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Firestarter cover art

Firestarter

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
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Summary

"You're a firestarter honey.... just one big zippo lighter." A year ago, he was an upstanding instructor of English at Harrison State College. Now Andy is on the run with his daughter, a pigtailed girl named Charlie. A girl with an unimaginably terrifying gift. A gift which could be useful to corrupt authorities. Soon Charlie will be caught up in the menace of a fateful drug experiment and a sinister government ploy….

Let the listener beware: Firestarter is Stephen King at his most mesmerising…. and menacing.

©1980 Stephen King (P)2010 Penguin Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"One of the few horror writers who can truly make the flesh creep." ( Sunday Express)

What listeners say about Firestarter

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A little slow to start with.

But once it got going another great story from the master. Not his best but still enjoyable, on par with Rose Madder and Finders Keepers but not in the same league as The Stand or Duma Key.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Carrie Jr

A young girl and her father are on the run from the mysterious "Shop", a secret government agency. After participating in a college experiment, the dad has gained special powers, which appear tenfold in the daughter, who can will things to combust.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Fab

This was one of the very first SK books I read 34 years ago. Forgot how good it was. Well narrated, full of twists and turns.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great

This is a great book. The narrator reads well and helps to bring the story to life. It gets exciting in parts and overall is an interesting concept for a novel. It didn't grab me as quickly as some of his novels do, but we'll with reading.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Exciting, edge of the seat stuff!

If you could sum up Firestarter in three words, what would they be?

Hot and enjoyable!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Charley is my favourite character. She's plucky but has a tough time controlling her afflection.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The scene where she returns to Irv and Nora on the farm.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It is quite an emotional read and made me both laugh and cry.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • mr
  • 18-11-13

A great book by anyone's standard other than Kings

What did you like most about Firestarter?

As usual, king creates a brilliant set of characters, the two main leads and a particularly great and ruthless villain. Charlie's powers when she really lets loose was teriffic to read about, reminded me of Carrie in many ways.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

As I mentioned, he creates a few great characters, Charlie and Andy as the lovable father and daughter, and the brutal and calculating John Rainbird are all really deep and interesting, however my main issue with this book is that they simply are not given enough to do. If these characters were given a better overall story to reside in the book would have been much better. I am not saying that every book king writes should have to have the scope and range of The Stand, however when we boil it down, not that much happens in Firestarter, and the book could easily be broken down to about 5 hours in length and I doubt much would be missed.

What does Dennis Boutsikaris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

How he captures Rainbirds accent is particularly good.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Why did we make this before The Stand or The Dark Tower?

Any additional comments?

A good book, if it was any other author it would be a 4 star overall. However this is THE Stephen King. The man who wrote IT, The Stand, Carrie, The shining, The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Tower, Cujo and many other classics. And fire starter was written slap bang in the middle of these genre defining epics, it just doesn't add anything new to the formula, King is arguable the worlds greatest writer, and this shines through in his characters here, but these brilliantly fleshed out and interesting people, just were not given anything of real significance to do.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable read

Really enjoyable read. It's a typical SK thing but no dragging of plot and kid is likeable (2 things which sometimes let him down). love the concept and the ideas running through the book, good twists and turns, would love a sequel!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping

Great story, great narrator. I think it's one of my favourite Stephen King stories - and there are so many good ones.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This should fire your interest in Kings World

I've read and reread this book many times over the years I can do this and still enjoy books(it's a blessing and a curse). This Audiobook also lives up to my high expectations! This is helped by the excellent choice of voice actor to read the book. Well worth a listen, again and again.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Engaging listen

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook, and felt the pacing and cadence of the narrator was exactly how it needed to be told. However on the story side, I did find it very long throughout the middle in certain aspects and would’ve preferred to skim read on paper! I do recommend this audiobook overall

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