Christine

Rating:
Summary: to the man with the heart of a child...thats kept on his des
Review: I read the book Christine because I find Stephen King and Dean Koontz to be the two best writers of all time...ever. This book was one of Stephen King's best books. If you like stuff about some pretty P.Oed cars or sneeky romances this is a book for you. Make sure you have time to read though cause its going to be hard to put it down. 8>) Also, this isnt a book for just adults im a 15 year old freshman and I loved this book!

Rating:
Summary: Baby, you can drive my car
Review: I was looking for a good scary book to read in the fall (this time of year, when it's getting dark out early, seems to be the best time to get into a good horror novel) so I went with the most famous horror novelist today, Stephen King. CHRISTINE is one of his more famous novels (there's a movie version as well) and since I hadn't read that one yet, I decided to give it a try. Turns out that while I did get a decent read, I didn't get one that really scared me. It's an engrossing and enjoyable story, but it didn't really scare me the way I hoped it would.

Here's the problem: the book is about a haunted, psychotic car, and cars aren't inherently frightening things. Oh sure, if you're flying down the highway in heavy traffic and your brakes fail, or your accelerator cuts out, then, yeah, that's terrifying. But lying awake at night and imagining that the strange noises that you can barely hear are really the sounds of an unruly automobile? No, not scary. The book, therefore, goes more for gross-out horror than psychological fear, which is fine if that's what you're looking for. I was disappointed in that I was hoping for something with more of a creepy atmosphere.

So, considering that cars are scarier in actuality than they are in the abstract, where does this book succeed? Well, it does very well when it sticks to its characters. King's characters aren't particularly deep, but with five hundred pages to work with, he certainly puts a lot into them. This is where the book works, when it's dealing with the problems and relationships of its characters. I had not been overly impressed by the characters at the beginning, but towards the end I had genuinely begun to care about them and their fates. And the book is more horrific when presenting us with a good old-fashioned ghost tale instead of a less than thrilling possession-of-an-inanimate-object story.

CHRISTINE is a five hundred page novel that never bored me, so I shouldn't dwell on the negatives too much. While King's prose style here wouldn't be described as sophisticated, it is strikingly readable. It's an undemanding read and certainly enjoyable and even fun in a way. I just wish it had been a little scarier.

Rating:
Summary: This book was exellent.
Review: If you like old classic cars, or the new fancy fast cars mixed in with some horror, Christine by Steven King is for you. This book is a mind reveting and an awesome ride. If you read it you might want to buckle your seat belt. This book is also part mystery, because when the car is moving Arnie appears to be behind the wheel. But is he really all by himself?

Arnie Cunnigham and his new/old car named Christine are the main characters of the book, along with Arnie's best friend Dennis. Dennis was with Arnie the day that he bought Christine form Roland D. Leby. From that day, Dennis knew that buying that car was the worst thing Arnie had ever done.

Arnie changed in many ways after he bought the car. He started getting in fights whit hes parent; he even got in a fight at school, getting the kid expelled. He had a really bad complexion before he bought the car. Dennis noticed that Arnie's axne was starting to go away, so he complemented him on it by saying a joke. Arnie didn't like the joke very much at all. Arnie even got his first girl friend. All the guys at school couldn't believe she would go out with a dork like him. Her name was Leigh Cabot.

The book takes place mostly at Will's Garage. That is where Arnie spent most of his time fixing up Christine. Leigh gets really mad because he spends almost all of his time with the stupid car and almost no time at all with her.

People who got on Arnie's bad sied start dying. All the police know is that all the murders involve a red car, and that the victims did something really bad to Arnie. Arnie is usually out of town when the murderstake place, and his car is red. But there are about twenty other cars in town that are red too.

If you want to dind out what happens to Arnie and Christine his 1958 Plymouth Fury, read this book.

I really liked the book; ist's probably the best book I've ever read. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It's only my opinion, but I think that Steven King is a pretty gook author.

Rating:
Summary: Still a great read today
Review: In the years since I bought this on impulse in the college bookstore, I've logged many an hour with Stephen King's books, and I can't honestly say I've enjoyed any of them as much as this one. I bought it with what little money I got back from selling my boks back to the bookstore after exams, then spent the next week reading at night in the basement of our house. This was at the same time that my younger brother had bought the Christine of his youth, a 1966 Dodge Charger that some of our friends said affected him in the same way that the old Fury affected Arnie Cunningham, so the book always had a special kind of sub-plot for me. King has done an admirable job in capturing the essence of the 18-year-old high school student in Dennis Guilder, (although few of the guys I knew in high school were anywhere near as well thought out as Dennis was. He had his &@*$ together.) If the best thing you can say about an author is that he made you believe that the person telling the story was real, then chalk up a vote for Stephen King based on Christine.

Rating:
Summary: Still a great read today
Review: In the years since I bought this on impulse in the college bookstore, I've logged many an hour with Stephen King's books, and I can't honestly say I've enjoyed any of them as much as this one. I bought it with what little money I got back from selling my boks back to the bookstore after exams, then spent the next week reading at night in the basement of our house. This was at the same time that my younger brother had bought the Christine of his youth, a 1966 Dodge Charger that some of our friends said affected him in the same way that the old Fury affected Arnie Cunningham, so the book always had a special kind of sub-plot for me. King has done an admirable job in capturing the essence of the 18-year-old high school student in Dennis Guilder, (although few of the guys I knew in high school were anywhere near as well thought out as Dennis was. He had his &@*$ together.) If the best thing you can say about an author is that he made you believe that the person telling the story was real, then chalk up a vote for Stephen King based on Christine.

Rating:
Summary: Long But Engrossing
Review: Nothing gets in the way of a boy and his car---NOTHING, not even his girlfriend. Not even his best friend from childhood. NOTHING. Especially if it's Arnie Cunningham and his Christine, a 1958 red-and-white Plymouth Fury who earns her name and then some over the course of this book. This is Stephen King's 1983 classic Horror novel CHRISTINE.

Having seen the feature film, made later the same year and starring Keith Gordon as the nerdy, much-picked-upon Arnie Cunningham, I can say that this book certainly places the terrifying screen images I remember into a whole new context---indeed, into a whole new dimension. You see, in the film, the car itself was just plain evil---as illustrated by the song "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers being played at both the beginning and the ending. In the book, it's a lot less simple than that: It's not just that Arnie becomes obsessed with Christine, who influences him to become evil; the focus is more on Christine's evil previous owner, Roland D. LeBay. Over time, Arnie gradually metamorphoses into LeBay, who's described as being "always angry" and refers to his enemies as "sh*tters." (In the movie, Arnie comes up with that word himself.) There are subplots involving the delving into LeBay's past, as well as dealing with Arnie's parents. In the movie, Roland D. LeBay still sells Arnie the car, but he is no more consequential than that. Interestingly enough, in the book, it is Arnie's father who is the sympathetic parent, with the mother being a harridan; in the movie, it is the other way around.

Typically for a Stephen King book versus the movie, the body count is higher in the book. Will Darnell, the fat, coarse body-shop owner (and Arnie's boss) meets an especially prolonged end in the written version. [SPOILER ALERT: The only majorly disappointing thing to me about the book was Arnie's rather anti-climactic end. In the movie, he is killed while in Christine; in the book, he is killed in a car accident along with his mother on the snowbound Pennsylvania Turnpike.]

I liked the unique narrative structure of CHRISTINE. The book is divided into three sections: The first is narrated in the first person by Arnie's best friend Dennis Guilder, the mid-section changes to a God's-eye third-person point of view, and the final section goes back to Dennis' first-person narration. It's a very interesting technique, perhaps odd, but I think it works for this novel. Of course, there are plenty of King witticisms that us fans have come to love about his writing---CHRISTINE is chock-full of them! It's because of this that I forced myself to read slower---and believe me, I had to read a lot slower than usual, because CHRISTINE is a real page-turner! I really didn't want to miss the sarcastic observations, ironic musings and other King witticisms than have become a trademark. I definitely recommend reading CHRISTINE; it is quite enjoyable, no matter if you saw the film version first or not.

RECOMMENDED; AGES 16 & UP
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR STEPHEN KING FANS

Rating:
Summary: This is a well written book. Plain and simple.
Review: This isn't just a creep-me-out thriller; it's also a nostalgic look back at growing up as seen through the eyes of Dennis Guilder, all around good guy. Of course it DID creep me out; it wouldn't be S.King without a monster lurking somewhere in the murky darkness and he doesn't disappoint. But the story isn't all about the malevolent red and white Plymouth Fury. It's also about Arnie, the confused boy who takes on the personality of Christine's former owner, and the frustration he releases through Christine, who carries out his violent unspoken wishes. I dove into this book and didn't surface until I finished it, two days later. A great read and one of King's finest. This book is an example of why I read his books.

I also recommend "The Stand" --though I know the sheer bulk of it can seem daunting-- and "The Talisman" which he wrote with Peter Staub. Staub's "Ghost Story" is a great book, too.

Rating:
Summary: Christine: The Ideal Horror Novel
Review: When I walked into my public library to take out this book, I had high expectations of it, because it was a Steven King novel. I have read 2 books by him, they were Cujo and The Green Mile, and both were excellent. After I got through this mezmerizing, page-turner, I wanted to read even more of this author's works. The book is about a social misfit named Arnie Cunningham, who loves cars, particularly old ones. One day, he buys a 1957 Plymouth Fury that the former owner calls Christine. Arnie immediately goes to work on restoring the car, and falls in love with it. But his friend, Dennis Guilder, and his girlfriend, Leigh Cabot immediately feel a strong fear and hatred towards the car, and as the book goes on, Arnie starts to change too. I won't ruin the ending for you, but I can just say that Arnie starts to get a little bit too obsessed with Christine. If you love books by Steven King, and are wanting to read more, or if you are into a good horror story with a great ending, this book is right up your alley!

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Summary: Compelling ride ;>
Review: Yes, this is one of King's best. Christine seethes with teenage angst, first love, dysfunctional family life, and of course, Christine, that witch on wheels. Was there ever a more creepy and original monster? I had shied away from reading this one for a long time because I thought it would be silly. And I never saw the movie for the same reason (I mean, remember Cujo?!) Anyway I finally caught the movie one day on TV and watched it from the beginning, and whoa... I did like it. The actor who played Arnie was awesome, whoever the heck he is. So I ordered the book. I was glued to it. The characters were so engaging and real, King at his best. The kids, Arnie and Dennis and their friendship which becomes strained as Arnie goes from geeky to freaky - very well written. Arnie's infatuation then obsession with Christine which changes his whole personality is extremely well-done, and the resulting tragedies - well they're horrible (duh, that's part of the reason I read King's books.) To be horrified and creeped out while King's stories have you in their intense grip - delicious! So after all, the book isn't really about the death-car. It's about a tortured kid who loses it, and his friends and family who can't save him, just like real-life.