"Carrie" by Stephen King.
 

Stephen King's first best selling novel was Carrie which came out on April 5, 1974.

Carrie by Stephen King

And the movie followed a few years after that. Carrie (1976) - Rotten Tomatoes

Great writer but a total screwball.

I was working in a middle school that year. The head librarian ordered "Carrie" and all the library staff read it. I thought it was Ok for middle school BUT the head Liberian sent it to the high school. UGH . Still reading King -I'm reading "The Institute" now ( not that good).
I also read Dean Koontz as well as going back and reading classics I missed. I read Dickens --but one sentence in Oliver Twist was 154 words-3 commas, 2 dashes and 4 semi-colons--ENOUGH. I also gave up on "Emma -"the most exciting thing that happened in the first 50 pages was that she sat down

I would have been reading Carrie during my Freshmen year at Earl Wooster HS in Reno, Nevada.

And would have seen the movie Carrie my Freshman year at the University of Nevada, Reno as I did high school in three years doing correspondence classes through another Reno HS.