REVIEW: CARRIE

Cover photograph by Kamil Vojnar/Getty Images

CARRIE

BY

STEPHEN KING

ISBN: 978-1-444-72069-3
Pages: 242
Publisher: Hodder
First published: 5 April 1974
This edition published: 13 October 2011

On the cover:

Carrie White has a gift - the gift of telekinesis.

To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie - the first step towards social acceptance by her high school graduates.

But events will take a decidedly macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night as she is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her...

   Carrie is Stephen King's debut novel, but there is really nothing that tells you that. This reads more like the work of someone who has been writing for quite a while. Someone who has already found their voice, an author who is sure of himself. 

   It becomes clear pretty early on that this novel does have a theme that I'd argue is the Stephen King trope - growing up/coming of age. In this case it is also in some ways a retelling of the "ugly duckling" tale... Except this being King, there's not a Fairy Tale happy ending. The story stays quite far away from that.

   Carrie's coming of age in this novel is something that happens on several levels. There's what happens in the shower at the beginning of the book, her telepathy, and her going to the prom. The last one is the central event of the book, the place where all that Carrie is comes together and reaches a peak.

   Before I go any further, I have to talk a bit about the structure of the novel. I have already said that this is not structured as novels are as a standard, and it isn't. This novel does not have one continuous narrative text. There is a storyline that, with a few exceptions, is continuous, but it doesn't consists of one narrative text. It's a narrative text that is interspersed with book excerpts, official testimonies, and excerpts from news reports/news wires.

   This shouldn't really work. It is disruptive to a "clean" narrative, and something like this will usually mess with the readers "immersion" into the novel. Here it doesn't do that, instead it adds to the atmosphere of what is going on. And it even increases the tension that is building. In my opinion much more so than if this had been handled with different points of view. (There are different points of view in the novel.)

   I mentioned tension in the previous paragraph, and to me that is what best describes what this novel gives you. There's not really much suspense, we are told early on that something major will happen. So even if you somehow have managed to completely miss anything about what Carrie is about, you will not be surprised that something happens.

   What makes this great is that the lead up to the events is a constant building of tension. You know there will be a bang, and at times you almost hold your breath waiting for it to come. There is a sense of impending doom hanging over everything that happens, and a lot of what we learn adds to that feeling. Everything, in and around Carrie, builds up the level of tension. And when all that is finally released, it almost comes as a relief.

   Carrie is a very interesting and sympathetic character. What we learn about her, both about her school life and her home life, makes us feel for her. She is definitely an "other", an the treatment that she is given because of that is something that is both thought-provoking and unpleasant to read about. This is however not a novel that is heavy handed when it comes to trying to make you feel empathy with Carrie. That is something that happens naturally as we learn about her. And even towards the end of the book, it is clear that she is pretty much an innocent.

   There are other characters here than Carrie. Three of them are important parts of the narrative. These characters does not only serve to give us a glimpse into those things that Carrie is not aware of, they also gives us a perspective on Carrie as a person. In this way they are supporting characters, but they are important and integral to the story. 

   This is a very short novel, but one that gives you much more than its page numbers would suggest. The story is excellent, once it has hooked you it will not let you go until it ends. And along the way it will give you a page-turning, tension filled, journey through the darker corners of growing up as an outsider.

   There is no doubt that this is a powerful and accomplished novel. It is arguably one of King's best ones, and is essential for anyone who is a fan of his writing. In my opinion this is also an excellent place to start reading King. And I urge anyone who has not read any of his novels to pick it up. This is Psychological Horror at its best, and a great introduction what makes King such a popular writer.

BONUS LINK: You can see some of the covers Carrie has had through the years over on Hodderscape.

BONUS FACT: I was 44 days old when this novel was first published.

STEPHEN KING REVIEW INDEX

LINKS: Stephen King  Hodder & Stoughton

REVIEW: THINNER

Cover photo by Ilona Wellmann/Arcangel Images

THINNER

BY

STEPHEN KING

WRITING AS

RICHARD BACHMAN

ISBN: 978-1-444-72355-7

Pages: 340

Publisher: Hodder

First published: November 1984

This edition published: 20 December 2012

On the cover:

'Thinner' - the old gypsy man barely whispers the word. Billy feels the touch of a withered hand on his cheek.

Billy Halleck, prosperous if overweight citizen, happily married, shuddered then turned angrily away. The old woman's death had been none of his fault. The courts had cleared him. She'd just stumbled in front of his car. Now he simply wanted to forget the whole messy business.

Later, when the scales told him he was losing weight, it was what the doctor ordered. His wife was pleased - as she should have been. But . . .

'Thinner' - the word, the old man's curse, has lodged in Billy's mind like a fattening worm, eating at his flesh, at his reason. And with his despair, comes violence.

   When reading any of King's Bachman books I'm struck by two things. The first is how easy it is to see that King wrote this, and how strange it is that it wasn't discovered at once. Of course that is pretty much hindsight, and it does take a coincidence (or a tweet) for someone who is in a position to recognize a big name author's style to even be reading a no-name author's books.

   The second thing, and very much in connection to the first, is how many people have tried to copy King over the years. It's really not strange that anyone failed to notice Richard Bachman in the myriad of novels that have been published in the hopes of copying King's success.

    Of course there's a third thing... There was no internet when Bachman was publishing. No social media making it tempting for those that knew something to spill the beans.

   No internet would also have made it harder to discover an obvious huge flaw in this novel, "Gypsy" language. The language used in the book is actually Swedish. Not only that, it is atrociously bad Swedish. As someone who can remember when the number of TV channels available was tripled by the addition of two Swedish channels, I'm very familiar with Swedish.

   It goes without saying that seeing a familiar language being mangled on the page of a book is going to bring you out of it to some extent, but that is actually something I could live with. What I actually find worse is that the "Gypsies" do have their own language, Romani,  and it is substituted for a different one here.

   I completely understand that back in 1984, or perhaps a bit earlier, when this was written, King did not have access to the information he needed to use Romani in his book. And you know what, I have absolutely no problem with that. But being bi-lingual I do not like the idea of substitute languages. It's kind of offensive, it is in a way telling people that what their language is is not important. The only thing that matters is that it is "foreign".

   And it really is not hard to make it clear in the text that what is spoken is not English, even if you write it in English. Not that I think King should go back and change his book. As I started with, this was written in different times, and it should remain as it is as an artifact of that time.

   Thinner is a strange book, or not really considering it is King. It's pretty normal for King to write things that can be hard to classify neatly into a definitive genre category. Not that you'd notice that from all the people who state that King is a Horror writer.

   This is certainly leaning much more towards the Thriller side of the fence. While there certainly is a very central supernatural element making this Horror, that element almost exist as a separate state besides what else is going on in the story. And the other element of the story is absolutely a good one.

   As already mentioned this story has two different strands. The supernatural element is the one that we first get to hear about. Presenting it so quickly, without any build up at all, means that you very quickly get dragged into the story. It's very well done too, King hooks you right away and then he lets you simmer for a bit. And that is really my polite way of saying that after a very interesting opening the novel slows down quite a bit.

   This slow period is used for a bit of character development, especially of the main character William Halleck. Usually this is where King excels, in that he creates characters that you really care about, and that you really want to spend time with. There's nothing wrong with the "getting to know you" portion of this build-up period in this novel, it's just that the main character at first is not a very sympathetic person.

   You shouldn't actually take that as a complaint, it is an important part of Halleck's development. And in many ways it does strengthens the novel that the MC has more than one note to him.

   When the novel starts going again after the brief quiet period, it really gets going. This is where the Thriller part comes in to full effect. The structure gets very familiar to Thriller readers, as the story goes into a search mode. Familiar as this structure is, it is kept very interesting. There is some real tension to the narrative at this point. And this is ratched up quite a bit when a previously introduced character steps up to join a strong supporting role.

   There's a final confrontation that is really tense, and at times seems to be on the verge of dragging the novel into Action Thriller territory. It does get a nice resolution, although perhaps not a conventional one.

   The ultimate ending left me really ambivalent. Although there's a while since I read the novel I am still not wholly sure how I feel about it. It's certainly one I can see divide opinion.

   With relatively few characters, and a somewhat limited time frame, this almost has the feel of a shorter work. It feels pretty intimate, perhaps so than most of King's work.

   It's a good story that is executed very well, and it is certainly worth reading. Being pretty light on Horror this is a good place to start for those that have been scared off reading King by the impression of him belonging solely to that genre.

   For King fans this will of course be a must read, it is a good example of how King can write quality when he focuses on other plot points than the horror ones.

REVIEWS: Stephen King Review Index

LINKS: Stephen King  Hodder

REVIEW: THE DARK HALF

Cover design by keenan

THE DARK HALF

BY

STEPHEN KING

ISBN: 978-0-340-95261-0

Pages: 460

Originally published: November 1989

This edition published: 1 November 2007

On the cover:

Creating George Stark was easy. Getting rid of him won`t be . . .

The sparrows are flying again. The idea - unbidden, inexplicable - haunts the edge of Thad Beaumont`s mind.

Thad should be happy. For years now it is his secret persona `George Stark`, author of super-violent pulp thrillers, who has paid the family bills. But now, Thad is writing seriously again under his own name, and his menacing pseudonym has been buried forever.

And yet . . . the sparrows are flying again, and something is terribly wrong in Thad Beaumont`s world. 

   This is a very writer centred story, in fact the whole premise of the book has to do with a writer and his alter ego. That is however not all it is about, there is a sub-story that also adds to the whole of the novel.
   It does not take long for this novel to get going, within a few chapters the central mystery is established. Not that there really is very much of a mystery, it is pretty transparent what is happening from the beginning. This doesn't actually detract from the book. What is central here is how, and why, things are happening. And the journey King takes us on to find that out is full of both suspense and mystery.

   There is some gore here, and it is done in King's usual style - nothing is spared. But this isn't really where the horror comes from, that is much more psychological.
   Even though it was clear to me pretty early on what was going on the psychological horror got really intense at points, and King manages to leave enough open for interpretation and guessing that he holds the reader in his grip. It is not until the end that we really become certain as to where the main characters will end up.

   The characters are very well done. There are few of them in a central role, and we really get to know how they function. Especially Thad Beaumont is very well drawn, and we really get inside his head in more ways than one.
   With a situation as far outside the normal as the one we are told about here, it is always interesting to look at the characters' reaction. And here King manages to make them seem both plausible and natural. The skepticism of one of the supporting characters is especially good, and does a lot to help the feeling of realism in the story.

   For a King novel this is pretty short, but there is still room for King to give us the closeness to the cast that is his strength. It's maybe not Kings best work, but it is sill a great novel. I found it a quick read, and one that took me on a very good journey. I'd recommend Horror fans pick it up, and I think it will be an interesting read for anyone who are themselves interested in writing.

Reviews: The Shining  IT  Bag of Bones  11.22.63  Four Past Midnight  Just After Sunset

Links: Stephen King  Hodder & Stoughton

REVIEW: HARBOR

Cover design: Rob Grom and Faceout Studios

Cover photo: Paul Vozdic/Getty Images (Girl) 

and Roger Bamber/Alamy (Lighthouse)

HARBOR

BY

JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST

 Translated from Swedish by 

MARLAINE DELARGY
Original title: Människohamn 

ISBN: 978-0-312-68027-5

Pages: 500

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

First published: June 2008

This edition published: 11 October 2011

On the cover:

One ordinary winter afternoon on a snowy island, Anders and Cecilia take their six-year-old daughter Maja across the ice to visit the lighthouse in the middle of the frozen channel. While they are exploring the lighthouse, Maja disappears – either into thin air or under thin ice – leaving not even a footprint in the snow.
Two years later, Anders, a broken man, moves back to his family’s abandoned home on the island. He soon realizes that Maja's disappearance is only one of many strange occurrences, and that his fellow islanders, including his own grandmother, know a lot more than they’re telling. As he digs deeper, Anders begins to unearth a dark and deadly secret at the heart of this small, seemingly placid town.

   This novel is almost entirely set on an island in Sweden. Outwardly it is an idyllic place, but under the surface there is a sinister secret.

   Having grown up with Swedish TV, I am quite familiar with Swedish pop-culture. There are quite a few references to it in the book, but they are never intrusive and they function as Easter eggs that gives you a nostalgic smile if you are familiar with them. That being said, this is very much a Swedish book, the setting is 100% typical of Sweden, and although I have never been to a location such as is the setting of the book I am familiar with it through cultural osmosis.
   If you are familiar with Scandinavian crime, you will recognise to some extent the type of setting this is. But you don't have to know anything about Sweden to get into this, Lindqvists setting is accessible to everyone. And it is a great setting for this story.

   Lindqvist writes instantly compelling characters, and before you know it you are drawn into their lives. The main character, Anders, is complex and realistic. And around him is a set of very interesting supporting characters, some of which have stories that could fill a novel by themselves.
   The story is a gripping one. What really stands out is the sense of an eerie creepiness that pervades the novel. Lindqvist's prose is perfect for conveying this type of psychological horror. And he manages to keep the reader in suspense for a very long time.

   The opening mystery, interesting in itself, is soon shown to be a part of something much greater. But it takes time before what is really going on is revealed. Much of this is done through flasbacks that gradually feeds you with clues to what is going on. As the story progresses these revelations manages to raise the level of psychological horror.
   The events just get creepier and creepier as the novel progresses. And the mystery gets more and more complex the more you find out about it. This makes it a book that is hard to put down, you get so dragged into the story that you just want to keep reading. But if you scare easily you may want to have the lights on when you go to sleep.

   This is psychological horror at its best, if you like that this book is a must. And I would also recommend it to everyone that is a fan of Scandinavian crime and likes the setting and characters from that genre.
   This is the first book by John Ajvide Lindqvist I have read, but I will be looking out for his books from now on. He's definitively an author every horror fan should read.

NOTE: A copy of the book was supplied to me by the publisher.

Links: John Ajvide Lindqvist  St. Martins Press