Carrie shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. I've read many of Stephen King's books, but there are some I have missed along the way. I had never picked up Carrie because I'd seen the movie first. My thinking was, "been there, done that". Once again, I was wrong. I should have known from past experience that the movies just can't do justice to Stephen King's works. There have been a few good movie adaptations, like Shawshank and Stand by Me. Even the good ones tend to change some things, or they just can't portray what we read in the pages of the book. 
 The first Carrie movie wasn't bad. I think it was even a hit. And yet, reading the book this week gave me a whole new feeling for the girl and the story. I loved the flash-forward writing King used to portray the plot. Instead of seeing in typical timeline, we are given eyes into the future with these intermittingly placed "after-the-fact" book and court document excerpts. These are woven into the story, so that the reader knows what's coming, yet unable to see the whole picture. 
 I see Carrie herself in a different light now. Her past haunts her in a way I couldn't see before. The TK she possesses is somehow more real, as told here. Finally, her relationship with her mother is the fuel for the time-bomb, yet the one thing that matters in the end.