Christine
Stephen King

Scene: a middle class suburb of Pittsburg.
Time: 1978.
Cast of characters: Arnie Cunningham, a bookish and bullied high school senior; Dennis Guilder, his friend and sometime protector; Leigh Cabot, the new girl in school, won by Arnie... but wanted by Dennis as well.
Just another lovers' triangle, you say? Not quite. There's a fourth here, the second lady, the dark lady. "Cars are girls," Leigh Cabot says, and the dark force in Stephen King's novel is a 1958 Plymouth named Christine.
She is no ordinary car, this white over red two toned survivor of a time when high test gasoline was priced at a quarter a gallon and speedometers were calibrated all the way up to a hundred and twenty miles and hour... a time when rock and roll in all its first crude power ruled America... a time when speed was king.
Arnie Cunningham is determined to have Christine at any price, and little by little, Dennis and Leigh begin to suspect that the price of his growing obsession may be terrifyingly high, its result blackly evil. As Arnie sets feverishly to work on the seemingly hopeless job of restoring Christine, Christine begins to develop a terrible life of her own. Or is that only imagination? Dennis continues to hope so... and then people begin to die on Libertyville's dark suburban streets and roads... and the time comes when Dennis can no longer deny the horrifying truth: Christine is alive.

Considered to be one of the classic Stephen King novels, Christine does not disappoint. Whether you are a seasoned reader of King or whether you choose this to be your introduction to his works, this novel will show you just how amazing his writing can be.

While the idea to make a car into a living creature has been done time and time again (mostly after this novel), this is the classic and the best of the bunch. While the main theme of this book is the awkwardness of growing up and changing, the underlying theme of the possessed car taking over Arnie makes this novel more than just a horror book. It also makes it a poignant expression of the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. Whether you read through the metaphor or just see this as a killer car, this book is definitely worth reading.

Both the main and the secondary characters are three dimensional, some you'll feel for and some you'll hate. Being able to evoke true feelings for characters in a book is an art form which King shows off here.

Normally I try to point out any flaws, no matter how minor, I might see in a novel - just to let the reader know both the positives and the negatives before they choose to open the book I am reviewing. But I have to say, I cannot find a single negative with this novel.

My rating: Five out of five snails.