Firestarter

Stephen King

Jan 2016 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

Master storyteller Stephen King presents the classic #1 New York Times bestseller—now a major motion picture!

Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson were once college students looking to make some extra cash, volunteering as test subjects for an experiment orchestrated by the clandestine government organization known as The Shop. But the outcome unlocked exceptional latent psychic talents for the two of them—manifesting in even more terrifying ways when they fell in love and had a child. Their daughter, Charlie, has been gifted with the most extraordinary and uncontrollable power ever seen—pyrokinesis, the ability to create fire with her mind. Now the merciless agents of The Shop are in hot pursuit to apprehend this unexpected genetic anomaly for their own diabolical ends by any means necessary...including violent actions that may well ignite the entire world around them as Charlie retaliates with a fury of her own...

Ratings and reviews

I'm going to be honest, I'm somewhat disappointed that this didn't connect well with any of the other Stephen King works that I have read thus far (I'm sure things will pop again somehow if I read more King). Despite that this was a very good story and honestly it probably doesn't need to be connected to other King works. This is unadulterated emotional pain and suffering and I loved it. I got very invested in the characters and desperately wanted to see them get out of this unscathed.

Stephen King has a way to make a book so illustrated by words that you can visualize everything he is saying I think this is a great book too bad the movie didn't completely go to the way the book did. This time I saw the movie first and the book is way better

This book hardly ever shows up on lists of the best Stephen King books. The premise sounded weak (didn't we already see this idea in Carrie?) so I started the book with low expectations. What a surprise! This is one of the best books start to finish that I have read by Stephen King, and I've read quote a lot! Despite being a bit dated (published in 1980 at the height of government paranoia) it was a really strong and well-written story. This book demonstrates that Stephen King can write great books with strong characters and location without including a real horror element. Charlie, the 10-year old girl who is the main character in the book, is written especially well so the reader feels her struggles and cheers for her throughout.

About the author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.