Christine

I told myself that I’d take a break from Stephen King, but then found myself listening to this book. The main issue I have with Christine is the pacing. The first half is really slow, with all kinds of buildup that I suppose serves to deepen the relationship between the main characters and set up the drama to follow, but it just wasn’t exciting. King largely makes up for that with the second half, though, which is pedal to the metal (literally) action leading to a conclusion that’s pretty much classic King.

One other thing that struck me about Christine is that like Firestarter and many of King’s other early works, it’s not really a horror story in the typical sense. Sure there’s violence and people are terrified, but King’s main focus is on the characters and how the deal with the situations they’re thrown into. This has always been, I think, his great strength as a writer and the thing that has kept him popular.