crystalattice's Full Review: Stephen King - Christine
I finally got around to reading this book while moving. Normally, I don't care for Stephen King's novels; they are usually overly long and he gets caught up in the details. I think his short stories are much better. But my wife kept saying how great the book is and how different it was from the movie. Since we were moving, I didn't have a lot of options regarding reading material, so I read it.
It's actually a pretty good book. Yes, King does get caught up in the details but for a change, it wasn't annoying or boring. The details added to the story rather than being incidental tidbits.
I'm sure nearly everyone has read this or seen the movie, so I won't go into the plot very much. Suffice it to say, much like Maximum Overdrive, a car drives around by itself and kills people who have done the car's owner wrong.
However, there are some significant differences between the book and the movie (which is typical of Stephen King movie adaptations). In the movie, the car itself seems to be possessed by a demonic influence while being assembled. However, the book has the previous owner (LeBay) being the influence; LeBay not only "possesses" Arnie Cunningham (one of the main characters) but is also the force behind the car being able to drive itself. Though it appears the car is driving itself, it's actually LeBay's spirit that drives the car.
Personally, I think the movie was better in this aspect. The idea of a "demonic car" seems scarier than a dead man's spirit coming back. As portrayed in the movie, there doesn't have to be a reason for the car to be doing what it does. In the book, LeBay's anger at the world is what motivates him to possess Arnie and kill the people who have slighted him.
Much like The Shining, I think the psychological ideas in the movies were more effective than a straight-up ghost story. Though the book is good (and the deaths are much worse than portrayed in the movie), I think the movie captured the heart of the story better.
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