This article is about the novel. For the film see, Christine (film).
Christine is the 16th book published by Stephen King; it was his 13th novel, and the ninth novel under his own name. The book was released by Viking on 29 April 1983.
The story is set in Libertyville, Pennsylvania, and tells the story of a 1958 Plymouth Fury possessed by an evil spirit.
Plot
While driving home from work, Dennis Guilder and Arnie Cunningham drive past Christine, a dilapidated 1958 red and white Plymouth Fury. Arnie makes Dennis stop his car, and examines the car. The car's owner, Roland D. LeBay, an elderly gentleman in a truss, comes out onto the lawn, and offers the car to Arnie for $250. Unable to pay the full amount, he settles on a $25 deposit and agrees to return the next day with the balance.
Arnie and Dennis return the following day, and LeBay invites Arnie into his house to sign the paperwork. While waiting for Arnie, Dennis decides to sit inside Christine, and as he does, he has a vision of the car and the surroundings as they were in 1957 when the car was new. Frightened, Dennis gets out of Christine, and decides that he does not like Arnie's new car.
Arnie brings Christine to Darnell's, a local do-it-yourself auto repair facility. As Arnie restores the automobile, he becomes withdrawn, yet more confident and self-assured. He becomes humorless and cynical. Dennis is at first very concerned about these changes in his friend, and of Christine's changes. Dennis later grows more frightened of the car. The car is repaired haphazardly, and not all of the repairs seem to be done by Arnie. No one has ever witnessed him performing more than minor repairs and routine maintenance on the car. Also, Arnie's appearance improves in tandem with Christine's. When Roland LeBay dies, Dennis meets his younger brother, George, who relates to him Roland's persistent anger and past violent behavior. He is also told that Roland's young daughter choked to death on a hamburger in the back of the car, and then Roland's wife, traumatized by this death, apparently committed suicide in the car by carbon monoxide poisoning. Dennis's further investigations with others around town who had known Roland confirm to him that Arnie's new personality is becoming like that of his car's former owner.
When Arnie is almost finished restoring Christine, Leigh Cabot transfers to his school. Leigh is instantly popular and regarded as the most beautiful girl in school. It is a surprise to everyone when she decides to go out with Arnie. While on a date with Arnie, Leigh almost chokes to death on a hamburger. Leigh is certain that Christine was behind it, and when Arnie attempts to save her by hitting her on the back she notices that the dashboard lights on Christine seem to have turned into glaring green eyes. Leigh is saved from death by a hitchhiker, who pulls her from the car and administers the Heimlich Maneuver. Despite Arnie's protestations, Leigh continues to feel as though she is competing with Christine for Arnie's affection.
Arnie brings Christine home from Darnell's when she is finally restored, roadworthy and registered, but his mother, Regina, who hates the car, tells him that he cannot park it at the house. Increasingly, Regina sees the car as yet another factor in her son's transition to adulthood and she is afraid of losing him. She and Arnie have a heated argument where Regina backs up her side by pointing out that Arnie has spent a large amount of his college fund money on the restoration and that his grades have slipped. Arnie counters, informing her that the owner of Darnell's, Will, has given Arnie paying work and that he's on track to restoring the money he'd spent. Arnie also argues that despite the small slip in his grades, he's still in the A-grade percentile. Arnie offers his mother a deal where if his grades slip below a B for any class, he'll sell Christine to Darnell. Regina flatly refuses and the argument ends with her slapping her son and Arnie storming out of the house.
Arnie's father, Michael, takes a drive with his son and treats him to a 30-day parking pass at the local airport, thinking Arnie will only use his car when absolutely necessary. Michael notices a few suspicious things about Christine; her odometer runs backward and that just sitting in the car makes him uneasy.
Soon after Arnie begins parking at the airport, Buddy Repperton, a vicious bully who Arnie and Dennis got expelled earlier in the story, visits Christine with his gang of thugs and severely vandalizes the car. Seeing Christine destroyed completely infuriates Arnie, resulting in the severance of his relationship with Leigh.
Mysterious murders occur in Libertyville. One by one, members of Buddy's gang are killed by Christine. The first is Moochie Welch who is run down by her while returning from a rock concert. Buddy Reperton himself is terrorized by Christine while returning from a Libertyville High basketball game in his Camaro with two friends. Christine repeatedly bumps the rear of Buddy's car, chasing them into a nearby state park. Buddy crashes, his car is demolished, his friends are killed and he's found by the ghost of a rotting Roland LeBay whom frightens Buddy to death.
Others who were hostile to Arnie or Christine also die, including Will Darnell, whom dies of a heart attack when Christine bursts through the front of his house. The police investigate the murders and become suspicious of Arnie. However, Arnie has an airtight alibi for each of the murders, since the car apparently acts on its own. Although the police find paint chips at the crime scenes that match Christine's color, they find no damage, bloodstains, or other evidence on the car, since Christine supernaturally repairs herself after each attack.
Dennis and Leigh become suspicious not of Arnie, but of Christine. They try to find out as much as they can about the car and its previous owner. As their suspicions grow, they try to destroy the supernatural forces that appear to be in control of Christine and Arnie.
The novel ends on an ambiguous note. Arnie's father is found dead in Christine, apparently from exhaust fumes. Arnie and his mother die in an auto accident: witnesses to the accident saw three people in the car before the crash, but only two bodies were found. In the meantime, Dennis and Leigh manage to destroy Christine in Darnell's using a huge, pink-coloured septic tanker truck named Petunia, and Dennis is informed by a police detective that the remains were fed into the crusher in the back of the garage by two police officers, adding that one received a bad cut that needed stitches, and said "it bit him". Dennis ends the story proper with a salutation to his friend: In the epilogue, set about four years later, Dennis reports that he and Leigh attended college together, consummated their relationship ("very satisfactorily"), but ultimately went their separate ways. Dennis is a teacher in New Jersey, Leigh a housewife in New Mexico. The last page details that, in Los Angeles, Sandy Galton (one of Buddy's gang) has died a mysterious death when a car burst through the wall of the theater where he was working, instantly killing him. The final words of the book convey Dennis' horror as he contemplates the possibility that Christine repaired herself and pursued him, and now may be working her way east, targeting Leigh and LeBay's brother and sister, saving Dennis for last.
Adaptation
The story was adapted into a film in 1983.
Audiobook
The audiobook version of Christine was read by Holter Graham, who played the part of Deke Keller in Maximum Overdrive.
Book Covers
