Christine, published in 1984, is a story by Stephen King about a demonic car. A silly premise perhaps, but one that Mr. King manages to make a very scary and entertaining story out of it.

The story centers around Arnie Cunningham, a nerdy high school student who buys a wreck of a car from a foul-mouthed old man, despite the objections of his parents and the trepidation of his best friend, Dennis. However, once he gets the car and begins to restore it to working condition, Arnie's life gets better as his complextion clears up and he becomes more self-confident. Very soon, he even gets his first girlfriend.

The troubles begin when his car is attacked by a group of thugs who have a grudge against Arnie. Very soon after this, the group of 'bad kids' get killed in a series of very mysterious traffic accidents.

It soon becomes clear to Arnie's best friend and his girlfriend that something is seriously wrong, and after some more killing on the cars part, and some romance on their part, they manage to bulldoze the demonically possesed car into scrap metal, leading to an almost happy ending.

As with most Stephen King books, the dialogue, plot developement and descriptions are all very well done and exciting, while the character development and explanations of characters motivations are somewhat weak. In this book (as opposed to say, It), the horror scenes don't take up that many pages and are not as varied. There is only so much mileage you can get out of a car, after all.

One of the things that is done very well in this book is its description of human, and not just demonic corruption. The small cruelties and absurdities of life in a small town are described very well, and in the end may be more scary then the titular subject matter.

This is a chilling read, Stephen King as found yet another way to burrow deep down to the bottom of your heart and cake it with a layer of ice-cold fear. Not once throughout this book did I get bored or impatient (I usually have periods of boredom with average books), but instead I was terrified, bewildered and pretty much in a high state of anxiety. Christine is a tale of corruption of the mind, pollution of the conscience and an ownership that turns into a Possession.

There are three main characters:

Dennis
The strongest character in the book, Dennis is an athletic young man with a helluva lot of guts. He is loyal to his friends and does what he thinks is best regardless of what others may think. Dennis is one of those dudes that has no trouble with the ladies, he likes to pick and choose, and there's this one girl on his mind...

Arnie
This is the spot-ridden kid that gets straight A's without doing any work - you know the one that always sits down the back of class? Exactly the same. Well, actually no, not exactly the same. Arnie is different. Very different. The differences start to be apparent as soon as he buys a doomed old '58 Plymouth Fury. The car starts to eat away at him, consuming him. It becomes his life.

Leigh
Easily the most stunning girl at school, Leigh finds herself transfixed with Arnie, she is totally in love. The only thing she can fault with him is his damned obsession with that car! Whenever she goes driving with Arnie, she feels like she's not a top priority, like the car is above her. She hates the car and will do almost anything to stop it.

Christine is a huge bulk of a car, there are cracks in her windscreen and her mirrors are broken. Arnie vows to fix her up, this is his project. Slowly, but surely, Christine is coming back to life, a brand new grill here, a pointy new aerial there and ta-da! She's turning into something you'd take a second look at.

While Dennis is struggling to maintain a healthy relationship with his all time buddy Arnie, Christine is interfering and taking all of Arnies time, and when Christine falls victim to an attack from the school bully and his band of merry men, all Arnie cares about is getting Christine back to normal... and revenge.

Did I like the book?
*nods* Hell yes! I'd heard so much about it before I read it, so I was anticipating something great and guess what I got? Something that wasn't great, but fabulous. *nods* Yes, I did like this book.

Who would want to read such a "fabulous book"?
Anyone with a shred of imagination, anyone who enjoys having the shite scared out of them on a regular basis, anyone who has read and enjoyed any of Stephen Kings other books or, pretty much, anyone at all who enjoys a good read.

I strongly recommend you go and read this book. Find out for yourself what a fantastic writer Stephen King is (even if you don't like scary books, have a crack at this one - you will not regret it).