Helpful Score: 8
More cerebral than Christine - I enjoy it when everything isn't quite all the way explained... Note: Has tie-ins to the Dark Tower series!
Helpful Score: 6
Like a fine wine, I am pleased to see that King only gets better with age. A frightening book indeed, the kind of fear that shakes up your moral core. No perfunctory scare in this book.
Helpful Score: 5
WoW! a very good book. i love paranormal books and this one did not disappoint me!
Helpful Score: 3
One of my favorite Stephen King books, this one is a bit more like a Twilight Zone episode than the horror that he's known for. An abandoned car is taken in by state troopers, except it turns out to be not a car at all, but a gateway into another world. What I liked about this was the sheer force of mystery. The traditional story arc in most popular fiction is missing. Instead, it's a bunch of folks trying to make sense of the very strange goings on in their garage.
Helpful Score: 3
Wow, I didn't like this book at all. I only finished reading it because I really did want to know the end, but the story dragged and it was just too much of the same thing. Maybe there's some deeper meaning, I dunno, but yuck. I cannot believe I found a King novel I didn't really really like! But this was a stinker for me.
Helpful Score: 2
Is this spooky time-travel, or what??
Helpful Score: 2
Very good Stephen King mystery about a mysterious car in custody of the state police that seems to have other-worldly powers.
Helpful Score: 2
More cerebral than Christine - I enjoy it when everything isn't quite all the way explained... Note: Has tie-ins to the Dark Tower series!
Helpful Score: 1
The car isn't the star of the show, so the story is not really anything like "Christine". The story is about some state troopers who come upon a vintage car, have bizarre (Stephen King-like) adventures, and then are telling the story to a younger officer. Scary and interesting, but not the best.
Helpful Score: 1
Supernatural antique car left in a shed. Policemen sit around and talk about it. Wordy.
Helpful Score: 1
A slightly weiord book, but I wasn't able to put it down.
Lots of unbelievable things happen, so this makes it a typical Stephen King book.
Lots of unbelievable things happen, so this makes it a typical Stephen King book.
Helpful Score: 1
The officers of the Troop D state police in rural Pennsylvania have kept a secret since 1979. Since then, stowed out behind the police barracks in Shed B, has been a classic car - a Buick Roadmaster. In 1979, Troopers Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox answered a call from a gas station just down the road and came back with the abandoned Buick. Curt Wilcox knew old cars, and he knew immediately that this car was...wrong, just wrong. A few hours later, when Trooper Rafferty vanished without a trace, Curt and his fellow troopers knew the old Buick Roadmaster was worse than dangerous - and that it would be better if John Q. Public never found out about it.
With Curt's avid curiosity taking the lead, they investigated Trooper Rafferty's disappearance as best they could, as much as they dared. Over the years, the troop eventually absorbed the mystery as part of the background to their work; the Buick 8 sitting out there like a still life painting that breathes - inhaling a little bit of this world, exhaling a little bit of whatever world it came from. In the fall of 2001, some time after Curt Wilcox is killed in a gruesome auto accident, his 18 year-old son Ned starts coming by the barracks. Ned does various odd jobs around the barracks - mowing the lawn, washing windows, shoveling snow.
Sergeant Commanding, Sandy Dearborn, knows it's just the boy's way of holding onto his father, and Ned is allowed to become a part of the Troop D family. One day, Ned happens to look through the window of Shed B and discovers the family secret. Like his father, Ned wants answers, and the secret begins to stir; not only in the minds and hearts of the veteran troopers who surround him, but in Shed B as well...
I must say that I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. It was very exciting and my goodness, what an imagination Stephen King has. I've said before that I'm always a little wary of reading Stephen King's longer novels - the plots of many of his books start off brilliantly, and then they seem to go off the rails slightly, at least in my opinion. Anyway, while I found that some passages in From a Buick 8: A Novel were slightly verbose, overall, the book managed to capture my attention and successfully hold it until the end. I give this book an A!
With Curt's avid curiosity taking the lead, they investigated Trooper Rafferty's disappearance as best they could, as much as they dared. Over the years, the troop eventually absorbed the mystery as part of the background to their work; the Buick 8 sitting out there like a still life painting that breathes - inhaling a little bit of this world, exhaling a little bit of whatever world it came from. In the fall of 2001, some time after Curt Wilcox is killed in a gruesome auto accident, his 18 year-old son Ned starts coming by the barracks. Ned does various odd jobs around the barracks - mowing the lawn, washing windows, shoveling snow.
Sergeant Commanding, Sandy Dearborn, knows it's just the boy's way of holding onto his father, and Ned is allowed to become a part of the Troop D family. One day, Ned happens to look through the window of Shed B and discovers the family secret. Like his father, Ned wants answers, and the secret begins to stir; not only in the minds and hearts of the veteran troopers who surround him, but in Shed B as well...
I must say that I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. It was very exciting and my goodness, what an imagination Stephen King has. I've said before that I'm always a little wary of reading Stephen King's longer novels - the plots of many of his books start off brilliantly, and then they seem to go off the rails slightly, at least in my opinion. Anyway, while I found that some passages in From a Buick 8: A Novel were slightly verbose, overall, the book managed to capture my attention and successfully hold it until the end. I give this book an A!
Helpful Score: 1
This book reminded me of why I stopped reading Stephen King's books. They are monotonous, tedious, and repetitive. The story is told from a third person point of view (or many POVs as it turns out). The cops of Troop D are retelling the 20 year history of the buick in shed B to Ned, one of the dead troopers kids. So the story is choppy and split between NOW and THEN with multiple people telling the story which is confusing as hell. A lot of the details are repetitive and the suspense is non-existent until the end of the book. The buick throws out purple rays like violent lightning and sometimes things appear but most times it's just a light show. I got tired of reading the same descriptions again and again and again. This is about 400 pages long but could easily have been half that and still told the same story.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a good story.kind of strange,but typical Stephen King.
Helpful Score: 1
The state police of Troop D. in Statler, Pennsylvania, have kept the mysterious, vintage Buick Roadmaster caged in Shed B out in back of the barracks ever since 1979, when Troopers Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox answered a call about its driver gone missing from a gas station just down the road. Mostly it sleeps (that's one way of putting it, anyway), and over the years the troop has absorbed its mystery as part of the background to their work. But even as it sleeps, it breathesinhaling a little bit of this world, exhaling a little bit of whatever world it came from...until the fateful day when its terrifying secrets are finally revealed.
Helpful Score: 1
Very interesting, hard to put down
Helpful Score: 1
In a small town in Pennsylvania, there is something strange going on near the State Police barracks. There's a classic Buick Roadmaster that has remained untouched in an old shed, and once it is discovered, it begins to unleash an evil none of the troopers could have imagined. This is similar in concept as Stephen King's Christine, but with a twist...
Helpful Score: 1
As with most STephen King novels I really enjoyed this one. It played out as if I was watching a movie, every character as real as myself. What an amazing imagination he has!
Helpful Score: 1
A reviewer stated that the story went slow. What I say is that the Buick 8 was stored for at least 2 decades and things happened over that period. I liked the book. What I didn't like was what happened to the barracks dog. Then again I am a dog lover. I occasionally read his books. I didn't know what to expect with this book, but I read it during the day, just in case it got really bad. lol How come things look better during the day but it doesn't at night???
Another imaginative and spooky tale from Stephen King. A car, kept by the Pennsylvania State Police, has more power than some people realize. As a Stephen King fan, I like the book's supernatural spin and was reminded of earlier works, such as "Christine".
King always delivers! Great book!
Less than I expect from Stephen King. But all King fans will still want to try it.
Stephen Kings usual scary stuff. I liked it but he has written better.
Weird, like the Stephen King we all love!
This was one of those books that started out kinda slow, but once it got going, it was very good. It took me a while to finish it, though, because it just didn't have enough of that King feel to it. A bit alien, a bit supernatural, a bit creepy. Buick Roadmaster sitting in state police barracks shed becomes a portal to another world...? dimension...? Interesting plot, definitely different. Just a bit slow in spots.
This definitely was not one of my favorite King books. The first few hundred pages of this book were definitely not page turners but the last were. The story of the Buick unravels by going between the past and present where I feel the entire book should have been written as a flashback. The length and the drawing out of the story almost made this book unfinishable.
Whilte I LOVE King, the longer the better, this is a shorter read. Good characters, interesting twists.
Typical Stephen King. Can't put it down. He takes that horrible tragedy of when he was hit by a car, and uses that experience to add gorish details to this story. That car is a mystery wrapped in an enigma! Great read, and you Stephen King gentle readers won't be disappointed.
The book's intriguing plot revolves around the troopers of Pennsylvania State Patrol Troop D, who come into possession of what at first appears to be a vintage automobile. Closer inspection and experimentation conducted by the troopers reveal that this car's doors (and trunk) sometimes open to another dimension populated by gross-out creatures straight out of ... well, a Stephen King novel. As the plot progresses, the veteran troopers' tales of these visits from interdimensional nasties, and the occasional "lightquakes" put on by the car, are passed on to the son of a fallen comrade whose fascination with the car bordered on dangerous obsession.
Unlike earlier King works, there is no active threat here; no monster is stalking the heroes of the story, unless you count the characters' own curiosity. In past books, King has terrorized readers with vampires, werewolves, a killer clown, ghosts, and aliens, but this time around, the bogeyman is a more passive, cerebral threat, and one for which they don't make a ready-to-wear Halloween costume--man's fascination with and fear of the unknown. While some readers may find this tale less exciting than the horror master's earlier works, From a Buick 8 is a wonderful example of how much King's plotting skills and literary finesse have matured over his long career. And, most of all, it's a darn creepy book
Unlike earlier King works, there is no active threat here; no monster is stalking the heroes of the story, unless you count the characters' own curiosity. In past books, King has terrorized readers with vampires, werewolves, a killer clown, ghosts, and aliens, but this time around, the bogeyman is a more passive, cerebral threat, and one for which they don't make a ready-to-wear Halloween costume--man's fascination with and fear of the unknown. While some readers may find this tale less exciting than the horror master's earlier works, From a Buick 8 is a wonderful example of how much King's plotting skills and literary finesse have matured over his long career. And, most of all, it's a darn creepy book
A spooky thriller, told through the various characters.
In the secret shed behind the barracks of the Penn state police,troop D, there is a cherry buick roadmaster so one has touched in years-because theres more power under the hood than anyone can handle
"The book's intriguing plot revolves around the troopers of Pennsylvania State Patrol Troop D, who come into possession of what at first appears to be a vintage automobile. Closer inspection and experimentation conducted by the troopers reveal that this car's doors (and trunk) sometimes open to another dimension populated by gross-out creatures straight out of ... well, a Stephen King novel." amazon review
great stephen king book. a must read for stephen fans.
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years - because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle....
Classic King.
I think if you like any of Stephen King's books, you will definetly like this one too. It's about a secret that a police station holds about a Buick.
I hated "Christine", but loved this haunted car!
Not one of his best books. A little boring.
Mint condition.
Very creepy.Makes you wonder what people have hidden away.
Very creepy.Makes you wonder what people have hidden away.
From a Buick 8 is a novel about our fascination with deadly things, about our insistence on answers when there are none, about terror and courage in the face of the unknowable...I really liked this one!
Not the best KING book, but still a good story with crazy things that NO one can explain!
Not my favorite Stephen King, but pretty good. Short enough that I didn't have trouble getting through it.
A novel about our fascination with deadly things, about our insistence on answers when there are none, about terror and courage in the face of the unknowable.
This was the husband's book. He said it was pretty good. Not quite as good as other SK books, but pretty good.
the book is about a strange car from who knows where kinda creepy.
Always a great Stephen King read.
The story was a little blah, but his writting makes up for it
Interesting but a little too out there for my taste. I guess I am not much for SK books.
One of the better novels I've read by him. Horror and aliens mix in King's typical small-town scenario.
It's beginning to feel like King is just pasting together plots from earlier better books. This was really only okay.
From Publishers Weekly
King, we learn in an author\'s note, hashed out the plot of this gripper while driving from western Pennsylvania to New York. The first draft took two months to write. That\'s quick work, and it\'s reflected in the book\'s simplicity of plot and theme; unlike King\'s chewy last novel, Dreamcatcher, this one goes down like a shot of moonshine, hot and clean, much like Cujo, say, or Gerald\'s Game.
In 1979, an odd man drives what at first glance looks like a 1954 mint-quality Buick Roadmaster up to a service station in rural Pennsylvania, then vanishes, leaving behind the car. The state police of Troop D deposit the vehicle in a shed near their barracks, where, up to the present, it remains a secret from all but cop colleagues for the car isn\'t exactly a car; it may be alive, and it certainly serves as a doorway between our world and... what? Another dimension? Another galaxy? The troopers never find out, despite their amateurish scientific investigations of it and of the weird beings that occasionally emerge from the vehicle\'s trunk: freaky fish, creepy flowers and more. Moreover, the \"car\" is dangerous: the day it appears, a state trooper disappears, and experiments over the years with cockroaches, etc., indicate that just as the car can spew things out, it will ingest them.
King, we learn in an author\'s note, hashed out the plot of this gripper while driving from western Pennsylvania to New York. The first draft took two months to write. That\'s quick work, and it\'s reflected in the book\'s simplicity of plot and theme; unlike King\'s chewy last novel, Dreamcatcher, this one goes down like a shot of moonshine, hot and clean, much like Cujo, say, or Gerald\'s Game.
In 1979, an odd man drives what at first glance looks like a 1954 mint-quality Buick Roadmaster up to a service station in rural Pennsylvania, then vanishes, leaving behind the car. The state police of Troop D deposit the vehicle in a shed near their barracks, where, up to the present, it remains a secret from all but cop colleagues for the car isn\'t exactly a car; it may be alive, and it certainly serves as a doorway between our world and... what? Another dimension? Another galaxy? The troopers never find out, despite their amateurish scientific investigations of it and of the weird beings that occasionally emerge from the vehicle\'s trunk: freaky fish, creepy flowers and more. Moreover, the \"car\" is dangerous: the day it appears, a state trooper disappears, and experiments over the years with cockroaches, etc., indicate that just as the car can spew things out, it will ingest them.
This book keeps you glued to the seat fron the first word until the last, typical Stephan King. What is it about that Buick?
this book is not stephen kings best work,i read more than half of it and then quit .
I thought this was a great book. I loved how they let you almost glimpse an alternate reality that is so horrifying you wouldn't want to send your worst enemy there. I thought it was very suspenseful. I couldn't wait to see what the "Buick" was going to throw at them next. The writing is so great I could actually picture myself sitting in the car and hearing it starting to humm.... Great read!
More suspense than gore in this one...enjoyed it a lot.
this book is great and comes with a free poster of the same title.
Classic King!
Not one of King's best but still a good read.
I didnt care for this book at all ,it was boring. I couldnt finish it after i read a 150 pages.
Sit back and be sure to buckle-up as you take a ride in S.King's Buick 8.The ride is as smooth as glass in the Roadmaster,but-uh,there's many turns ahead and don't go white-knuckled when King puts the pedal to the metal - just sit back and enjoy the ride of your life. From a Buick 8 should satisfy all S.King fans who have come to know that King is the master of suspense.Under the hood is a Buick eight, however,it's what's in the trunk that makes this Roadmaster hum!
The state police of Troop D in rural Pennsylvania have kept a secret in Shed B out back of the barracks ever since 1979, when Troopers Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox answered a call from a gas station just down the road and came back with an abandoned Buick Roadmaster. Curt Wilcox knew old cars, and he knew immediately that this one was...wrong, just wrong. A few hours later, when Rafferty vanished, Wilcox and his fellow troopers knew the car was worse than dangerous--and that it would be better if John Q. Public never found out about it.
Hardcover. I was compelled to read the whole thing in just a few days, but this one didn't have the big emotional payoff of most Stephen King books. It left me thinking "eh."
From Publishers Weekly
King, we learn in an author's note, hashed out the plot of this gripper while driving from western Pennsylvania to New York. The first draft took two months to write. That's quick work, and it's reflected in the book's simplicity of plot and theme; unlike King's chewy last novel, Dreamcatcher, this one goes down like a shot of moonshine, hot and clean, much like Cujo, say, or Gerald's Game.
In 1979, an odd man drives what at first glance looks like a 1954 mint-quality Buick Roadmaster up to a service station in rural Pennsylvania, then vanishes, leaving behind the car. The state police of Troop D deposit the vehicle in a shed near their barracks, where, up to the present, it remains a secret from all but cop colleagues for the car isn't exactly a car; it may be alive, and it certainly serves as a doorway between our world and... what? Another dimension? Another galaxy? The troopers never find out, despite their amateurish scientific investigations of it and of the weird beings that occasionally emerge from the vehicle's trunk: freaky fish, creepy flowers and more. Moreover, the "car" is dangerous: the day it appears, a state trooper disappears, and experiments over the years with cockroaches, etc., indicate that just as the car can spew things out, it will ingest them.
While the book's relative brevity and simplicity does lend comparison to earlier King, and King has relied on a nasty car before (Christine), the author's stylistic maturity manifests in his sophisticated handling of the round robin of narrators (both first and third-person), the sharp portrayal of police ways and mores and the novel's compelling subthemes (loyalty, generational bondings) and primary theme: that life is filled with Buick 8s, phenomena that blindside us and that we can never understand. This novel isn't major King, but it's nearly flawless and one terrific entertainment.
From Publishers Weekly
King, we learn in an author's note, hashed out the plot of this gripper while driving from western Pennsylvania to New York. The first draft took two months to write. That's quick work, and it's reflected in the book's simplicity of plot and theme; unlike King's chewy last novel, Dreamcatcher, this one goes down like a shot of moonshine, hot and clean, much like Cujo, say, or Gerald's Game.
In 1979, an odd man drives what at first glance looks like a 1954 mint-quality Buick Roadmaster up to a service station in rural Pennsylvania, then vanishes, leaving behind the car. The state police of Troop D deposit the vehicle in a shed near their barracks, where, up to the present, it remains a secret from all but cop colleagues for the car isn't exactly a car; it may be alive, and it certainly serves as a doorway between our world and... what? Another dimension? Another galaxy? The troopers never find out, despite their amateurish scientific investigations of it and of the weird beings that occasionally emerge from the vehicle's trunk: freaky fish, creepy flowers and more. Moreover, the "car" is dangerous: the day it appears, a state trooper disappears, and experiments over the years with cockroaches, etc., indicate that just as the car can spew things out, it will ingest them.
While the book's relative brevity and simplicity does lend comparison to earlier King, and King has relied on a nasty car before (Christine), the author's stylistic maturity manifests in his sophisticated handling of the round robin of narrators (both first and third-person), the sharp portrayal of police ways and mores and the novel's compelling subthemes (loyalty, generational bondings) and primary theme: that life is filled with Buick 8s, phenomena that blindside us and that we can never understand. This novel isn't major King, but it's nearly flawless and one terrific entertainment.
Only Stephen King can get away with writing TWO books about a possessed car.
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years - because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle...
I couldn't really get into it. Not a fan of the author or the genre.
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years -- because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle . . .
Great book.
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry
Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years - because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle...
Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years - because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle...
An old Buick provides a portal to another world. What comes through is not wanted.
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check out my book reviews at http://www.gilwilson.com
Not as good as "From a Buick 7", but hopefully "From a Buick 9" will make up for it.
As a WANT TO GO FOR A RIDE...? In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched for years-because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle...
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years-because there's more power under te hood than anyone can handle.
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the PA State Police there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years--because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle....vintage King
