Carrie by Stephen King *****

Carrie (by Stephen King) is the target of cruel jokes and teasing throughout her school experience until that fateful day in high school when she has her first period and the girls throw tampons at her ... and laugh ... and she discovers she is telekinetic --- this is the beginning of the end for those girls, ... the high school, ... and the entire town.

 A cautionary tale of sorts,King's horror novel is a darker, rated-R variation of Roald Dahl's Mathilda --- published over a decade before Dahl's juvenile comedy. This is King's first published novel which famously received a stack of rejection before it was published and became a best seller and movie starring Sissy Spacek. I doubt the rejection slips were for the writing. King began writing very young and was prolific and proficient by the time he wrote Carrie. I expect the teenage protagonist and Prom theme influenced first-readers to think of it as a YA novel in the Sweet Valley genre. If they didn't reject it immediately, the sex and violence landed it in slush pile hell. Another cautionary tale of sorts.

Regardless, Carrie demonstrates the power and attraction of Stephen King's writing. I am not a fan of movie violence and gore (you listening Quentin Tarantino?), but I found the book very enjoyable,
even though I would never watch the movie.