I forget sometimes how short Carrie is, and how much the central story and resolution is acknowledged from the start. But, what is always clear in my memory is how unflinching it is in showing the complications of group think against an outsider. Of being caught up in the mob reaction and of being the single very alone person on the receiving end. Like everything that followed Carrie shows that Stephen King has never been a simple horror writer, he’s a people observer and the horror/supernatural just provides a context within which to explore humanity.