside from the supernatural happenings) are too surprising to me. It seemed like I was reading a book about high school with some telekinesis thrown in. Don’t get me wrong; I loved it! But it just wasn’t...terrifying. Nevertheless, I would not recommend this book to readers under 16 because of mature themes and mature descriptive language. A strange thing about the structure of this book is that the characters inner thoughts are expressed in parenthesis. For example: Daisy accidentally stubbed her toe on the table (OH MY GOSH WHAT THIS HURTS OUCH OUCH OUCH). It’s an interesting choice, but with a story that needs to express these inner thoughts effectively, it was a smart choice. So look out when you’re reading this book, it takes a second to get used to. Another thing you need to get used to are quick character POV changes. The chapters switch off which character is showcased. And small clips from made up interviews and books and cases about telekinesis are inserted throughout the text. I want to add a warning here (SPOILERS) This book mentions sexual assault more than once. It doesn’t go into full detail, but the situations are disturbing. If you can look past these strange choices, the text is mesmerizing. It has something for everyone to relate to: Someone trying to right their wrong, someone being bullied, someone with a haunted past, a high school prom, and of course (the one thing EVERYONE can relate to): Telekinesis!
