Book Bearings
Cover of Firestarter by Stephen King

Firestarter

  • 428 pages · about 7 hours
  • First published 1980
  • 78 editions

Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.

1 About this book

Firestarter is a science fiction-horror thriller novel by Stephen King, first published in September 1980. It tells the story of a young girl, Charlie McGee, with the ability of pyrokinesis, whose destructive force a ruthless government agency tries to harness for their own purposes.

In July and August 1980, two excerpts from the novel were published in Omni. The novel entered the New York Times' Best-Sellers List on August 24, 1980. In 1981, Firestarter was nominated as Best Novel for the British Fantasy Award, Locus Poll Award, and Balrog Award. In 1984, it was adapted into a film.

A miniseries follow-up to the film, Firestarter: Rekindled, was released in 2002 on the Sci-Fi Channel and a remake from Blumhouse Productions was released on 13 May 2022. The book is dedicated to author Shirley Jackson: "In Memory of Shirley Jackson, who never needed to raise her voice."

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: horror and science fiction.

  • Thrillers
  • Horror
  • Science fiction
  • Genetic engineering
  • Psychokinesis
  • Psychic ability
  • Children
  • Media tie-in

2 About Stephen King

Born 1947

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror fiction and has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery. In a career spanning six decades, he has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

3 More by Stephen King

4 Similar books

Find a book that fits your moment