From a Buick 8 by Stephen King opens with an abandoned classic car at a gas station. The thing is, once examined, it doesn’t look like an old car at all, more like an approximation of one. Impounded by a group of Pennsylvania State Troopers, the Buick begins to act in very strange ways: emitting bursts of lights, making people vanish, and producing some otherworldly creatures. Told as a story to 18-year-old Ned Wilcox, son of a trooper killed in the line of duty, From a Buick 8 reveals facts about the boy’s father, and the thing that almost surely led to his death.
I really enjoyed this book. A fan of King’s since the beginning, I read all of his books in the ’70s and ’80s, then fell off in the 1990s. Occasionally, I would go back and read some of his books from the late ’90s or 2000s, but didn’t enjoy them nearly as much as his earlier work. From a Buick 8 is the exception. It has to be my favorite book of his from this century.
Suspenseful in parts, but not a horrifyingly scary as some of his other works, like The Shining, this book would be good for people who like tension, but don’t want to be scared out of their pants. I highly recommend From a Buick 8.