Firestarter (1980)

This is one book by Stephen king, I've only read once. Don't think I have a copy. Dutch or English. Must check.
I do want to re-resd it but i am sure I can find it for the Kindle

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 steadily got to loathe them more, in the case of John Rainbird.

I liked Andy a lot. I liked the fact that he was trying so hard to save Charlie, but he was just an ordinary guy, and I liked that he didn't lie to his kid. I also liked that he couldn't just use his powers however he wanted, that there was a price both for him and for the people he tried it on, that things could go wrong.

Charlie herself is a sympathetic figure, too. I don't think I really got as close to her as I did to Andy, because she's a little scary, too. Her powers are, after all, barely held back a lot of the time. Her conflict about using them was well-written, though.

Worth reading, if you like Stephen King's writing and you don't mind looking outside the horror genre. Maybe not quite as fast-paced as some of his others, but it also doesn't do too much in the way of slow build-up -- the minute you meet the main characters, they're already on the run. The flashback technique is unsubtle, but hey, it works. ( )

A lackluster tale with a great central character, but blase villians. ( )

A lackluster tale with a great central character, but blase villians. ( )

Drew Barrymore is exactly the same age as me; my crush on her started with ET and never went away. ( )