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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 (2,814 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

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gripped straight away

great listen, I was rooting for Jonny the whole time
a little confused how it ended but after listening to the last few chapters again, it was soon cleared up

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Franco nails it

Excellent narration and a good story. Very enjoyable​. I'll be keeping an eye out for more by Franco.

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

Rather disappointed to be honest

I don't normally download books shorter than 20 hours, but my love of Stephen King, a promising narrator, and favourable reviews persuaded me. It's not one of my favourite King novels, it didn't grip me and have me listening at every available moment like so many others. I was also disappointed by the narration. I understand that it was supposed to be understated, and that the tone was a stylistic choice, but I couldn't help but feel Franco was bored stiff throughout. It wasn't that it was narrated badly, but the listening experience could be summed up as: 'meh'.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good story

Very good story ,worth listening to and the person who was writing it was very interesting.

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

the end of 2 chapters was missing

the end of 2 chapters was missing. interesting story. a little derivative of 11.22.63. didnt care much about the characters

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story and more

I remember the film with Christopher Walken and was interested what Franco could bring to the book , superb, just absolutely brilliant, loved every minute of it. The book of course has so much more depth to it but James Franco just sucked me in. This is one of those books that I could not stop listening to. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Just perfect

Brilliant & heart wrenching. Narrator did a superb job. Stephen King is the master of story writing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Troubling in a different way nowdays

I read this book perhaps 30 years ago. As I listened to this performance I thought how much speech and language have changed since the 1970s. Characters here speak in a far more literate or articulate way than they seem to now. There is hardly any swearing either. The world King depicts also seems like a lost world. There is decency and it is acknowledged that some stories do not have a happy ending.
The story of The Dead Zone is still gripping, and the performance is excellent. In 2018 ,however, the idea that if you see a future where a populist, manipulative politician who relies on bullying and flattery and has no regard for facts or the truth is heading towards the presidency of the US then the right way to deal with him is to shoot him dead is troubling in a rather different way from what King intended!
Still well worth a listen.



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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping & enthralling

Loved it - couldn't wait for the next dog walk so I could listen to another chapter. The narrator had the perfect tone, non-judgemental, matter-of-fact, slightly melancholic, which fits the story well.

This wasn't the kind of story I expected from Stephen King - not scary, just fascinating. Well-researched, easily absorbing the listener in the Seventies, transporting you to life with Johnny and the supporting cast.

Now begins the agonising wait til I can get my next Audible download.... 3 weeks and counting then its onto another Stephen King.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Yeah you know the story but still great

another classic. well worth a listen.a story you just want to listen to from beginning to the end asap.

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