,,Carrie" is Stephen King's first novel which was ever published and while probably not his finest work, definitely one of his most popular ones. Being shorter than most of his other novels, it does generally focus on a horrific escalation of accumulated emotions, but also a great deal more than that. Major themes of this book are bullying at school and religious fanaticism, both of them important subjects which have not only been presented by King as being part of what can be considered our modern society, but also explained in all their explicit details with a profound understanding of humanity. King's stories usually are no stories to be remembered as dealing with specifically realistic circumstances or characters, but in his own literary understanding with all its elements of fathomless horror, Stephen King is able to create stunning and thought-provoking plots. ,,Carrie" is perhaps not the finest example for his talents, and I still have to delve deeper into many of his other works, but knowing this is his first novel and not as much reflected and reconsidered as later novels, it still makes up for an interesting read not meant for entertainment only, but more for providing an insight into important subjects. 
 Story 
 The novel deals with Carietta ,,Carrie" White, a seventeen years old girl who is presented as pudgy, introverted and living in solitary with her mother, Margaret White, a religious fanatic who regards even pillows as sinful and arranges her daughter's every-day life from its very first up to its very last hour. When Carrie experiences her first period in school after a sport lesson, she fears to be bleeding to death, as her mother failed to inform her about anything implying a sexual connotation - as in this case, menstrual period. Her female classmates subsequently bully and torment Carrie in order to glory in their apparently superior positions, not knowing how this will eventually evoke a bloodcurdling escalation during prom night, when Carrie's telecinetic powers reach a temporary climax. 
 Review 
 Before reading this, I have never been introduced to any of King's horror novels, but watched the 2013 movie adaption with Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore as Carrie and Margaret White, so I mostly knew what awaited me with this novel. But while being informed about most plot elements, the writing itself turned out to be even more interesting, including unusual stylistic devices. Firstly, King in the majority of cases switched between tenses, at one time writing from the ,,past" perspective about the experiences of Carrie White and other characters like Sue Snell or Chris Hargensen, and at other times writing from the ,,present" perspective about media reflecting the faithful incidents during this specific prom night which has been led up to from the very beginning. The climax was reached half-way through the novel and lasted for more than 30% of it, which made up for a fast and compelling read. 
 Secondly, King also applied insertions, ,,snippets" of thoughts running through the character's minds, mostly used in brackets without any kind of punctuation or capitalization. While initially an interesting device, this one soon became repetitive and exhausting, which led to me sometimes even skipping those insertions. However, it did not weaken the emotional power ,,Carrie" (speaking of the novel, not the protagonist) possesses. It's a story you have to get into, and many people do probably struggle with finding access to it, but once you got into the story (which required, as in my case, approximately ten percent of the story itself), it became disturbing and gripping. It is possible to feel compassion for Carrie, not because of what she causes at the end of the story, but because of what she has to endure at the beginning of it. Whoever has already experienced bullying or tormenting, knows how humiliating and depressing such an experience can prove to be, especially because children and teenagers can be cruel without thinking of it as being cruel. 
 ,,But hardly anybody ever finds out that their actions really, actually, hurt other people! People don't get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don't stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it. Lots of kids say they feel sorry for Carrie White-mostly girls, and that's a laugh-but I bet none of them understand what it's like to be Carrie White, every second of every day. And they don't really care." - Sue Snell 
 Reflecting her previous experiences, her tortures - not only produced by her classmates and their bullying, but also by her mother and the hours upon hours she had to endure locked into a closet - it becomes evident how King built up the tension by making the readers feel Carrie's pains, and while I don't understand Carrie's actions, I can recognize her intentions and the thoughts which led her to do what she finally did. That's another strength of Stephen King as a writer: irrespective of how cruel and horrendous his character's deeds are in their essence, you can always comprehend the reasons for what they do. 
 As to the telekinesis part of the story, it's a paranormal addition to the novel which gains influence on the text with every sentence of King's writing, but don't fear it might seem to appear out of nowhere. Actually, King spends some time with explaining how Carrie could have ended up with her abilities through retrospective, and while it may not be biologically correct, it does make sense in the universe of this story. 
 Rating 
 I'll give ,,Carrie" 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4, because it impressed me so much I can't stop thinking about it. It's a disturbing story not meant to entertain because of its dark contents, but written in an entertaining way nevertheless. A polarizing story like this cannot be recommended for everyone, but if elements of horror and subjects of social relevance won't put you off reading it, you should give it a try. 
 (Edit June 2016: Nope, I'm rounding it down to 3 again. Some time after reading this novel has passed and it didn't impress me enough to earn that rating at all.)