Carrie

You don’t even need to read any Stephen King horror novels to understand that he is a prolific author. Just the staggering amount of tales he has told (61) is hard to wrap my head around as a writer.

In Carrie, King’s descriptions set the scene like I’ve never seen before while reading. I found myself hanging on every adjective as I imagined the character’s faces, clothes and mannerisms. I’ve always had trouble imagining the descriptions I read in books but King writes in a poetic idiosyncrasy that paints a picture of the story he’s telling.

As the plot in Carrie creeps up on you, so do the characters. The elegant technique in which King draws out the storyline and the intentions of the characters] is the most skillful writing I’ve ever read.

When I told my husband I was reading Carrie, he mentioned he had heard that school libraries had been banning the book because of similarities to school shootings. I just think that if fiction is too close to reality for your comfort, maybe the book isn’t the problem.