Christine

Christine is a long horror novel by Stephen King; halfway through writing it, King was in a serious car accident, and after recovering he finished the work. The story is told in the first person by high-school student Dennis (Denny) as a recollection: his friend Arnie is introverted and physically frail, has long been bullied in high school by the school bully Buddy Repperton and his gang, and his only comforts are his friendship with Denny and his growing closeness to a girl named Leigh. One summer Arnie happens to see an old red Plymouth Fury parked in someone's yard, falls in love at first sight, and insists on buying it despite the objections of Denny and his parents, naming her "Christine." The car's previous owner was the reclusive George LeBay, whose wife and daughter both died in the car. Arnie has the car towed to the garage of repair-shop owner Darnell and restores it, and from then on is entirely absorbed by Christine: he spends all his savings, runs errands for Darnell to pay for parts and labor, and his personality grows harder, colder, and more unfamiliar day by day. Meanwhile, the battered body of the car repairs itself at night. After Repperton's gang vandalizes the car in anger, those involved in the vandalism die one after another in bizarre car accidents, and the police investigating the case and the adults connected with the car also meet violent deaths. Dennis gradually realizes that Christine is not merely a machine—she has her own will and possessiveness—and that Arnie is being devoured bit by bit by the car, or by something within it. The novel is divided into three parts—Dennis, Arnie, Christine—and through three viewpoints drives a youthful friendship toward destruction, while also capturing the American car culture of the 1950s and the psychology of small-town adolescents.