***** I feel like I shouldn't have to say this for such an old book but I will anyway. There are spoilers*****
I don't know why it took me so long to get to reading 'Carrie' It has been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple years, and the day I finally picked it up I read clean through half of it before falling off of reading for two whole months then I picked it back up and finished it.
As a lover of the horror movie genre, I can say that I have seen 'Carrie' in its original film adaptation as well as its newer adaptation that came out in 2013. I had expected the movies to be pretty close to the source material and in truth they are. However, like any adaptation there is lacking.
The book doesn't just tell Carrie White's story. It goes back and forth between firsthand accounts, scientific studies into telekinesis based around what Carrie did on prom night (not just in the school gym but in the town as well), news articles, and the story as it happened to Carrie and the other teens surrounding the incident.
What interested me the most was that after the prom and the confrontation with her mother Carrie lets all of her rage and sorrow out on the town and anyone who happens to cross her path. She opens up all of the water hydrants she passes, blows up a gas station, and takes down powerlines. all of these things result in most of the town of Chamberlin being set ablaze and people running in the street being electrocuted. I know it must sound harsh to say that this is the part of the book that I found most interesting, but the death and destruction are not what grabbed my attention in these last chapters.
What grabbed my attention was the fact that Carrie, while unleashing her abilities onto her surroundings had also somehow opened up a backdoor in the minds of every single person within a certain radius of herself. A hive mind if you will. Without having to ask what was going on or who was responsible, a single name came to mind of the citizens of the small town. Carrie White.
Sue Snell uses this connection to sort of track Carrie. The closer she got the more knowledge about what had happened to Carrie that night was able to flood her mind. In the end, Sue is unable to disconnect herself from Carrie's mind and has to experience what it feels like to die.
It is possible that Carrie didn't know about this ability until she and Sue encountered each other in those last moments. This ability is also common in characters who we know for a fact "Shine" In the Stephen King universe. We also know that people who shine can have certain abilities that others who shine do not. So I guess a good question would be, just how much did Carrie shine? And did her actions on prom night draw the attention of anyone else?
Note:
As mentioned in my previous post I have decided to read all of the Stephen King novels and short stories that I can by publication date. However, because certain books are no longer in print I understand that they may have to be skipped over. I'm doing this to try to keep with the continuity. many of King's works are referenced in his other works even if it is just one sentence or one name in a whole novel. I want to be able to catch as many as I can on my own without having to resort to looking up connections online. of course with this line of thinking I started at the beginning with Carrie. This also means that when Carrie was published no one except King knew what "Shining" was and they wouldn't know until three years later when 'The Shining' was published.
