15 Stephen King stories ranked from heartwarming to horrifying

13. Carrie

Children and teens are more often used as props in the horror genre than as living, breathing human beings with complex motivations. That’s a real shame, for teens are far richer characters and deserve more than being serial killer fodder.

Carrie, Stephen King’s first published novel, gives its central teenage characters more attention than they might under the direction of a less accomplished writer. That isn’t to say there won’t be some awkwardness. This book was published in 1974 and involves a male author examining what it’s like for an awkward teenage girl trying to make her way through the socially complex world of high school. Yet, King managed to create a work that is gut-wrenchingly raw and scary, perhaps made more so by the cruelty of its characters than Carrie’s psychokinetic powers.

Carrie White, the protagonist of the novel, is a 16-year-old girl living in Chamberlain, Maine. Her single mother, Margaret, is fanatically devoted to her Christian faith and often abuses Carrie. As bad as her home life is, young Carrie is also ostracized at school. She’s a frumpy loner with a religious weirdo mom: in the world of high school, she hasn’t got a chance.

When Carrie has her first period during gym class, she has no idea what’s happening. Certainly, her religious mother has not told her what to expect as her young daughter matures. The other teenage girls viciously berate Carrie, who at first assumes that she is bleeding to death.

While some of the students begin to feel remorse and work to make amends with Carrie, others plan a vicious prom night prank on her. All the while, her psychokinetic powers are growing, to the horror of Margaret. It all culminates in a psychic bloodbath at the prom, made all the worse by Carrie’s tragic nature as a social outcast.