Audio Books | Book Chatter

Carrie
By Stephen King
Read By Sissy Spacek
(Simon & Schuster Audio, 2005)

The Short of It:

I enjoyed this years ago in print form, but it was even better on audio.

The Rest of It:

Carrie White is an outcast and a misfit but she has special powers which flare-up whenever she gets angry or upset. Living in a small town, under the roof of her religious mama, Carrie is the butt of every joke there is. So when she is asked to the prom by the most popular boy in school, she is skeptical but also hopeful. Is it possible to be like the other kids? To have friends and to go to parties and be normal?

The beginning of this book includes an introduction by King, explaining how he came up with the character of Carrie White. Apparently, she is the combination of two kids that he knew in school. Both of them painfully awkward and the focus of much ridicule. Oddly enough, both of them are no longer living so there is no update to share. At first, I was surprised to hear that Carrie was a hybrid of these two girls, but after revisiting this classic it’s clear that he has a special place in his heart for this character. Additionally, Carrie was a result of a short story that was tossed into the trash. King’s wife fished it out and encouraged him to continue with it. Can you imagine? Would King be who he is today had that story remained in the trash?

Listening to this on audio was a real treat. It’s read by Sissy Spacek who also played Carrie in the movie adaptation. It was fabulous! The movie stayed very close to the book and only had a few changes. None of them large enough to really stick out but the reading of the book on audio… it blew me away. Especially the shower scene. Those who have read the book or have seen the movie know how horrible that shower scene is. Well, listening to it was no exception! Those girls are horrid and Carrie… you want to protect her from the horror but at the same time, throttle her for being so spineless. King is really good at exposing humans for what they are.

Since participating in the IT-along (read-along for IT), I’ve been revisiting King’s previous works. I haven’t found them all to be as wonderful as the first read, but I’ve been enjoying the stories and his style of writing. I find that reading his writing is a good way to “cleanse the palate” before I begin my next read. Oh, and of course I am gearing up for Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining.

As big of a fan as I am, I haven’t read all of his books or stories. I try to space them out so I will always have something to read but after checking out his website, I see that there’s quite a bit left to read and with him being such a prolific writer, I should never run out.

Source: Borrowed

IT
By Stephen King
Read by: Steven Weber
(Penguin Audio, 44 hours, May 2010)

The Short of It:

Entertainment at its best! Gripping with moments of terror but at its heart, a story about friendship and the battle of good over evil.

The Rest of It:

I first read IT years ago. And by “years ago” I mean…maybe 24 years. That’s a lot of years! I remember loving it to pieces. I’d stay up all night to read it and let me tell you, it was a full immersion experience. Once you opened the book, you couldn’t help but fall right into the story.

Recently, I decided to re-read it as part of the IT Along which was a read-along hosted by really cool (and fun) people. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had participating. The Twitter conversations (#ITAlong) were a hoot. The clown noses and the pictures that followed were too much. Seriously, clown noses?? I laughed and then I got really creeped out.

The point of all of this?? To distract the hell out of you. Why? Because the book can be terrifying. Well, the images that King paints are terrifying on their own but Steven Weber, the guy from the TV show Wings, reads for the audio version and even though I had read the book and experienced its horror once before, Weber took it to a whole new level. It was like IT on crack.

The story takes place in the fictional town of Derry, Maine during the late 1950’s. A shape-shifter comes to life and consumes the small children of Derry. One by one the children disappear. Lured by the promise of balloons and sweets, Pennywise grabs them, does terrible things to them and then drags the remains down under the streets of Derry, via the gutters, drains, or whatever else he can find. His constant chant of “They all float down here!” is a reminder that for this town, hope hangs by a very thin thread.

One day, little Georgie Denbrough takes his paper boat out for a run but when it’s swept into a storm drain, Pennywise the clown pulls him down into the sewer and murders him. George’s older brother Bill, is never the same but when he and his group of rag-tag friends figure out what is really going on, they take matters into their own hands.

Many of you have said that you will not step foot near this book because you are totally freaked out by clowns or don’t want to drink the horror Kool-Aid that King is serving up but at the end of the day, the guy can tell a story and it would be a shame if you overlooked this book because of that.

Due to the age of the characters, and the fact that they band together, I was often reminded of the movie Stand By Me, which was based on a novella King had written called The Body some years prior. The innocence of children and the sweetness of their friendship is what makes this novel special to me.

If you decide to give it a go, the audio was brilliantly done but it’s long (44 hours long) and it is hard to work other books into the mix while listening to it. I don’t recall that being a problem with the print version. Maybe because in print, you could easily put it down and come back to it. On audio though, I FEARED losing my place on my iPod as it happened to me twice and I could not for the life of me figure out where I was in the story when it happened.

Anyway, give it a go. You won’t be sorry.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post does not contain Indiebound affiliate links because they don’t have it listed! I guess it’s too old.

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