Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Carrie by Stephen King

8 reviews

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is the first Stephen King book i’ve ever read and I really enjoyed it! I think this is very well deserving of its horror classic title! 

I really liked the vivid descriptions, I could really see the scenes in my head with how they were written. I also really like Carrie as a character, i think she’s really fascinating and i’m a huge fan of books about religious trauma so this was definitely a good choice for me. 

I’m knocking one star from my rating purely for the unnecessary use of the n word, i don’t think that was needed whatsoever and i know this was written in the 70s but still, it wasn’t acceptable then and it isn’t acceptable now.

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aniston_pond's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0


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markedwithanm's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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scip's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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planetshelf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This writing layout is strange and dense, and I can't decide whether I like it.

I’m always upset when I think about Carrie. Her experience on this planet was so fucked.

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sassyshark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.75

The book was not worth the paper it was written on—and I read the e-book.

Oh god, where to start. 

The plot, was fine. A little predictable, but I suppose that lended itself towards the psychological horror aspects. For the first half the new articles were interrupting, abrupt, waste of words, highly ineffective as a method of transition, and insultingly repetitive. In the second half they helped illustrate the story, but were still thrown in seemingly at random and rather abruptly.

It is yet another book reducing the high school experience to bullying, PE, and prom. With some trauma to add some salt to this bland book.

The characters, are all 2D. The mother was such a stereotypical, almost cartoonish, villain that she lost all humanization. Ultimately reducing the drama and unnerving feelings that should have come
when the mom and Carrie snapped, as it felt like the inevitable conclusion—not that any person was capable of thrusting someone into a phycological break. I had the same problem with Chris, she was never humanized so you feel like she was getting her just desserts.

The writing style is a thing. I felt like I was on drugs. Between the seemingly random gaggle of words King has thrown in and the hyper sexualization of any women I am throughly disgusted. Not in a good look-at-the-epitome-of-horror way, but a in a why-are-you-mentioning-her-boobs-for-the-fourth-time-in-a-page way. (Even in necessary actions, like walking, are full of cruel descriptions and hyper sexualized. For example, from page 13 “Carrie stood swaying between the showers and the wall with its dime sanitary-napkin dispenser, slumped over, breasts pointing at the floor, her arms dangling limply. She looked like an ape.“ Let’s keep in mind Carrie is 16.) Even if one ignores the befuddling misrepresentation of how periods function (people with uteri, if you are bleeding that much on your first please speak to medical professional), the spaghetti-wall approach of words will make sure you stay confused. Now I must mention, I am absolutely enamored when authors use unnecessarily ostentatious words just because they ought to be used, if they are used correctly. King flips between a third grade vocabulary and words that would make an English college professor proud, seemingly at random. But this college professor would be appalled at the blatant disregard for the words’ definitions. 

I am genuinely concerned for the horror genre if he is heralded as one of the best writers.

Furthermore King has the audacity to claim this a feminist book, because it has a strong female character. When juxtaposed with sentences like this: “She had bought a special brassiere to go with it, which gave her breasts the proper uplift (not that they actually needed it) but left their top halves uncovered.” That claim is appalling, and
mass murder
is not a “strong” way to deal with your problems.

To summarize, the plot was decent, but stuttering, the characters have personalities akin to a slightly salted wet cabbage, and King would greatly benefit from a female beta reader and a dictionary. Particularly if the female beta reader whacked him with the dictionary for every misused word or hyper sexualized action (but that would cause excessive brain damage). 

The one good thing I can say is I have never had such hate based fixation on a book. I dragged my psyche kicking, screaming, and begging to be sent to hell—as it would be less torturous—through the book, just so I could say this was not a half-baked review. And so begins and ends my foray with Stephen King.

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jenna_justi2004's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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mollykat3b621's review

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dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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