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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Even those who are not Stephen King fans most likely know the story of Christine. The name is synonymous with a possessed evil car. Yet, like all of Stephen King’s books made into movies, the movie leaves out SO much. In this case, I believe the movie does the original story a disservice because it is so much more than a possessed car running rampant. There are nuances to it that help flesh out the story so that it makes sense. These details also add a layer of tragedy to everything, which also enhances the story.
Audio is most definitely the way to go if you want to read the book. Holter Graham is absolutely fabulous as narrator. The way he adapts his voice as Arnie changes is thoroughly chilling. While the story itself may not be all that scary, Mr. Graham’s narration ups the creep factor by ten.
Revisiting Christine with my daughter was an easy one. It's a love triangle of a story, but not in the way you might think because it's really five love triangles superimposed on each other.
This is two boys meet car, meet girl, meet spook story. And the relationships they have with one another go around and around and around.
It starts simple enough. Two lifelong friends, Dennis and Arnie, meet a car that the owner affectionately calls Christine. The first triangle is forged: Dennis, Arnie, and Christine.
What we don't know right away is that another triangle is being formed at the same time: Dennis, Arnie, and Roland LeBay. LeBay is a nasty customer whose fury has literarily rubbed off on his red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury.
As the story develops, King then drops in his archetype for a nice girl. Her name is Leigh. Arnie, Christine, Leigh punctuates the Dennis, Arnie, and Christine triangle until we swing full circle and find ourselves Dennis and Leigh pitted against Christine and Lebay. Arnie, sadly for him is the link.
There are other parties involved too. School yard hoods, overprotective parents, police detectives, and small-time organized crime. All these extra players are important because they demonstrate to reader just how relentless horrible LeBay can be (or perhaps it is Christine, but I think so). What really makes it work, despite some structural issues, is that you can see King find his early strengths: characterization and relationships. Dennis, Arnie, Leigh, etc. are all fully formed characters as are many (but not all) of King's bit parts. These very believable (slightly typecast) characters are thrust into an unbelievable story.
Unbelievable is a good word because while there is a supernatural element to Christine, it's never really scary. Sure, it's billed as horror. But it's very doubtful you'll find yourself expecting to see a 1958 Fury driving down the street. Nope. You should, however, expect to find her driving down some of King's otheer novels. Although not by name, Christine rides again in It, 11.22.63, and The Stand.
This is two boys meet car, meet girl, meet spook story. And the relationships they have with one another go around and around and around.
It starts simple enough. Two lifelong friends, Dennis and Arnie, meet a car that the owner affectionately calls Christine. The first triangle is forged: Dennis, Arnie, and Christine.
What we don't know right away is that another triangle is being formed at the same time: Dennis, Arnie, and Roland LeBay. LeBay is a nasty customer whose fury has literarily rubbed off on his red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury.
As the story develops, King then drops in his archetype for a nice girl. Her name is Leigh. Arnie, Christine, Leigh punctuates the Dennis, Arnie, and Christine triangle until we swing full circle and find ourselves Dennis and Leigh pitted against Christine and Lebay. Arnie, sadly for him is the link.
There are other parties involved too. School yard hoods, overprotective parents, police detectives, and small-time organized crime. All these extra players are important because they demonstrate to reader just how relentless horrible LeBay can be (or perhaps it is Christine, but I think so). What really makes it work, despite some structural issues, is that you can see King find his early strengths: characterization and relationships. Dennis, Arnie, Leigh, etc. are all fully formed characters as are many (but not all) of King's bit parts. These very believable (slightly typecast) characters are thrust into an unbelievable story.
Unbelievable is a good word because while there is a supernatural element to Christine, it's never really scary. Sure, it's billed as horror. But it's very doubtful you'll find yourself expecting to see a 1958 Fury driving down the street. Nope. You should, however, expect to find her driving down some of King's otheer novels. Although not by name, Christine rides again in It, 11.22.63, and The Stand.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
'A big car from the 1950s is coming to eat you up, boys and girls...Can you say Christine?'
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I never thought I would love a book about cars but King knows just how to do it. A fantastic terror story.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I've had a hard time rating this book. This was a re-read for me. I first read it when I was a teenager and also saw the 1983 version of the movie. The reasons I've had a hard time rating this is because I got to a point where I wasn't caring what was going on. The scary tension wasn't there for me like it was most of the way through as a teen. I remember NEEDING to know what was going to happen. Now as an adult I remembered bits and pieces, and knew the overall plot of the story. So this led me to feeling that this was really a 3.5 star good, not great, book. It also started feeling SO LONG when I generally am fine with King's long books. So I was tettering on a 3 vs 3.5 star rating.
And then the last 5 chapters of the book happened. RIVETTED!!! SUSPENSE!!!! But also something as an adult reader that I noticed this time around....the friendship of Dennis and Arnie. When I think back on this story, it is a great story of two high school best friends who have been best friends since they were little guys. King perfectly describes the family dynamics of Dennis and Arnie's families: the worry of Arnie's mom that something was going on with him; accurately described conversations (and arguments) I've had with my own (in the past) high school kids about college plans and grades in school, work and hobbies. The story of this "hobby" of a car and how Arnie falls prey to a supernatural entity that slowly changes Arnie and in that same vein how the friendship of Arnie and Dennis changes is the REAL theme of this story.
So for me this was more than a story about a killer car (which in itself was a great story; very tense and creepy)....there was a big theme of friendship and how relationships can change. This in turn leads me to land on a 4 star rating for this book.
And then the last 5 chapters of the book happened. RIVETTED!!! SUSPENSE!!!! But also something as an adult reader that I noticed this time around....the friendship of Dennis and Arnie. When I think back on this story, it is a great story of two high school best friends who have been best friends since they were little guys. King perfectly describes the family dynamics of Dennis and Arnie's families: the worry of Arnie's mom that something was going on with him; accurately described conversations (and arguments) I've had with my own (in the past) high school kids about college plans and grades in school, work and hobbies. The story of this "hobby" of a car and how Arnie falls prey to a supernatural entity that slowly changes Arnie and in that same vein how the friendship of Arnie and Dennis changes is the REAL theme of this story.
So for me this was more than a story about a killer car (which in itself was a great story; very tense and creepy)....there was a big theme of friendship and how relationships can change. This in turn leads me to land on a 4 star rating for this book.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Achtung, unpopuläre Meinung. Macht euch unbedingt ein eigenes Bild vom Buch, immerhin wird es von sehr vielen Leuten geliebt.
Die Story hätte auch durchaus 5 Sterne verdient: Arnie entdeckt auf der Straße einen Oldtimer, kauft und restauriert ihn. Der Vorbesitzer nannte den Wagen Christine. Christine veränderte Arnie jedoch, stiftete Randale und zu allem Übel schien eine große Gefahr von ihr auszugehen.
Die Geschichte hört sich richtig interessant und spannend an. Leider wurde sie für mein Empfinden in viel zu viel Text verpackt. Ständig wurde weit und ausschweifend ausgeholt, Geschehnisse teilweise mehrfach erzählt. So trug es sich zu, dass es allein schon 250 Seiten dauerte, bis Christine überhaupt mal betriebsbereit war. Das war sehr mühsam und schleppend.
Spannend waren dann lediglich die actionreichen Stellen. Das war mir zu wenig.
Die Story hätte auch durchaus 5 Sterne verdient: Arnie entdeckt auf der Straße einen Oldtimer, kauft und restauriert ihn. Der Vorbesitzer nannte den Wagen Christine. Christine veränderte Arnie jedoch, stiftete Randale und zu allem Übel schien eine große Gefahr von ihr auszugehen.
Die Geschichte hört sich richtig interessant und spannend an. Leider wurde sie für mein Empfinden in viel zu viel Text verpackt. Ständig wurde weit und ausschweifend ausgeholt, Geschehnisse teilweise mehrfach erzählt. So trug es sich zu, dass es allein schon 250 Seiten dauerte, bis Christine überhaupt mal betriebsbereit war. Das war sehr mühsam und schleppend.
Spannend waren dann lediglich die actionreichen Stellen. Das war mir zu wenig.