Firestarter - Stephen King

In 1969 college student Andy McGee decided to take part in a government-sponsored experiment on campus - he and a group of other students were trialling a drug known as Lot 6. The drug trial itself was frightening - it must have been some kind of acid, because Andy had some really vivid hallucinations, and he felt as though he could communicate telepathically, particularly with Vicky, a young woman he'd been attracted to before the trial began.
Both Andy and Vicky have mild residual effects from the experiment – she has very mild telekinesis and he can push people to do what he wants, though not without a price – the harder he pushes and the less time there is between attempts the more disabling the resulting headache. But Lot Six has more far-reaching effects – their daughter Charlie can start fires at will.
When The Shop moves in Andy grabs his six-year-old and runs, the tortured body of his beloved wife still strapped to a chair in the laundry. Despite his best efforts to keep her save, Andy and Charlie are eventually captured and separated, and some of the most skilled experts try to get Charlie to perform on command. It takes a particularly subtle sociopath, though, to get Charlie to cooperate – tall, broad, one-eyed and scary, John Rainbird is an enforcer who knows that he’ll one day see the light of a spark of awareness as he takes life but it’s so far escaped him. On the proviso that he can kill her when the time comes, Rainbird works his way into Charlie’s confidence.
It must be twenty-five years since I read Firestarter, one of a handful of King novels I read as a teenager, and I’m relieved to report that it’s lost none of its power or strength in that time – I found the characters and the plot as involving as the first time I read it. With rare exceptions (predominantly to do with technology and inflation, plus the occasional ‘can you dig it?’) the novel has survived without dating, which is fairly impressive in itself, and the descriptions are so detailed and compelling that I could almost see the testing room events, snowed-in cabin, and burning barn. I was also interested to discover the source of a few things I’d previously had unattributed, including my knowledge of the Damon experiment (which examined how strongly the prohibitions instilled during toilet training affect us), and my (fortunately resistible) temptation to put my hand into waste disposals while they’re running.
I don’t think I need to revisit the other King books (Carrie, Cujo, Thinner and Christine) I read then, but I’m very pleased I revisited this one, and I suspect I’ll read it again – perhaps even a little sooner than 2034. - Alex