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  • The Dead Zone

  • By: Stephen King
  • Narrated by: James Franco
  • Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (2,801 ratings)
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The Dead Zone cover art

The Dead Zone

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: James Franco
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Summary

Stephen King's fan-favourite thriller, available in audio for the first time, read by Acadamy Award nominee James Franco.

The two things that conjured up that horrible night were his run of luck at the Wheel of Fortune and the mask....

Meet Johnny Smith. A young man whose streak of luck ends dramatically in a major car crash. Followed by blackness. A long, long time in cold limbo.

When he wakes up, life has been turned upside down. His fiancée has met someone else. And Johnny is cursed with the power to perceive evil in men's souls. He's had these hunches since he had an ice-skating accident as a child. Now he has an ability to see into the future. An ability which will bring him into a terrifying confrontation with a charismatic, power-hungry and dangerous man....

James Franco is an actor, a director, an artist and a writer. His film appearances include Milk, Pineapple Express, Spring Breakers, Howl, and 127 Hours, which earned him an Academy Award nomination.

He is the author of the novel Actors Anonymous, the collection Palo Alto, and the memoir A California Childhood. His writing has been published in Esquire, Vanity Fair, N+1, The Wall Street Journal and McSweeney's, and his art has been exhibited throughout the world, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and MoMA PS1 in New York.

©1979 Stephen King (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

What listeners say about The Dead Zone

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Bright Light of a Master Story-Teller!

Stephen King is a master of his craft. For me he is at his very best when he is at his most epic so books like It and The Stand are my personal favourites. This is smaller in ambition and scope but still produces an ultimately satisfying read. King imbues his stories with incredible details and the everyday is often imbued with ominous portent. Themes and icons repeat, twist and develop gradually revealing their full relevance to the reader.

This plot is a relatively slow burn, King is in no hurry to bring his two main protagonists together. Their stories are built and gradually threaded into each other as a humble English teacher is propelled towards dangers and evils through unfortunate accidents and the psychic abilities they leave him with. This is writing as good as anything in the genre.

The narration by James Franco is a natural fit for the atmosphere of the book. Occasionally it feels languid and he doesn't have the greatest of ranges of voices but he delivers the most important scenes in excellent fashion.

While it may be seen as a slow burn it is also an incredibly bright one as it moves to what I thought was a fabulously handled conclusion.

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34 people found this helpful

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Possibly the greatest book on audible!!!

Wow what a fantastic book!! I urge you to read it!! The narration is fantastic, and the story is fantastic, it's well worth your time and money to buy this!!

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16 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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How to kill a good story

The book it’s self was great, the narration was terrible, Franco is a skilled actor and easy on the eyes, however his reading style was monotonous and lacking emotion

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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A strange feeling of Deja Vu.

I read this book many years ago and found this second chance irresistible, what I did not expect was the feeling that King had foreseen the existence of a Trump like monster, it is truly a more scary book now than it was then.
Very entertaining and well developed, perhaps one of Stephen Kings best books, the main character is one of his most rounded and likeable.


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7 people found this helpful

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How on earth did King know about Trump?

I chose this King story totally at random- I had read some years ago, but not this one.I was utterly chilled and amazed to find not only the usual completely absorbing story but that King had somehow foreseen in amazing detail the rise of Trump. As I loathe everything about the horrible Trump this is both fascinating and deeply uncanny.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Very emotional ending

I was hoping for a horror/thriller story from Stephen King, which this story is not!
But towards the end of the story, it builds suspense that at it's climax left me truly overwhelmed.

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5 people found this helpful

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Recommend 1.5 speed

Really good story, I got hooked and had to listen to it all in 2 days. Didn’t notice I had it on 1.5speed till half way, tried listening at normal speed after but it was too slow.

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5 people found this helpful

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First King book for me and I loved it

An excellent listen, the great story had me hooked and well read by Franco. Think I'll being trying out some more King books

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5 people found this helpful

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Masterful performance of a fabulous book

Where does The Dead Zone rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very nearly the best audiobook I've listened to with superb narration. Always loved this story, but hearing it adds a whole new dimension

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5 people found this helpful

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A great book done well

I have read this book many times and this audio version lives up to the reading in one's head

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3 people found this helpful