Rating: 
Summary: Slipping
Review: I felt the book leaves the reader waiting for more - for something to happen. I will never forget how "The Shinning" raised the hair on the back of my neck. "Buick 8" doesn't come close. It builds and builds but never hits the summitt.Not Mr. King's best work.
Rating: 
Summary: No shed B for Me
Review: Stephen King continues to crank out above average novels even after deciding that he is going to hang up the keyboard.
From a Buick 8 is a story that only a mature and thoughtful author can produce. If you're looking for the thrills and spills of his earlier years, keep on looking. This story is intelligent. It builds slowly, letting the characters develop naturally and at their own pace.
A supernatural car shows up in Pennsylvania at an out of the way gas-n-go. The driver disappears and the state patrol is called. The car is eventually towed to the main barracks of PSP Troop D where it is stored for the next 30 years. Gradually the story unfolds not only about the car but about the troopers that stand guard over the car. The troopers investigate the car, record with video the "lightquakes" and generally marvel at the variety of creatures the car produces; apparently pulling them from another universe. Better stop there. Don't want to give too much away.
The story also deals with loyalty and commitment among the troopers that come in and go out of the story.
Other reviewers have said this before me; this is the work of a mature author, comfortable with his craft and his ability to construct a story.
If you've read other King books and enjoyed them you'll probably enjoy this one. If you're looking for the electricity of "It", "The Shining", or "The Stand" keep looking. This book is similar emotionally to "Hearts of Atlantis".
Rating:
Summary: Anticipation
Review: Used to be, a book by Stephen King would reach out and grab the reader. This one is more meditative, it doesn't have the old sparkle and flash, jump and jive, Rock & Roll lilt. I kept thinking as I read - and this one took a lot longer to read than many of his others - it is a rare "I can put it down" endeavour: OK, this is like an old- fashioned mechanical roller coaster - hear the chain straining to pull us up to the top of that first long incline - clacka-clacka - and you know, you just know, that it's gonna be a wild and wooly ride once gravity takes hold. Only this time, it's a lot of anticipation and little more... Still, this Buick's a Stephen King model. I am about the 75th reviewer here - no need to restate plot summary, eh? I do have a bone to pick with the publishers. This was hard to read - literally. One of the last chapters is printed in a frustratingly anorexic italic font. Reviewed by TundraVision
Rating: 
Summary: From Under A Reader's Bed...
Review: Stephen IS King. "From A Buick 8" is far from a "Christine" knock-off. More like a compilation of "Tommyknockers", "The Regulators", "Hearts In Atlantis" with new elements of suspense thrown in. All in all, it makes a horrifying and well-told story, done in brilliant King style. No one draws characters like King does, and that amazing ability is shown to perfect advantage in "...Buick 8". Most of the story takes place on the grounds of a western Pennsylvania State Trooper department, where, in Shed B, rests an odd vehicle. One that pretends to be a Buick, but enough of its parts are just wrong enough to make it suspicious. And when it begins spewing bizarre, monstrous and dangerous items from its trunk--the State Troopers have their hands full trying to determine the nature of this particular beast. King allows his characters to tell the story, a task they undertake very well. Offering slightly different viewpoints, but still a consistent and flowing narrative, this storytelling style works marvelously in this novel. To King's credit, he does not offer easy answers to the events that take place, but leads the reader down many possible paths, allowing us to enjoy the story. And to draw our own conclusions. "From A Buick 8" is an excellent story, with all the expected King elements. A frightening page-turner!
Rating: 
Summary: A snoozer
Review: I have read and enjoyed many of Kings books but this one is easily the most boring and senseless of them all. The bottom line is the story starts with a great premise but soon runs out of gas. It may have been a great short story but in no way can the premise hold to novel length.
The idea that a somewhat large group of individuals could keep such a thing as this car a secret for so many years is preposterous, especially since they do not allow even their families in on the story.
The charactors are boring. Their whole existence revolves around their work and this car. The car itself is somewhat boring, including what comes out of it.
I struggled to make it to the end and almost didn't get there. Only the hope that something interesting would happen kept me going. After all this is King! It didn't happen, not even close.
The loose ends are not tied together and you are left with the feeling of, that's it?
Maybe King has past his prime. I know I failed to enjoy almost all the stories in his lastest collection also. I hope he's just in a funk but I will be wary of taking the time to read anymore of his new offerings. Better off revisiting the classics.
Rating:
Summary: From a Buick 8: A Novel
Review: Remember Bob Dylan, before the motorcycle crash. Then after the crash.
This is similiar... Boring! I have never ..ever ..been.. bored ..before by S King.. It a ok story..but not up to previous standards. Good luck in retirement Stephen..
Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY BORING.....ZZZZZZZZZZ
Review: I couldn't even get half way through it without tossing it aside. I tried and tried to get into it....giving it the benefit of the doubt, but got sick of wasting my time and wanted to move on to something else by another author. Time for Mr King to retire. The story NEVER picked up and never changed from Shed B. Give ole Shed B a rest!! Do not recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Very good book.......
Review: ...trust me, if you're an av fan of SK, then you'll ove this book. Forget about this being another car book. It's nothing like the previous.
Rating:
Summary: Good writing, though story not as exciting as his usual work
Review: This book was an easy read. At times I couldn't stop turning the pages, though at others I was waiting for the story to step up. This book showcases not so much a great story with a frightening monster, but highlights the great storytelling and descriptivness of King's writing. The writing is vivid and authentic, and though the plot is slow and leaves a lot of questions unanswered, his story telling is better than ever. The end of the book poses more questions than it answers, but is a worthwhile read if you are looking for a good story. I would skip this book though if you need answers and want to be looking under your bed for a boogeyman.
Rating:
Summary: A more mature horror novel
Review: OK, it's a Stephen King book and it's about a supernatural car. I suppose comparisons to "Christine" are inevitable. But really, is it so inconceivable that an author can write two book centering around cars and they be two completely different books? "From a Buick 8" proves the point, for me. As far as I'm concerned, it couldn't be more different from "Christine," despite the spooky car angle they both share. "Christine" isn't one of my favorite King books, really, though it's not one of his worst either. It's a pretty straight horror story, well-told but fairly typical of early King and the genre in general. Nigh-invulnerable killer car goes after a bunch of kids... Friday the 13th for the automotive set, gotcha. "From a Buick 8" has very little in common with "Christine," though, other than an old car with supernatural overtones. "Buick 8" is so much more about buildup and characterization. It's a story about people, and as a story which is told from the perspective of 5 or 6 different narrators (very convincingly, I might add), it's also a story about storytelling. It's a story in which very little actually happens. There are very few cataclysmic events or shocking revelations. The spooky car in "Buick 8" never goes on a rampage or kills a bunch of people in increasingly nasty ways (at least, you're never sure that it does). It spends 95% of the story in a shed behind a rural police station, throwing off the occasional light show and spitting out the occasional oddity.. and at least one monster (and even that is left to interpretation). But the car itself does very little. "Buick 8" is a mystery, but not in the Agatha Christie sense of the word, because it's not all wrapped up in a neat little bow at the end. It's a book that observes that there are very few concrete answers in life, especially for the "big stuff." It's a story about how even the strangest events get incorporated into our everyday lives. We deal with them, we do what we have to, and we move on. It's not always the most dramatic or the most satisfying, but it's the way things are. The message of the book seemed (to me) to be encapsulated near the end, when Sandy observes this: "The world rarely finishes its conversations." It's a truth that King himself seemed to understand when writing the book, something absent from much of his earlier work. "From a Buick 8" is worlds different from "Christine," literally and figuratively. It's a far much more mature book, and it shows King's growth as a writer more clearly than anything other the the "Dark Tower" series. It deserves to be noticed as the work of a mature writer, independent of his previous work.
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