Firestarter by Stephen King

 

Firestarter

by Stephen King

Andy McGee is on the run with his 8-year-old daughter, Charlie. When he was in college, Andy and his wife, Vicky, volunteered for an experiment, which left them both with superhuman gifts: Andy can control minds, though at a personal cost, and his wife could move objects with hers. Charlie was born with a power far more destructive--the ability to create and control fire.

An clandestine organization called The Shop has kept tabs on Andy and Vicky and one day they come calling, when they learn about the gifts Charlie possesses. The kill Vicky and Andy takes Charlie on a trip across New York and Vermont in an effort to escape The Shop, who eventually close in and abduct them. The Shop wants to use these abilities for "national security," but Charlie doesn't want to use hers, and Andy's ability has the potential to kill him.

The Shop employs a man named John Rainbird, who has his evil eye on Charlie. He is tasked with getting her to cooperate, and in exchange he will be allowed to end her life when she is no longer useful to the Shop--a task John very much looks forward to. 

Firestarter is a good, solid Stephen King book. The story is strong and the characters are well-drawn. Most of the book is engaging. But I thought maybe the story could have been shorter. There were points where I just wanted to get to something better in the story. I also found Charlie, though she is supposed to be intelligent for an 8-year-old, a little bit unbelievable as far as some of her cognitive and reading abilities in the story. The plot itself is straightforward, with not a lot of complication, meaning it could have been told in fewer pages. Additionally, the tension would have been greater if we were only reading from the protagonist's perspective and were in the dark about a lot of the antagonists' motivations.

I also think that at this point in the publishing order, King has done these things already with most of the previous novels. I've seen the psychic abilities. I've seen the kid with the superpower. Firestarter, though a solid read, is just basically retelling the a similar story, albeit in a different way.

I give this book 3.5 to 4 stars because I definitely liked it. I liked the characters and I liked the writing. I'm looking forward to something different in King's following works.