Christine

Stephen King is a genius. CHRISTINE is a masterpiece. It is the most traumatic, shocking, horrific, frightening and yet unequivocally brilliant piece of fiction that I have ever read. It is a horror novel. It is a love story. It is a tragedy. That is a review in its own right, but I choose to continue. Because this is fun. The story goes like this: A young lad by the name of Arnie Cunningham is cruising the streets of his hometown with his pal Dennis ... When Arnie just happens to catch a glimpse of a vision of something that he never knew that he wanted. A 1958 Plymouth Fury sedan. The problem is, the car is a wreck, it is a rust bucket which shouldn't be on the road. And there is no way in hell that our Arnie can afford to fix it up. Dennis can see it for what it is but he cant make his pal Arnie see the wood for the trees. But Arnie buys it anyway. Because when Arnie looks at this particular Plymouth he doesn't see what everyone else sees. He sees a stud bucket on wheels. He sees success. He sees easy living. He sees everything he has ever wanted without ever realising he wanted it. In other words, the devil has come to Libertyville and he has set his sights on Arnold Cunningham as his first victim. Stephen King has always been a delight to read. In CHRISTINE, his writing is suspenseful, compelling and at times down right addictive. Given that the book was written back in the 1980s it still holds up remarkably well today. At times, CHRISTINE is shocking, but in a good way. You switch on the kindle (or open your book) and see an innocent and innocuous looking chapter introduction that (so my kindle tells me) will take me 15 minutes to read but once you read this chapter you are faced with the choice of re-reading it for the simple joy of it, or rushing straight on to the next chapter even though it is a work day and it is well past your bed time. Personally, i tend to re-read them. His "shocking" chapters are classic Stephen King gore fests, which are gruesome, highly enjoyable rides of absolute terror and completely unexpected. Hence the shock factor. They can also be quite moving and emotional once your heart beat and blood pressure drop back to normal levels. And also once you have regained your grip on reality and your own sanity. Reading CHRISTINE is like attending a master class in writing sophisticated horror fiction. As always with Mr King, his characterisation stands out like high powered fog lamps on a brand new 4WD motor vehicle. His plot is sufficiently complicated and complex that the book never seems long despite its 746 pages. I have already mentioned its gore factor, the shocks and the unremitting terror in the second half. And so to the ending. It is perfect. It is brilliant, shocking and yet, heartbreakingly sad. The perfect (horrific) ending to the perfect horror novel. Brilliant stuff. BFN, Greggorio.

I have read a lot of short stories and novellas by Stephen King, but this is the first full-length novel of his I've read in a long time and I'm glad that I read it. I'm a writer and a large part of the reason that I read that book was that I wanted to study the way that King crafted a longer work, just purely from a structural point-of-view and this was definitely the right book to read for that. While I found that the story dragged a bit at times and at times I skipped over some of the "internal" dialogue of the narrator (he analyzes himself a lot and those thoughts are a running part of the narration--and sometimes too long winded), I found that overall the character development was exceedingly well done. I took my time reading the book, just 20 pages or so a day, but it was fun that way and I looked forward to going back to it. The violence isn't really that disturbing in the book and you have to suspend disbelief so much to accept the plot to begin with that the violence doesn't seem that real anyway. In fact, the whole premise is so ludicrous that if it wasn't for the great writing, you'd toss the book back down after a few chapters. But, because the characters are so strong and their motivations so real and believable, you stick with it. Again, at times thing dragged on and if I were his editor, I could have easily chopped out 50 pages and not disturbed the story in any way. But hey, if you like the characters, like the storyline, who cares if it drags on now and again. Also, the point-of-view changes from first person to third person to first person in the three sections of the book, which is a kind of interesting twist. Overall I think this is a really interesting read and probably worth the read just for diversion sake. If you're looking for reality, King is (in this book at least) the wrong place to look. But if you have a kind of "what if..." imagination, I think this classic work will entertain you a lot. I loved it. Oh, and if you are a writer, you'll learn a lot about your craft.

This novel follows the story of a young man named Arnie Cunningham and his car, Christine. Along for the ride is his best friend Dennis and girlfriend Leigh. It seems that Christine is no ordinary car. This haunted automobile has a habit of killing people who have crossed Arnie and the spirit of the car's former owner slowly takes over control of Arnie himself. How his friends react to all of this is what forms the meat of the story. Regular readers of Stephen King will probably not be surprised to hear that the greatest strength of this book is its characters. Dennis narrates most of the tale and he is a very likable young man. Leigh is another good character and is very easy to root for. Arnie basically represents the tragic victim here. He was victimized by school bullies and his domineering mother before buying the car and then is placed in peril of losing his entire existence. The former owner of the car, Roland LeBay, also looms large and his sheer malice makes him compelling in his own right. The story moves along at a solid pace for the most part but does sag a bit in the middle. The book is less terrifying than it is creepy. The suspense keeps you tingling with interest but don't expect truly intense scares here. There is some light humor peppered in to help break the tension from time to time and it works fairly well. Probably the weakest part of the book is that the beginning of every chapter is marked with song lyrics that pertain to cars. They don't relate even loosely to the story so they appear to be there solely for the sake of nostalgia. The problem is that they are so old and/or obscure that I've never heard the vast majority of them so they end up serving no purpose at all. It's obvious that King put a lot of effort into digging these up but the effort was wasted on me and most readers under the age of 55 or 60 will probably have the same reaction. In summary, I enjoyed reading Christine. The characters are interesting, the suspense worked for me, and I definitely wanted to see what happened next. The book has flaws but they are pretty minor and did not detract in any major way from my enjoyment. This is not Stephen King's best novel but it is well worth reading.

I didn't see this book coming. I thought it would be a DNF. I read it cover to cover and its now one of my favorites. The characters are gripping. The story line is inescapable. The book was not only terrifying and unnerving it was also heart wrenching and heart warming. One of his best works by far

It was crazy, it was WILD, I loved it. I was apprehensive about starting Christine because the movie scared me to pieces when I watched it as a little girl (much too young, probably). I still remember seeing movie-Christine bending and twisting herself back into shape, making repairs to herself after each murderous drive she took. I was horrified but I couldn't look away! That's exactly the way I felt while reading the book, too. I added the audiobook so I could listen while driving and snort-laughed when someone told me it was brave to listen to Christine while driving, HA! Stephen King's nonhuman villains are probably my favorite. He has a knack for making appliances murdering machines. He's made transfer trucks, laundry ironing machines, and lawnmowers evil, and he did it again with a red Plymouth Fury. Dennis' narration of the story reminded me a lot of Red's narration in Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption--a secondary character telling us a story he once lived thru. Not trying to draw any parallels here, but both are narrated in the same way and both are stories told by the greatest storyteller out there.

Great price for a book that was hard to find in good condition. This book arrived quickly and was in great condition

Love this book cause its name after meeeeeeeeee lol 😆

Early King novels are a little rougher and less polished than his later works, but in some ways that is better. A good novel, but I could not start rooting for the main protagonist and hoping he would slip free of his possession and have a happier ending.

Non si può schematizzare un’opera così, che ancora a distanza di anni sa spaventare, destreggiandosi tra nuove forme di possessione e sapienti spennellate di gotico, tra il nostalgico (marchio di fabbrica dell’autore!) e momenti di quotidianità che mai nascondono l’orrore in fondo alle vite dei personaggi. Non cade neanche nell’effetto ‘sagomadicartone’ per quanto riguarda i ‘sacrificabili’ di turno (a parte un paio di eccezioni, ma vabbé). Un lavoro degno di essere riletto per esserne terrorizzati come la prima volta!

El libro bien es muy bonito pero me llego suelto en la caja sin plastico ni nada tiene marcas de haberse movido dentro de la caja ,devolucion no porque si va hacer asi de nuevo paso de hacerlo,ya me quejado directamente con devolución del dinero.

Watched this movie when it came out in the theaters and several times afterwards during my teen years. This book really completes some of the missing elements and would have been nice to see added in the movie (way more characters and twists in the book). Well written (it’s Steven King after all) and worth the read. You need however to set yourself in the late 70’s to fully appreciate the story.

Always a great read

A bit longer than I remembered but still a great book.