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Firestarter

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 73,772 ratings · 808 reviews

First, a man and a woman are subjects of a top-secret government experiment designed to produce extraordinary psychic powers.

Then, they are married and have a child. A daughter.

Early on the daughter shows signs of a wild and horrifying force growing within her. Desperately, her parents try to train her to keep that force in check, to "act normal."

Now the government wants i...more

Paperback, 404 pages

Published by Signet (first published 1980)

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Mar 26, 2010 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sk-group

This may very well be one of the earliest subtle horror stories from King. That said, this one wasn't a scare-fest out to make the reader piss himself/herself like many of his early works.

But here the terror is perhaps worse. In this novel, the "monsters" are normal human beings that work for the US government. Agents of The Shop earn a paycheck from the legitimate government to keep America "safe". They just might be scarier than Cujo, Barlow, Pennywise, Annie Wilkes, Tak, and the Crimson King...more This may very well be one of the earliest subtle horror stories from King. That said, this one wasn't a scare-fest out to make the reader piss himself/herself like many of his early works.

But here the terror is perhaps worse. In this novel, the "monsters" are normal human beings that work for the US government. Agents of The Shop earn a paycheck from the legitimate government to keep America "safe". They just might be scarier than Cujo, Barlow, Pennywise, Annie Wilkes, Tak, and the Crimson King (though they might actually be unwitting agents of that one).

The reason for that is that they're so realistic. This COULD happen. The powers exhibited by Charlie McGee and her father are telepathic/telekinetic, and set in the realm of science fiction. But at the same time, their existence here is plausibly explained. And if it DID happen, who would want to bey that some government agency or another wouldn't react much as The Shop did in this novel?

But the novel is well written, and a great case in character study. Charlie has a terrifying power, but is such a sweet and charming girl. The reader can't help but love her and want to set fire ourselves to all the mean Shop agents that just won't let her be. But on the flipside of that is the principal villain of the story, John Rainbird. This might be the first King baddie where we get to see inside his head as well and understand what makes him tick. He is charming in his own way just as much as Charlie. He's sincere in his albeit twisted love for her, and that makes him all the more intimidating. Not only that, but his instincts are seriously hardcore. A fly couldn't fart without this guy catching scent of it.

Firestarter was one of the first group of King books I ever read. Back then, it was the ONLY group of King books. This was before anyone knew who Richard Bachman was, before Drew Barrymore had been cast as Charlie in the film version (though she had already done E.T. by this time). I hadn't re-read it until recently, and it was certainly a joy to become reacquainted with Charlie, Rainbird, Andy, Orville and Norville, and old Cap. Even Cap's friggin' snakes and pretty little Pynchot.
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Sep 14, 2010 Miss Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: king-stephen, horror-or-mystery, 2010, keeper

It all started with twelve broke college students. Andy’s friend told him about a drug trail at the university that was paying each participant $200. Thinking ‘easy cash’, Andy goes for it. He ends up spending an undetermined amount of time there and is given the drug which also contains some kind of hallucinogenic. He also meets the woman that would later become his wife, Victoria, and during the trial, they both realize they can communicate with out speaking. After it was over, both were unsur...more It all started with twelve broke college students. Andy’s friend told him about a drug trail at the university that was paying each participant $200. Thinking ‘easy cash’, Andy goes for it. He ends up spending an undetermined amount of time there and is given the drug which also contains some kind of hallucinogenic. He also meets the woman that would later become his wife, Victoria, and during the trial, they both realize they can communicate with out speaking. After it was over, both were unsure exactly what was real, and what wasn’t. Not long after, Andy and Victoria discover they both have certain psi abilities that they didn’t have before this experiment. Andy is capable of ‘mental dominance’, or has The Push, as he calls it. Victoria has a very minor ability to move things with her mind, but she refuses to acknowledge this fact. They have a little girl, Charlie, a few years later and it isn’t long before she shows her own abilities. She has pyrokinesis—she lights fire with her mind. Things would just catch fire if her bottle was late, if she wasn’t happy, etc. Through her baby and toddler years, they were always putting out fires, yet neither ever talked about Charlie’s ability. They just put them out and never spoke of. I don’t think they wanted to admit to themselves that she may be some kind of ‘mutant’—a result of the drug.
They do not know they are being watched by The Shop. The Shop is a hidden gov’t organization that conducted the drug experiments in hopes of creating a person that would be used as a weapon for war. Mental Dominants, Telekenetics, Pyrotechnics, etc. Andy and Victoria had no idea this was the case. Andy learns down the road that there are only 4 of the twelve participants left, including he and his wife. All of the others had been driven to some sort of insanity or suicide, or other horrible death. Now the Shop has wind that they’ve produced a child, and wouldn’t thy certainly be interested in what that child can do? Andy comes home from work to find his wife murdered and Charlie gone. This day begins a nearly two year long life on the run.

Firestarter is one of King’s earlier works, and one of his best, in my opinion. This one starts out a fast pace, has a lull in the middle, and the last 100 pages are so good, that I couldn’t put it down for anything. Charlie’s power and the control, or lack of control that she has of it was amazing to me. I recommend to all fans of thrillers, horror, and certainly King fans will love it.
Despite the rather sad ending, it is a very good book.(less)

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Oct 15, 2012 Robyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: page-turner, reviewed, old-faves

When I was in my late teens, a friend of mine asked me to recommend to them a SK novel. I had read quite a few at that point, but decided to lend her my old beat-to-hell copy of Firestarter. I was sure she would love it. She returned it a month later. "He starts this book describing this, like, airport? It just goes on and on for pages and pages. I couldn't get into it."

My reaction? "Huh, I never noticed that before." I still don't notice it. I pick this up occasionally, to skim through and try...more When I was in my late teens, a friend of mine asked me to recommend to them a SK novel. I had read quite a few at that point, but decided to lend her my old beat-to-hell copy of Firestarter. I was sure she would love it. She returned it a month later. "He starts this book describing this, like, airport? It just goes on and on for pages and pages. I couldn't get into it."

My reaction? "Huh, I never noticed that before." I still don't notice it. I pick this up occasionally, to skim through and try to see what put her off so badly, but every time I get sucked in and read half the book, forgetting why I even started. It's a testament to my friend's otherwise sterling qualities that despite her rejection of this book, and (at the time) her disregard of the Nine Inch Nails album, Broken that I still speak to her.

This is the part where I put in my Stephen King disclaimer: I am a Stephen King fan, and he has to royally screw up a story before I give it a bad review. In my opinion, he didn't royally screw up this one, it's one of his best.

When I first read this, I was barely older than Charlie was at the end of the book, and I remember that her character really made a lot of sense to me, that I would have done pretty much everything she did, had I been in her place. I remembered liking and wanting to trust John Rainbird, even though I knew full well what he was up to, I remember having my heartstrings pulled at her feelings for her father, her love of horses, her guilt at what her terrible power could do. As a little girl, I identified with Charlie, and it wasn't until I was much older that it occurred to me to be surprised how comfortable King was in a little girl's skin.

I found this book to be a poignant coming of age story, mixed with two of my favorite tropes: super-powered children, and evil government conspiracies. I found myself fascinated time and again, enjoying the journey each time I read it. If you're a King fan, this is a must-read, and if you aren't this is, airport description aside, a good place to start.(less)

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Aug 19, 2012 Jane Stewart rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-suspense-thriller

3 ½ stars. Suspenseful, engaging, good creativity. But the story stopped too soon, not enough at the end.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
There were some really good parts. I was enjoying this until the end, when I was disappointed that something bad happened to a good guy. I was happy for another good guy, but it could have been better. (Question to author: What is wrong with happy endings?) Technically this was happy, but not happy enough.

I feel like the author grew tired and stopped too soon. There could h...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Stefanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story begins with a man and his 7 year old daughter running from persons yet unknown. Through flashbacks, we learn who is chasing them and why.

When Andy McGee (the above-mentioned man) was in college, he joined in an experiment to make a quick two hundred dollars. This experiment was run by the government and injected into 12 students a “light hallucinatory” substance labeled Lot Six. During the experiment, Andy meets another student, Vicki Tomlinson who later becomes Vicki McGee. Of the tw...more The story begins with a man and his 7 year old daughter running from persons yet unknown. Through flashbacks, we learn who is chasing them and why.

When Andy McGee (the above-mentioned man) was in college, he joined in an experiment to make a quick two hundred dollars. This experiment was run by the government and injected into 12 students a “light hallucinatory” substance labeled Lot Six. During the experiment, Andy meets another student, Vicki Tomlinson who later becomes Vicki McGee. Of the twelve original subjects, only three live much past ten years after the original experiment. One we never learn much about; Andy we know has an ability to “push” people… or mental domination… though not without serious pain and trauma to himself; and Vicki possesses a very small ability to do things such as shutting a door from across a room. When Andy and Vicki have a baby daughter, the government is very interested to see if the Lot Six experiment has any effect on her. And here we have the star of the novel, the title character, the Firestarter. Charlene “Charlie” McGee, the daughter of Vicki and Andy, shows unusual powers from infancy.

Though she appears to have a limited ability to do things that both her mother and father can do, the government is more interested in her ability to start fires effortlessly with just a thought. When Charlie was an infant, right about the time the government branch responsible for Lot Six (“The Shop”) began tapping their house, Andy and Vicki had to begin instilling a fear of her “gift” in her. One day when Charlie was seven, and spending the night at a friend’s house, the Shop got scared that she was gone and moved in to take her themselves. They killed Vicki, and kidnapped Charlie. Using his Lot Six enhances abilities, Andy was able to retrieve Charlie and seriously hurt the men who abducted her.

After a very explosive (pun definitely intended) showdown between the Shop agents and Charlie, Andy and Charlie go into hiding, though they are never long out of the watch of the Shop. Eventually, the Shop, with the aid of an eccentric and cold Indian named Rainbird, moves in on them and abducts them both, separating them from each other. While Andy seems to have pushed himself too far, and shows no signs of retaining any of his mental domination abilities, Charlie is a far different story.

The ending is a wonderful climax of all the events that bring the reader that far, much like I find most of King’s endings.

Even in Stephen King’s earliest work (Firestarter being only his sixth novel), the writing style that has made me a self proclaimed Stephen King fanatic is evident. He writes a colorful and descriptive version of his story, often interjecting the thoughts of his characters. Sometimes his descriptions of place and character are much too vivid, more so than any movie can portray and my husband will ask my why I’m groaning and reading with my eyes half closed (the equivalent to watching a movie from behind the slits in my fingers).

Yes. I recommend Firestarter. For anyone who has been turned off by King’s later works, this is him at his best. It is a wonderful story with believable characters. It makes the reader stop and wonder if the government is really this powerful and corrupt.

Review originally published at http://www.epinions.com/review/Firest...
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May 10, 2012 Stefan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I read this one the first time in junior high, I distinctly remember not being able to finish it. After re-reading it, I have absolutely no idea why. King has put together a moving, engaging story with characters that you care about and some very well-written antagonists.

If you don't know already, the story is basically about a couple who participated in a research project in college where they were injected with drugs that produced some psychic powers, these drugs have had some residual ef...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: King fans

Recommended to Erik by: James Koehnline

Shelves: sf

After reading The Stand and getting a sense of why King was so immensely popular in the eighties, I borrowed my roommate's copy of Firestarter, then The Shining, then Pet Sematary. I definitely liked Firestarter the most.

The reason I liked Firestarter--and the movie based, somewhat raggedly, upon it--was because it contained several elements of interest to me: LSD, CIA, MK-ULTRA and wholesome family values. I'm a sucker for family values--or at least for my peculiar take on what would constitute...more

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Mar 13, 2009 Nikki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction

I really liked Firestarter. It's not a plot I've read Stephen King doing before (yet, anyway), although I suppose there's shades of Carrie. It's more science fiction/thriller than horror, definitely.

It's much denser than the books I've been reading lately by King -- Cell and From A Buick 8. More description, more stopping and starting, a longer time frame. It worked, for me, I got caught up in the story, I didn't want to put the book down, I got close to the characters and worried about them. Or...more

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Nov 24, 2007 Monk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

This is one of Stephen King's rare forays into science fiction. Though just about every bookstore will lump it into the horror section, this book doesn't belong there.

It's the story about a man and a woman who were involved in a round of clinical experiments when they went to college. The drug they took was not only a hallucinogenic - it induced psychic abilities on the participants, however, it drove most of them nuts or killed them outright. Escaping this gruesome fate, as well as the governme...more

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Sep 19, 2010 wally rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: king

i'll say this--because i suspect, errr, i know...that if i don't, i'll be accused of some kind of blind love and acceptance of all things s.k. the man is a great story-teller and i enjoyed this one the first time through as much as the others.

but on a subsequent read, i took note of the way in one chapter a character describes what a certain type of personality would be like....i think it was a uppy-yuck character, a big head, one in the know...describing what charley should be, would be....if.....more

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Dec 03, 2011 Anne Nikoline rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Strong fans of Stephen King

Recommended to Anne Nikoline by: No one

Shelves: horror-fiction, mystery, adult-ilterature, read-in-2011

The story begins with a man and his little daughter running from persons yet unknown. Through flashbacks, we learn who is chasing them and what their motives are. The little girl, Charlie, has supernatural powers because of a secret government experiment based on her parents.

Overall Firestarter by Stephen King sounds like a really promising mystery novel with a supernatural twist which the author is so well known for. To begin with my eyes were glued to the pages and I felt a strong need to rat...more

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May 26, 2010 Dustin Crazy little brown owl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: group-reads, read-in-2010, amazing

Exploding Chickens! I thoroughly enjoyed this book :-) This is my favorite Stephen King book so far. If you like Firestarter try By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz. If you like By The Light of the Moon, try Firestarter :-) Other Koontz similarities with the sci-fi and/or conspiracy element bring to mind False Memory and Sole Survivor. Firestarter was chosen as the March 2010 monthly group read in the Stephen King Fans group, but the audiobook on CD wasn't released until April 1st, so I was...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Nikolai G rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading “Firestarter” by Stephen King. To start this off let me give you a small summary of what all happened in the book. The book is about two people a father and daughter, the father is Andy McGee who is in his thirties and his daughter Charlie Mcgee who is 8 and they have psychic powers. Andy has the ability to give people a slight mental push to do things that he tells them to do but suffers from headaches afterwards. His daughter Charlie has the ability to start fires with her mi...more I enjoyed reading “Firestarter” by Stephen King. To start this off let me give you a small summary of what all happened in the book. The book is about two people a father and daughter, the father is Andy McGee who is in his thirties and his daughter Charlie Mcgee who is 8 and they have psychic powers. Andy has the ability to give people a slight mental push to do things that he tells them to do but suffers from headaches afterwards. His daughter Charlie has the ability to start fires with her mind with no affect to her. They are being chased by a secret government agency called the shop because of the abilities that they have. They run for quite some time but are eventually caught and taken prisoner at the shops main facility. Andy begins to plan an escape and it is almost pulled off but he gets killed in front of Charlie which causes her to go on a emotional rampage killing some people and destroying the shop facility by engulfing it with fire. The book ends with Charlie at the Rolling stones magazine about to reveal her power to the world and what the government has done to her because of it.

In this book I enjoyed how the author Stephen King gives you the details on each event that didn't happen in the main story but still had a meaning in the main story like how his wife died and how they came to have these abilities and how too much use of his power on a person can cause them to go crazy. I also like how this book gave you the point of view from all the main characters right at the time that it was needed and you wanted to know what was going on their head. One thing that hindered this book was the fact that he didn't give much detail to the characters for example in the beginning it only described Andy as a short broad shouldered man and Charlie as a young girl wearing a red blouse and green pants. The books attention to detail also causes problems as that the story moves slower and gets uninteresting.

My overall rating for this book is a 4.5 out of 5 because the book was great but it was very slow moving at some parts, but that is the only part that bothered me and made me lose interest. In all I would suggest this book to anyone who likes books with somewhat happy endings.
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Jan 25, 2013 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Andy and Charlene "Charlie" McGee are a father-daughter pair on the run from a government agency known as The Shop, located in the fictional D.C. suburb of Longmont, Virginia. During his college years, Andy had participated in a Shop experiment dealing with "Lot 6", a drug with hallucinogenic effects similar to LSD. The drug gave his future wife, Victoria Tomlinson, minor telepathic abilities, and him an autohypnotic mind domination ability he refers to as "the push". Both his and Vicky's powers...more Andy and Charlene "Charlie" McGee are a father-daughter pair on the run from a government agency known as The Shop, located in the fictional D.C. suburb of Longmont, Virginia. During his college years, Andy had participated in a Shop experiment dealing with "Lot 6", a drug with hallucinogenic effects similar to LSD. The drug gave his future wife, Victoria Tomlinson, minor telepathic abilities, and him an autohypnotic mind domination ability he refers to as "the push". Both his and Vicky's powers are physiologically limited; in his case, overuse of the Push gives him crippling migraine headaches and minute brain hemorrhages, but their daughter Charlie developed a frightening pyrokinetic ability, with the full extent of her power unknown. The novel begins in medias res with Charlie and Andy on the run from Shop agents in New York City. We learn through a combination of flashbacks and current narration that this is the latest in a series of attempts by the Shop to capture Andy and Charlie following an initial disastrous raid on the McGee family's quiet life in suburban Ohio. After years of Shop surveillance, a botched operation to take Charlie leaves her mother dead; Andy, receiving a psychic flash while having lunch with work colleagues, rushes home to discover his wife murdered and his daughter kidnapped. He then uses his push ability to track the slightly-cold trail of Charlie and the Shop agents, catching up to them at a rest stop on the Interstate. He uses the push to incapacitate the Shop agents, leaving one blind and the other comatose. Charlie and Andy flee and begin a life of running and hiding, using assumed identities. They move several times to avoid discovery before the Shop catches up to them in New York.

Using a combination of the push, Charlie's power, and hitchhiking, the pair escape through Albany, New York and are taken in by a farmer named Irv Manders near Hastings, New York; however, they are tracked down by Shop agents, who attempt to kill Andy and take Charlie at the Manders farm. At Andy's instruction, Charlie unleashes her power, incinerating the entire farm and fending off the agents, killing a few of them. With nowhere else to turn, the pair flees to Vermont and take refuge in a cabin that had once belonged to Andy's grandfather.

With the Manders farm operation disastrously botched, the director of the Shop, Captain James Hollister, or "Cap", calls in a Shop hitman named John Rainbird to capture the fugitives. Rainbird, a Cherokee and Vietnam veteran, is intrigued by Charlie's power and eventually becomes obsessed with her, determined to befriend her and eventually kill her. This time the operation is successful, and both Andy and Charlie are taken by the Shop.

The pair is separated and imprisoned at the Shop headquarters. With his spirit broken, Andy becomes an overweight drug addict and seemingly loses his power, and is eventually deemed useless by the Shop. Charlie, however, defiantly refuses to cooperate with the Shop, and does not demonstrate her power for them. Six months pass until a power failure provides a turning point for the two: Andy, sick with fear and self-pity, somehow regains the push - subconsciously pushing himself to overcome his addiction - and Rainbird, masquerading as a simple janitor, befriends Charlie and gains her trust.

By pretending to still be powerless and addicted, Andy manages to gain crucial information by pushing his psychiatrist. Under Rainbird's guidance, Charlie begins to demonstrate her power, which has grown to fearsome levels. After the suicide of his psychiatrist, Andy is able to meet and push Cap, using him to plan his and Charlie's escape from the facility, as well as finally communicating with Charlie. Rainbird discovers Andy's plan, however, and decides to use it to his advantage.

Andy's plan succeeds, and he and Charlie are reunited for the first time in six months. Rainbird then interrupts the meeting at a barn, planning to kill them both. A crucial distraction is provided by Cap, who is losing his mind from a side effect of being pushed. Andy pushes Rainbird into leaping from the upper level of the barn, breaking his leg. Rainbird then shoots Andy in the head. Rainbird then fires another shot at Charlie, but she uses her power to melt the bullet in midair and then sets Rainbird and Cap on fire. A mortally wounded Andy then instructs Charlie to take revenge with her power and inform the public, to make sure the government cannot do anything like this ever again, and dies. A grief-stricken and furious Charlie then sets the barn on fire. She exits the barn and people start going after her. She uses her pyrokinesis to kill the employees and blow up their getaway vehicles. People try to flee and some do. Military men are called, but Charlie blows up their vehicles and when they fire at her she melts their bullets. Charlie blows up the building, shooting it sky-high. She leaves the Longmont facility burning, with almost all of its workers dead.

The event is covered up by the government, and released to the papers as a terrorist firebomb attack. The Shop quickly reforms, under new leadership, and begins a manhunt for Charlie, who has returned to the Manders farm. After some deliberation, she comes up with a plan and leaves the Manders', just ahead of Shop operatives, and heads to New York City. She decides on Rolling Stone magazine as an unbiased, honest media source with no ties to the government, and the book ends as she arrives to tell them her story.
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Dec 05, 2012 Nicola rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reason for Reading: I am re/reading King's works in chronological order. This was the next one in line.

I came to this book with no great excitement as memory of it was fairly clear. I was 12 or 13 when I read it and don't remember it having any special effect on me, except that I did fairly enjoy it. I have since, of course, seen the movie, and think this drastically affected my re-read. I don't really remember the movie much except for the big fire scenes, the girls hair standing out on end as...more Reason for Reading: I am re/reading King's works in chronological order. This was the next one in line.

I came to this book with no great excitement as memory of it was fairly clear. I was 12 or 13 when I read it and don't remember it having any special effect on me, except that I did fairly enjoy it. I have since, of course, seen the movie, and think this drastically affected my re-read. I don't really remember the movie much except for the big fire scenes, the girls hair standing out on end as if charged with electricity and the simple fact that the little girl, Charlie, was 9yo Drew Barrymore. As soon as Charlie is introduced on page one, I had an image of Drew Barrymore in my head that would not let go, and when characters spoke of what a pretty woman Charlie would grow up to be, I immediately thought yes, she has grown up to be a beautiful woman and the current Drew Barrymore's image would enter my head. I couldn't separate the two. This is only from seeing the movie once in my life in 1984, when it originally came out. So this did affect my reading.

Also, this book just doesn't live up to what King has written so far up to this point. It certainly wasn't scary or even thrilling. A father and daughter on the run from a government agency "The Shop", for almost half of the book was not exactly exciting. I can't say I took any particular liking to Andy McGee either. His choices didn't seem logical to me. After they are caught, the secret government agency stuff is intriguing but something that has been done a lot by this time (2012) and just didn't have me thrilled. Mildly entertaining, at the most. John Rainbird, is supposed to be an evil terrifying character but I also couldn't get an image of him in my mind. Native actor Tom Jackson kept popping into my mind as an image of the character but he's too nice to play such evil and I couldn't remember who played him in the movie. Now I've just looked it up on imdb and found out that George C. Scott played the Indian! (yikes! no wonder I couldn't get a clear picture!) It took me a week to read this book, and by my reading standards that is incredibly slow. The story is ok, but nothing more. I'd say this is King's first low point in his career after the steady climb of his first five excellent novels (under his own name.)
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Oct 16, 2012 David Agranoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 80-s-horror-novel

How have i never read this before? I have been a huge consumer of King since I was in middle school in the late 80's. Somehow, I missed this one, although I have seen the movie more than once, and when I saw this at the library I decided I needed to fill the camp. It is a worthy experience to go back and re-live this gem from King's back catalog when he was at the top of his powers.

I think of Firestarter as a companion to the Dead Zone which I consider to be one of King's very best. I was surpr...more

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Aug 02, 2012 David Sarkies rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

This book is a good example of why I like a lot of Stephen King's earlier books, while it deals with horror-like themes we are not dealing with hordes of zombies or vampires plotting to take over the world but rather with an extra-ordinary girl who is on the run from government forces. Most of the horror movies that I have seen, or the ones that like to have the moniker of horror, deal with a supernatural creature who pursues the mundane, however King turns this concept on its head by having th...more This book is a good example of why I like a lot of Stephen King's earlier books, while it deals with horror-like themes we are not dealing with hordes of zombies or vampires plotting to take over the world but rather with an extra-ordinary girl who is on the run from government forces. Most of the horror movies that I have seen, or the ones that like to have the moniker of horror, deal with a supernatural creature who pursues the mundane, however King turns this concept on its head by having the supernatural creature running from the mundanes. This is a similar thing that we have seen previously in Carrie, and once again we see it here. It is a shame that in some of his later books (such as Dreamcatcher) he returns to the old school big bad monster chasing poor innocent humans.
The story revolves around a girl and her father and the girl has the power of pyrokenisis, which is being able to set fire to things with her mind. The government agency that she is on the run from is an organisation created by King called The Shop. The Shop plays a major role in this book as the antagonist, however they are also briefly mentioned in 'The Lawnmower Man' though they tend to stay in the background (the Lawnmower Man also runs on a similar theme, though the protagonist becomes the antagonist at the end of the film). The particular interest that the Shop has is in people with supernatural powers, and they have a desire to catch them and to put these powers to their own use, obviously to advance the interests not only of the government but also their own agenda as well.
I guess the horror of this story involves the fear of being alone where everywhere you turn there is hostility, and because this hostility permeates everywhere there is really nowhere to run and nowhere to hide because sooner or later your pursuers are going to catch up with you. This is something that comes out in a lot of fantasy and adventure novels (and movies) that I have read, however the way King creates this turns it from being an adventure to being horrific. Many of us really don't know what it is like to be pursued, not because you have done something wrong, the antagonists in this book are innocent, but because you have something that they want and they will not give up until they have what they want.
I can't remember how this story ends, though with Stephen King you can never actually be sure. Carrie did not end well for Carrie, but then again by the end of the book she had lost control and was destroying everything in sight. I don't think Christine ended well for Archie either because by the end of the book he had become so dominated and controlled by the car that he was little more than a shadow of his former self. In both of those books we are dealing with teenagers coming to grips with adulthood and failing, however here our protagonists are on the run. There is no community, no friends that they have built around themselves. They have only each other their pursuers. I don't think the story ends well for them either, but one thing that I do know is that it didn't end well for The Shop either.
I guess the other idea is that the protagonists never actually came to be able to use their power in a positive sense. Carrie didn't namely because she ended up destroying the town in which she lived. Charlie (the firestarter in this book) begins as a child, and as we learn, is setting things on fire whenever she doesn't get her own way. As it turns out her parents know about the ability, and the main reason is because they have powers themselves, but these powers are not natural, they were created through experiements with drugs that they earned a measly $200.00 to perform. A sense of greed and power seem to permeate through this story, with the shop experimenting on ignorant people hungry for a little extra money in their pocket, and in doing so ruin the life of an innocent girl. I say ruin because she had no choice to become a pyrokenetic, and in doing so she now becomes hunted by the people who initially experimented on her father. Further, because the experiment worked on Charlie and her father, they have in effect given up their freedom. They are on the run from a organisation who seeks to use their for their own nefarious purposes.(less)

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Jan 13, 2011 Austin James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Firestarter, by Stephen King is a tightly plotted thriller that is hard to put down. It is about a secret government agency, called The Shop, a father with the mental ability to "push" people into doing what he wants, and his daughter, who has the gift or curse of pyrokinesis.

This isn't the first time King has dealt with telekinesis. His first book, Carrie, also used telekinesis as a plot device. But it did so through the prism of high school adolescence. Firestarter takes a different approach....more

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Jul 09, 2009 Sarai rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction, horror, sci-fi

By Will Culp "Livin' After Midnite, Rocking Till... from Amazon
While the novel revolves around pyrokenesis, it also describes the secrecy and greed of the government, and how they manipulate their citizens to satisfy their own needs. Charlie McGee, an innocent little 7 year old, has a terrible secret. In the flick of an eye, she can start fires, and she is oftentimes unable to stop them. Because of Charlie's inhuman abilities, The Shop(an elite branch of the CIA), constantly pursues Charlie and...more

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Dec 16, 2011 01jonathanb rated it 5 of 5 stars

Firestarter, in my opinion, was one of the best books I have ever read. Stephen King did an amazing job of writing one of the best syfy books ever. In all honesty, there really wasn't any part of the book that was bad. However, I did find a couple of spelling errors and some parts of the book were not as exciting as others, but that only makes u want to read more. The best part of the book is when The Shop trys to capture Andy and Charlie on the farm and Charlie starts getting angry and sets the...more

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Dec 04, 2008 Odin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un début qui démarre super bien avec une action omniprésente, une course poursuite qui n'est pas sans rappelé celle de "Running man", sauf que là ou "Running Man" continue, Charlie s'arrête !

Seconde partie du livre très très endormante sur une durée de près de 250 pages ! L'histoire stagne, plus d'action, une histoire qui se developpe peut être trop mais une histoire immobile. Les personnages restent dans le même lieu, le cycle se met en place avant de se répéter durant toute cette partie.

Derniè...more

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Dec 12, 2010 eric Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

First, allow me to complain bitterly that the cover for this one on Goodreads absolutely does not match the copy I am holding, which is the Stephen King Collector's edition published by Plume in 1994. I even tried searching by ISBN. Why people sell these things to McKay is beyond me.

Complaints aside, I'm having much fun revisiting early Stephen King. I'm still trying to decide where to draw the line between "early" and "recent." The man published Carrie in 1974. By the time I was born in 84, he...more

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Nov 02, 2010 ♥Xeni♥ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: author-stephen-king, thriller, paranormal, psychology, drugs, fiction, horror, favorites, own

This is one of my most favorite King novels, primarily because it deals with such inexplicable things like telekinesis and pyrokinesis.

The story seems plausible to me, seeing as what we have since been let to know about government projects like MK Ultra and the Project Dragonfly. (Although, in those cases the aim wasn't so much supernatural powers as much as mind control, brainwashing and creating multiple compartmentalizing personalities).

Also, Charlie is a protagonist that I felt I wanted to...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Anastasia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporanei, usa, alphabet-challenge-2013

Sarà pure un pargoletto di serie b rispetto alla hall of fame di King, ma a me questo thriller è piaciuto comunque.
Certo, alcune parti della trama sono all'insegna del sentito e risentito: i soliti malcapitati che per soldi si sottopongono a esperimenti di cui si sa poco e acquisiscono poteri paranormali, forse l'aggiunta sta nel fatto che due delle cavie si innamorano e si sposano e danno origine a un combo chiamato Charlene McGee, la famosa incendiaria che la Bottega - specie di associazione...more Sarà pure un pargoletto di serie b rispetto alla hall of fame di King, ma a me questo thriller è piaciuto comunque.
Certo, alcune parti della trama sono all'insegna del sentito e risentito: i soliti malcapitati che per soldi si sottopongono a esperimenti di cui si sa poco e acquisiscono poteri paranormali, forse l'aggiunta sta nel fatto che due delle cavie si innamorano e si sposano e danno origine a un combo chiamato Charlene McGee, la famosa incendiaria che la Bottega - specie di associazione governativa e potenziamente criminale? - segue in giro per gli Stati Uniti per asservirla ai propri scopi. Dopotutto una bambina che sa creare fuochi dal nulla e ha poteri smisurati nelle proprie manine è sempre molto utile. E così è un po' una caccia alla preda e uno sfuggire al cacciatore da parte del padre Andrew e della sua adorata figlioletta.
E bisogna anche far presente che non tutte le parti della storia incitano proprio a tenere gli occhi incollati sulle pagine, ha i suoi alti e bassi; però caspita se migliore nell'ultima parte, me la sono spazzata tutta in un giorno. Però non si può ignorare che sì, certi "passaggi" non sono un intrattenimento deluxe. (cosa?!) Tutta la parte su ciò che è successo nel passato e che ha dato inizio a questa specie di persecuzione è un tantino tediosa, ma tutto ciò che riguarda l'immediato presente è davvero accalappiante.
E poi forse gran parte del mio coinvolgimento sta in questi due poveri cristi, Charlie e il papà Andy, e di nuovo la capacità di King di tracciare delle personalità a cui affezionarsi nel giro di poco tempo - che bambina tosta Charlie, alla faccia! - e di nuovo i rapporti familiari così stretti che avevo già provato in Shining si riconfermano, ancora di più dei singoli personaggi mi è piaciuto il rapporto d'affetto saldo fra la nostra piccola incendiaria e suo padre.
Niente da fare, questa piccola forza della natura mi ha conquistata e ho fatto il tifo per lei e ho sofferto con lei e per lei.
E io apprezzo tanto questa capacità di King di farmi sempre sentire così vicina ai suoi personaggi (forse questo non è successo davvero con Misery, motivo per cui quello si becca tre stelline e questo, che dovrebbe essergli inferiore, se ne becca quattro; è solo una cosa soggettiva in questo caso), quindi al diavolo le imperfezioni della trama, a me è piaciuto molto lo stesso. (less)

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Jan 07, 2013 Matthew Hagen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 15, 2012 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: stephen-king

Surprised. Parts of it weren't very strong, including the ending. Yet it had so much going for it and it all came to a blazing showdown in the end. It certainly isn't one of King's best and it definitely comes from his weak period (most of the stuff from the 80's that isn't "IT" or a Dark Tower book). Nonetheless it was a very good, fun read. Even if it wasn't great literature.

One thing that sets "Firestarter" apart is the subtle brand of horror that actually was very terrifying for me, personal...more Surprised. Parts of it weren't very strong, including the ending. Yet it had so much going for it and it all came to a blazing showdown in the end. It certainly isn't one of King's best and it definitely comes from his weak period (most of the stuff from the 80's that isn't "IT" or a Dark Tower book). Nonetheless it was a very good, fun read. Even if it wasn't great literature.

One thing that sets "Firestarter" apart is the subtle brand of horror that actually was very terrifying for me, personally. I kept imagining myself as Andy McGee running all over the place with my little girl, running from a government that sees us not as people but as assets or science experiments. It was a nice change-up from the King of horror. I also found Rainbird quite compelling, even though there was very little information given about him. He seemed realer than a lot of villains in horror stories, more human. I actually could ID with him here and there, though of course I am not a sociopathic hitman with a death wish. That's one of the main things that I think separates 'real' fiction writing from just run of the mill fiction. In most fiction the bad guy is easy to put your finger on and he/she doesn't seem human at all. In reality there are very, very few bad guys like that.

I also got the sense that King was subtly talking about faith and spirituality here and there, but it could be my biases coming out. For example, I get the idea that Andy and Charlie are religious in a very understated way. Andy clearly has at least a working understanding of the New Testament, Charlie had attended VBS (apparently with her parents' blessing), and Andy also disdains fundamentalist televangelism...also he seems to really pray when he's in a pinch at least once, as well as having true 'visions' in the form of at least one dream (maybe due to his psychic ability, though maybe not...he could see what people were thinking if he was pushing them, but he was never described as a telepath). There are also several unexplained 'Deus ex machina' moments...a flat tire on a government vehicle that allows them to escape detection is the clearest one that comes to mind. Of course, as pointed out by David Foster Wallace, King is one of the only writers ('literary' or 'popular') who actually talks about God in a non-dogmatic, really searching way. See "The Stand" and "Desperation" as great examples. At the same time he is clearly and forcefully disdainful of fundamentalist belief systems of all types. I'm not saying I presume to know what King believes in any way (or whether he practices any faith or none), I'm just speaking from his writing: God is sometimes a character there.(less)

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Feb 09, 2011 Jamie Lott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Stephen King's Firestarter is a departure from the usual genre of his older works, but a retread of his older ideas. King once again delves into the lives of psychics, much as he did with Carrie, though the frantic mother-daughter relationship of his former novel is replaced with a father-daughter grouping with a greater sense of emotional stability. While this pertains more to dramatic science fiction than horror, the state which the characters are thrust into isn't any less terrifying. Charlie...more

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Mar 13, 2009 Sarah Key rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-or-before

This is, hands down, my favorite Stephen King novel. Not just out of his few science fiction novels, but out of his entire collection. Hopefully, one day I will see the 1984 film they made of this book.

The main character, Charlie, is a young girl with pyrokinesis- the ability to start fires with her mind. She was born with ability because both of her parents had went into a program in their younger years and their chromosomes altered by a substance called Lot Six.

Charlie's father (Andy) lives th...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Christopher rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was pretty good. I enjoyed how it just jumped right into the middle of the Shop chasing Charlie and her dad without any explanation of why. Then King uses flashbacks from the dads point of view to show what lead up to their current predicament.

Back in the day Andy and his future wife Vicky needed $200 and decided to do a little experiment at a college. The Shop was secretly running an experiment to inject a drug called Lot 6 into the patients to see if they developed some psychic abili...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Lucia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: favorites

Absolutely enthralling reading!

This was my first book by Stephen King and after reading it I completely fell in love with this author and his style of writing.
This story is dramatical, emotional and full of action. To make things even better, it contains some paranormal features which are presented in quite believable way. Once I started reading I could not put it down and I just had to find out how it would end.

As you can guess from the title, main character (little girl Charlie) has pyrokine...more

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More of a Science Fiction story than a horror story?	11	43	Mar 14, 2013 03:41am
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About Stephen King

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.(less)

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“The world, although well-lighted with fluorescents and incandescent bulbs and neon, is still full of odd dark corners and unsettling nooks and crannies.” — 22 people liked it

“No one likes to see a government folder with his name on it.” — 15 people liked it

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