Stephen King’s first published novel brings pressure at home and humiliation at school toward the prom.
Carrie White discovers that she can move objects with her mind in Stephen King’s Carrie. She keeps the ability concealed while facing classmates’ cruelty and her mother’s controlling treatment at home. Primary source: official synopsis and credits.
The power first appears through small objects and ordinary actions. King’s official book description identifies moving marbles, falling candles and locking doors as manifestations of what Carrie can do. Primary source: official synopsis and credits.
Her senior prom brings the novel’s social and supernatural conflicts together. A gesture of kindness offers the possibility of acceptance, while another act of cruelty turns the occasion toward destruction. Primary source: official synopsis and credits.
King’s official bibliography dates the novel’s Doubleday publication to April 5, 1974. The story’s focus is this particular teenager and the consequences of her treatment; its invented power is the mechanism through which a school conflict becomes a horror narrative. Primary source: official synopsis and credits.