Novel
In the novel, Sue is a popular student at Ewen High School, who feels guilty after participating in a mean-spirited prank designed to humiliate Carrie. Her teacher, Rita Desjardin, says that Sue is not a bully by nature, and therefore the shower incident is out of character. When the prank happened, Sue had been dating Tommy Ross for six months. While preparing for the prom, buying a gown and accepting Tommy’s invitation, Sue begins to plan for Carrie to go to the prom in her place.
Staying home on prom night, she begins to doubt her own motives, and worry about her late period -- she both fears and hopes she is pregnant -- and the possibility of Tommy falling for Carrie. When the town whistle begins blowing, Sue looks out her window, sees the fire at the school and rushes to her mother’s car. Speeding towards the school, Sue is horrified when the school explodes. She slams on the brakes, and the car screeches to a stop, throwing her against the steering wheel. She gets out of the car, and is knocked down by the explosion of a gas station nearby. She later flags down a deputy sheriff, who interrogates her. The deputy later recalls Sue stating "They've hurt Carrie for the last time," indicating that she had no part in what happened.
Three hours later, Sue finds Carrie lying by a wrecked car driven by Billy Nolan and Chris Hargensen, near death from being stabbed by her mother. She and Carrie have a brief telepathic conversation in which she convinces Carrie she had no part in the prom prank. Carrie cries out for her mother and dies, every detail of her death witnessed by a horrified Sue, who later identifies Carrie's body for the official records. The stress brings on Sue's menstrual period -- so if she was pregnant, she has lost the baby.
Sue is targeted by a blue-ribbon panel investigating the "Black Prom" as a partial instigator of the setup to humiliate Carrie at the prom. Sue accuses the commission of wanting a scapegoat. It is not known if she was ever criminally charged. In 1986, she authors a book, My Name Is Susan Snell, which records the events of the Black Prom from her perspective, reminding readers that "we were kids" and apt to make mistaken choices even while trying to do right.
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