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A review by brents
Christine by Stephen King
3.0
I decided to read this book because it is one of King's classics and I decided I needed at least 1 horror book in October. After watching the video about it on Mike's Book Reviews youtube channel I decided to give it a shot.
Due to the fact that this is one of King's works that has become somewhat embedded in pop culture people know the basic premise of the book being "killer car". While that's true there is a lot more too it than that which makes it more interesting to read than I initially thought it would be. It's also a tale of friendship, growing up, betrayal, bullying and first love.
I'm always a sucker for King coming of ages stories and the way he writes his kid protagonists and you get a lot of that here. These are teenagers so they're old than some of the kids in his other works, but he still knows how they think and act. I loved the story being told through Dennis' pov of what is happening to his friend, Arnie, and Arnie's 1958 Plymouth Fury. We get to see through his eyes how Arnie changes, and the dawning realization of what is happening and how horrifying it is. Parts 1 and 3 from Dennis' POV are the best parts in the book and we get some of the most dread and horror filled scenes.
The middle of the book bizarrely switches to 3rd person omniscient narration where we get the thoughts and POVs of a bunch of different characters like Arnie, the bullies, and Arnie's girlfriend. Important stuff happens, but without Dennis as the narrator and putting things to together it doesn't have the same snap to it. The really chilling chapters happen in the last 1/3 as Dennis puts it all together.
Overall a good but not great King book dragged down by the middle section. I did like the somewhat ambiguous nature of how Christine is possessed or it's owners are possessed or if it was always that way or became that way. King gives us some stuff which I won't spoil, but a lot is left up to the reader which somehow makes it more scary.
Due to the fact that this is one of King's works that has become somewhat embedded in pop culture people know the basic premise of the book being "killer car". While that's true there is a lot more too it than that which makes it more interesting to read than I initially thought it would be. It's also a tale of friendship, growing up, betrayal, bullying and first love.
I'm always a sucker for King coming of ages stories and the way he writes his kid protagonists and you get a lot of that here. These are teenagers so they're old than some of the kids in his other works, but he still knows how they think and act. I loved the story being told through Dennis' pov of what is happening to his friend, Arnie, and Arnie's 1958 Plymouth Fury. We get to see through his eyes how Arnie changes, and the dawning realization of what is happening and how horrifying it is. Parts 1 and 3 from Dennis' POV are the best parts in the book and we get some of the most dread and horror filled scenes.
The middle of the book bizarrely switches to 3rd person omniscient narration where we get the thoughts and POVs of a bunch of different characters like Arnie, the bullies, and Arnie's girlfriend. Important stuff happens, but without Dennis as the narrator and putting things to together it doesn't have the same snap to it. The really chilling chapters happen in the last 1/3 as Dennis puts it all together.
Overall a good but not great King book dragged down by the middle section. I did like the somewhat ambiguous nature of how Christine is possessed or it's owners are possessed or if it was always that way or became that way. King gives us some stuff which I won't spoil, but a lot is left up to the reader which somehow makes it more scary.