Book Review: Christine

Despite not having read many of his books, I have watched a lot of movies adapting Stephen King’s work. One such movie that stuck out to me was John Carpenter’s Christine.  I remember the whole concept being presented on the film was quite interesting with the idea of a motorised vehicle that was actually alive and filled with malicious intent.  While I did find the acting a bit corny, the idea in itself was interesting enough to captivate me to keep it in my memory up to this point.  I figured with it being October and my aim to read more spooky books, it was time give the original source material a read.

The narrative of Christine follows a pair of young men in the town of Libertyville, Pennsylvania called Dennis Guilder and Arnie Cunningham.  Best friends since a young age, the pair live a pretty standard teenage life with Dennis being the popular jock while Arnie struggles with the nerdy reputation attached to him.  On a ride back from their summer-time job, Arnie ends up discovering a worn-down 1958 Plymouth Fury which it’s owner Roland LeBay nicknamed Christine.  Taking an instant liking to the derelict motor, Arnie buys the car up instantly and becomes obsessive regarding fixing her up.  While the obsession is initially dismissed by Dennis and Arnie’s own family, it soon becomes clear that Christine’s hold over Arnie gets increasingly worse. It’s not just a toxic influence Christine showcases either, as the story plays out it soon becomes apparent Christine has a malevolent sentience to her as she begins a deadly killing spree to all of those who would do her new owner wrong.

I love how much of this story is grounded on the friendship between Dennis and Arnie.  King does a great job reflecting the human connection the pair share through their life-long friendship. It’s through the clear innocence and love for each other these two share that it makes the slow, depressing deterioration of Arnie even more impactful.  Arnie isn’t a one-dimensional character, you see the less-than-ideal setup he’s dealing with prior to finding Christine and King puts a lot of work in fleshing him out as a character as you see his character slowly shift towards a darker and more cold personality. It’s not just Arnie and Dennis who are well fleshed-out either, King gives a lot of depth to the entirety of the cast of this story. By making the supporting cast of the story as rich as it’s central cast, it makes their relationships and presence with one another all the more contributive towards the quality of the story. The horror elements compliment the story in equal measure as well. It’s slowly layered throughout the course of the story before it becomes larger and more brutal as time goes by.  King has a real knack for fully realizing his ideas and Christine is a clear reflection of that, it’s a really compelling story mainly because of it’s character work and the respective horror that compliments it. 

In terms of pacing, this is a fairly long-winded book and that’s probably where my only complaint comes from. I appreciate to really expand and flesh out the story, King likely wanted to give the story as much time as he felt was necessary.  I think the expanded length of the story does grind the pace down a fair bit though and I just feel the length could have been refined in certain areas while not necessarily sacrificing the core quality of the story. King doesn’t make any missteps when it comes to the tone however as the story captures an excellent balance of heart, humour and dread in equal measure.  Not one single emotion feels like it outweighs the other here either, it’s a remarkable balancing act where each sequence is excellently constructed to resonate all the appropriate tones to benefit the story being projected.

Christine is a fantastic story on all accounts. For such an unusual concept, Stephen King realized every facet of this story’s potential.  Its narrative is strongly constructed to utilize a plethora of key themes in equal conjunction.  While it’s length may be a notable detractor for many, it’s worth pushing through just to experience how well the story plays out.  It’s a common belief but coming off watching the film first, I can easily say the book does this story way better and I cannot wait to read more of Stephen King’s stories if this is the quality I have to expect from them.