Carrie by Stephen King is a chilling tale of isolation, cruelty, and revenge, centered on a shy teenage girl with extraordinary powers. Carrie White is a socially awkward high school student living in a small town in Maine. Bullied by her classmates and dominated by her fanatically religious mother, Margaret, Carrie endures constant humiliation. Her life takes a sharp turn when she experiences her first menstrual period in the school shower—an event that her mother never prepared her for—and is cruelly mocked by the other girls.
Following the incident, Carrie begins to discover her ability to move objects with her mind—telekinesis. As her powers grow stronger, so does her sense of self, especially after a kind classmate’s boyfriend, Tommy Ross, invites her to the senior prom as an act of compassion and atonement. For the first time, Carrie feels accepted and even begins to imagine a different, happier life.
But the night of the prom ends in catastrophe. A cruel prank—dumping a bucket of pig’s blood on her in front of the entire school—triggers Carrie’s rage and unleashes her telekinetic powers in full. What follows is a wave of destruction as she destroys the school, burns down parts of the town, and ultimately confronts her mother in a tragic final confrontation. The novel ends with reports and letters piecing together the aftermath, hinting that Carrie may not be the only one of her kind.
Carrie was Stephen King’s first published novel, and it instantly established him as a major voice in horror. More than a supernatural thriller, it is a poignant and terrifying story about the consequences of cruelty, the fear of the unknown, and the explosive power of repression.
