After many years of being intellectually illiterate and could not stand to even pick a book up my mate tom1clare who's on ciao together with gildor_inglorion put me through my paces with certain book recommendations, while tom drew my attention towards the Stephen King genre, Phill drew my attention towards Tolkeins masterpiece the hobbit( which still remains my fave. book of all time). I remember going into Smiths and eyeing the lovely new book covers of the new range of Stephen King books I seemed to be hypnotised by the shine of the crisp, bold lettering and the bright seductive colours, I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but if i hadn't I wouldn't be writing a book review hehe. The sweetness of the new published range just had a certain elegance that could not be ignored, I found myself deeply emersed into the plots of the books without even a touch of my finger. The lush feel I got when handling a fresh, new book from the shelf, the sweet papery scent that escaped it's clutches as you flickered through the pages, ahh the hidden delights of books.

I mentioned that the book is loosely based on a true story, well I suppose you could say that. On the way back from Florida King and his wife travelled up towards their Maine home, Stephen King hated to fly so decided to drive. Passing through Pennsylvania he decided to get some gas at a peculiar station that seemed rather deserted. King took a walk around the back while the operator filled his tank, he saw a deep rivine filled with scrap metal junk and old tyres, there was a river below and he slipped and rolled down the steep slope eventually gaining some sort of grip, he climbed back up and drove on. He kept wondering to himself what would've happened if I'd had fallen into the river and got swept downstream what would happen to my car and thus Buick 8 was formed. It was written during a significant time in King's life, he had just finished ' The girl who loved Tom Gordon' and started to write out the plot of another book shortly after. He suffered his tragic accident and later on managed to complete Buick 8, so some points in the book seem like a paralelity to that of King, he intertwining force of both styles seem to blend quite vividly leaving no clear errors.

The main plot of the novel begins with King's experience a peculiar Buick 8 pulls up for gas at a station and the attendant disappears. The car has no engine or any working connected car parts and seems a mystery to all how it could ever run. The state troopers decide to impound the car in a shed named SHED B at their station. The predictability is obvious especially to those who have read King's earlier car novel 'Christine', certain huge paranormal flashes of purple light begin to flash out of the shed on frequent occurrences and after the lightshow a disgusting and vile creature is spat out like a bat with 1 pulsating eye and a swarm of black, slimy insects. Certain members of the Troopers begin to disappear but the plot remains incredibly distant I never felt involved in the plot and the dialogue of the characters lacked energy and interest in many places.