An oh-so-right story about something not-quite-right.
I don't claim to know anything about cars, much less Buicks. The only Buick in my life is Big Blue, and strangely enough, that's been proven indestructible too. Makes you wonder if Stephen King reads Janet Evanovich, huh?

Ok, probably not.

Is, but isn't.
Stephen King's From A Buick 8. It's a story about a car that isn't really a car. It looks like a car, but there are some things about it that just aren't right. It's also a story about Troop D, a Pennsylvania State Trooper detachment. It's the story how the Buick 8 comes to live with Troop D inside Shed B. Solve for X.

This book is not a bad math problem. This book is wonderful. Granted, I think Stephen King is a genius, but there's no one else out there that can suck me into a story (that's an allusion to the book!), lull me into a sense of comfort, and then scare the hell out of me all within one page.

Carrie? Christine? Kerri?
Other King fans are probably wondering if From A Buick 8 is anything like Carrie. My friend Emily says it's not, since she's sure I mean Christine. I haven't read either Carrie or Christine (yet), but my Entertainment Weekly subscription assures me that there's no comparison, other than the presence of the car. This is a very different book from all his others. Like the rest that came before it, this story stands on its own as something unique, some new.

For one, King goes outside his typical locales. The novel is set in rural Pennsylvania in Amish Country. The Amish have nothing to do with the story other than they exist in the world of Troop D. Did I miss Maine? No. Not at all.

From A Buick 8 is a "story within a story" with members of Troop D telling the son of a deceased friend and coworker the story behind the mint-condition, not-quite-right Buick that sits inside Shed B. King's usual story-telling way of hopping from viewpoint to viewpoint of different characters is present, but in From A Buick 8, it flows easily from one character into the next... literally. A chapter with Sandy as first person can end mid-sentence, the rest being picked up in the next chapter by Eddie. And yet as smoothly as it flows, you know someone else is speaking, because each character kept their own sense of self, their own sense of thinking, of speaking, of moving, of existing. Perfection.

Read now of forever hold your peace.
There's really not much more I can say without accidentally spoiling anything. This book is totally worth reading, even if you've never read Stephen King before. In fact, if you haven't ever read his work, start now, because the next couple books that are coming out are the rest of the Dark Tower Series and they won't make any sense to you.

And then that's it. He's done. Retired. No more books for me.

I'll believe it when I see it.

The Skarfe Rating Scale:

* = I didn't even bother to finish it
** = I tried to get into it and couldn't
*** = I can't believe I finished it and I'm so depressed that I did
**** = Not bad, pretty good, nice potential
***** = Good, enjoyed it, will look for other books by this author
****** = Great book! What fun! Would recommend to friends
******* = Loved it! It was so good I read it twice because I didn't want it to end so soon!

My final review for Stephen King's From A Buick 8: ******
(It would've gotten the highest rating if I wasn't too scared to read it again so soon!)

Content: *******
Style: *******

The probability that I'll read his next book? 1000000000% Dark Tower, here I come!!