I don't watch horror. Let me repeat - I did not watch horror, that is, until I met my now fiancee' and he kept trying to convince me to watch horror movies with him at Halloween. I refused the first year, but the second year, I allowed him to introduce me to "mild" horror movies. Those were enough for me, but out of those movies, he dreamt up another idea: for us to read "Carrie" together.
Now, I do read thrillers sometimes. I consumed the entire "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series without stopping. So, I figured I could manage to read a horror/thriller by Stephen King. We went to Half Price Books and each bought a copy. The race was on - who would finish reading the book first?
I did. I loved "Carrie" in the sense that I loved the movie "The Village" - I could relate to the religious upbringing. For that reason, I could not stop reading the first half of the book. The religious expectations of modesty and the prayers of repentance were all too familiar.
The second half was a drag, however. King had basically told me, as the reader, what was going to happen in the end of the book, so it was hard to keep reading when I already knew what was going to occur. On top of that, the constant switching from the narration of the story to the news and police reports seemed dry and repetitive. It seemed he could have communicated the entire second half of the story in half as many pages and been more effective.
Don't get me wrong - I would still recommend the book to the same friends I would recommend "The Village" movie. But in the same breath, I would whisper to them to skim read the second half and they would never know the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment