Carrie

Carrie White is a shy sixteen-year-old living in Chamberlain, Maine, with her fanatically religious mother Margaret. After suffering her first menstruation in the school shower and enduring relentless bullying from classmates, Carrie discovers she possesses telekinetic powers that manifest during moments of intense emotion. Sue Snell, feeling guilty for her role in the harassment, arranges for her boyfriend Tommy Ross to take Carrie to the senior prom. Chris Hargensen, a popular girl rejected by Tommy, conspires with her boyfriend Billy Nolan to humiliate Carrie by dumping pig's blood on her as she is crowned Prom Queen.

Enraged by the prank, Carrie unleashes her full power, destroying the gymnasium and killing everyone present before turning her wrath toward the town. The novel concludes with a government investigation known as the White Commission and a final letter from an orphanage suggesting another child may have inherited similar abilities. Stephen King based Carrie's character on two girls he knew in school: one impoverished and mocked for wearing the same clothes daily, and another raised in a devoutly fundamentalist household.

Published on April 5, 1974, by Doubleday, this debut novel launched King's career and revitalized mainstream interest in horror fiction. The original hardcover edition had a print run of 30,000 copies and sold modestly between 13,000 and 17,000 copies initially at a price of $5.95. A mass-market paperback released by New American Library in April 1975 became a bestseller, selling one million copies in its first year and reaching four million total sales following the 1976 film adaptation. [edit]