Classic Stephen King. Have held on to this rather battered paperback for years, so it is time for it to start its Bookcrossing career.

I've started a ray which is rather small at the moment. So far:
earthcaroleanne
RebeccaToh (Malaysia) ---- > BOOK IS HERE
slb453 (US - US/Canada postage only)

Carrie's on her way to Scotland tonight - enjoy! I hope you get a few decent reads from it before the book falls apart.

Arrived this weekend. I have never read any Stephen King books and I decided I was going to read them in order - this is the first.

I wasn't sure about reading this having seen the film, but what's the point of reading Stephen King's books in order and then skipping the first one. I didn't really like the writing style, especially the use of just lower case in sentences in brackets in the middle of other sentences. It didn't help me in any way. However the scenes after the prom were very descriptive and I pictured images in my head which I don't remember from the film, but maybe I've just forgotten. Also, I never got the connection between the shower scene and the pigs blood when I watched the film. That must have just passed over me but it seems so obvious now.

I PM'd RebeccaToh for her address before even starting this book because I go on holiday tomorrow and I wanted to be ready to get the book away before I left but I've never received an answer. I'll try again but I'm afraid it will now have to wait until I get back.

On it's way in the bookray.

I've just received this book in my mail two days ago. And doesn't look as battered. :) It looked more well read.

I've started a few pages now..

Thanks!

I really don't know what to say about Carrie at this point. But to be able to read Stephen King's first novel is like a formal introduction for me into his long list of titles.

I'll pm the slb453 for the address.

It was a good introduction to Stephen Kings' works. Although it wasn't as intense as his later works, it still was good.

I'll be heading to the postal office this Friday to send it off to slb453.

slb453, I'm so so so sorry to have taken so long with the book. I hope you enjoy the read!

Received yesterday! Thank you so much to Sarahmuh for starting the bookray and to RebeccaToh for sending me the book all the way from Malaysia!

Rebecca, it was very kind of you to send me some flavored Earl Grey tea as well! Thank you so much! Can't wait to try it! :)

I have actually not read much Stephen King before. I read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon once years ago for school, but that's it. I started reading a bit of Carrie in an online preview at Amazon.com before signing up for this bookray and thought it was very good, so I'm looking forward to reading this.

Also, to give future readers a bit of warning, the cover of the book is different from the one pictured and much creepier! lol, I got a bit of a shock when I saw it, eeek. ;)

I just finished reading this book. This was interesting to me because, like I said before, the only other King book I have read is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and that is not nearly as gruesome as this. I also am not that familiar with the movie. I know I saw part of it many years ago, but I'm not sure I ever saw the whole thing.

I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half. The more and more gruesome things got, I'm not sure that this sort of material is for me. I can appreciate how well King spins his tale, though. It was an interesting device he used with the thoughts in parenthesis
(man it made it hard to read sometimes i don't know it was just so stream of consciousness and oh it kept interrupting the text)
and it was something I had never seen done before in a novel, and at times successful. It was also noteworthy to see how he employed the device of "quoting" from academic journals, news articles, books, court testimonies, and police reports to fill in the back-story and exposition, and the way he would use these devices to keep skipping around on the timeline. We the readers would get to see events unfold from the victims and bystanders' points of view before getting to see them from Carrie's point of view. At times I felt like this kept our protagonist at a distance. Maybe that is the point.

I was very impressed with King's attention to detail, especially in descriptions of minor characters or their backstories, which always grounded the story in a reality starkly in contrast to the supernatural elements of the plot.

I like the parallelism between Sue, the bully who feels remorse, getting her boyfriend to help Carrie at the prom, and Chris, the bully who feels spiteful, getting her boyfriend to harm Carrie at the prom. There were forces of good and evil at work.

I also liked King's theme that violence only causes greater violence down the line. In schools especially, students need to be shown compassion.

And while at first I disliked the constant scientific explanation throughout the book that Carrie's Telekinesis was genetic, it all came together for me at the end when the point was made that, being a genetic trait, the TK could and does crop up again in other people, meaning that the tragic events in Chamberlain could unfold again in another town. A chilling reminder that the dangers of bullying are always present.

As I'm the last person right now on the BookRay list, I'll see if anyone else wants to join up on the forum. Thanks again to Sarahmuh for sharing this book with us! :)

I shipped this today by First Class Mail International to silvia-pco in Portugal who wanted to join the bookray.

It's here! I have a couple of books I need to get through before I can pick this one up, but I'll try to be brief. I'll keep you posted.

This was a real page-turner for me. My TBR pile only allowed me to pick it up on Saturday, but I just couldn't stop reading once I started.

I guess one can tell that this is among the early works by Stephen King. It is very raw and gruesome... and is based mostly on physical aspects of horror, if you get my point... unlike some of the books he wrote more recently, where he plays with the psychological aspects a lot more.

I don't mean this in the negative way, though; I really loved the book. You get to a point where the story hooks you so much your curiosity just grows and grows... you know things aren't going to get better, but your drawn to discover just how bad they can be.

The strategy of putting the characters thoughts behind parenthesis was, in fact, very interesting. I think it wasn't the last time Stephen King did that, though... I might be mistaken, but I seem to recall seeing the same style in other books he wrote. I also liked how the author pieced the story together by using "quotes" from newspapers, scientific articles and books. As slb453 said, it made it possible for the readers to watch the story unfold from various points of view; it's a great way of keeping one hooked and interested in the plot.

I'm now very curious and looking forward to watch the movie as soon as I get a chance!
I got a PM from s20steve asking if he could read this book; this being a bookray, I found no harm in sending it his way. I already have his address and will send it along sometime during this week.

Thanks for sharing this amazing book!

On its way to s20steve. Enjoy!

Arrived today! Thank you Silvia :-)
I'll just finish the book I'm on, and then I'll get stuck into this Stephen King classic.
If anyone wants to read the book next on this bookray send me a pm.
Steve

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Update 21/1/11:
I've received a request from LiniP to read Carrie after me, so I'll be sending the book to Germany when I've read it :-)

I enjoyed the book, but found the writing style of switching to journal and report references a bit odd at first. The author uses this approach to fill in the whole picture and describe the sequence of events from every angle. He builds up expectation towards the events at the end of the book very well. Not my favourite SK book but a good read.

The book is now on it's way to LiniP in Germany, posted today. Hope you like it too !

s20steve

The book arrived here yesterday. I will read it shortly.

I have to admit that I was always scared to read "Carrie" because I thought of it as pure horror. I was therefore surprised by the actual book and enjoyed reading it even though I found it a little too predictable. The book will stay with me for a little while before I will find a good place to release it.

I left the book on a bench just outside the book shop. Thought the book was suitable for a Halloween release. Enjoy reading the book.