Christine (Ldp Litt.Fantas)

by Stephen King

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

So, I decided that I was going to read, or should I say listen to, more horror stories this Halloween season. You can have a list of horror stories without including Stephen King. When trying to decide which King book I was going to tackle, I choose Christine mainly because Holter Graham was the narrator. I’ve listened to him narrate the Alpha & Omega series by Patricia Briggs and I love him. I also didn’t know much about Christine other than it was about a car and it was Stephen King, so I was sure it would be good, King has yet to ever fail me.

Dennis is a football player and not an unpopular person in school. He dates a cheerleader. But unlike many of the more popular kids in school, he is friends Arnie, a nerdy guy with lots of pimples who is more likely to be beat up by jocks than to befriended by one. The story starts off in the summer with the two boys working on a road crew to save up some money for college.

One day on the drive home from work, Dennis and Arnie happen by a 1958 Plymouth Fury with a for sale sign. Arnie is instantly obsessed with car, which is called Christine. He had never shown interest in purchasing a car, but no he has to have this one. Dennis tries to talk him out of buying it because the car obviously need a ton of work and has a lot of rust. Arnie puts a deposit on the car without even starting it to see if it will run. When he tells his parents, they were not happy to learn of this.

Arnie starts to change over time as he starts to fix the car up, his temper gets really bad. He can barely stand to be around his best friend. He can’t seem to get along with his parents. HIs grades start to slip. On the other hand, his complexion gets better. He even gets a new girlfriend who is very attractive and new to town.

Once the car is drivable, that is when things really start to get weird. People end up dead. Leah starts to notice a weird smell in the car when her and Arnie are in it, but then the smell will vanish. Other weird things happen as well.

This book is exactly what I would expect from a Stephen King novel. It was a longer novel at just under 20 hours long, but that isn’t long for a King novel. One of the things I love about Stephen King is his character development. He writes such great characters, be they the villains or victims in his stories, they will be great characters. Make no mistake, Christine in a character and just as well developed as any of the humans. I never would have thought as story about a car could’ve been nearly as interesting as it was. Only Stephen King can write a story like this.

Narration
Holter Graham does a great job with the narration, as I would expect. I did pick this book because he did the narration. All the character’s voices were done very well and very distinct. The voice that really stood out was the voice of LeBay, the creepy old man that sold Arnie the car.