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* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the LOT-6 victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming, covered in blood and [[{{Squick}} holding his own eyes in his hand]].
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the LOT-6 victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming, covered in blood and [[{{Squick}} holding his own eyes in his hand]].hands]].
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the LOT-6 victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming and [[{{Squick}} holding his own eyes in his hand]].
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the LOT-6 victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming screaming, covered in blood and [[{{Squick}} holding his own eyes in his hand]].
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the LOT-6 victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming and [[Squick holding his own eyes in his hand]].
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the LOT-6 victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming and [[Squick [[{{Squick}} holding his own eyes in his hand]].
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qui
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the LOT-6 victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming and [[Squick holding his own eyes in his hand]].
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* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility
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* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibilityWithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility: At the very end, Charlie starts to realize this, and goes back to the Manders to blow the story open.
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* BadassDecay: Andy's power wounds his brain every time he uses it [[spoiler:and in the book, he finally dies from a stroke after massive overuse.]] He fakes the BadassDecay while a prisoner in the Shop, trying to store up his powers for his BatmanGambit.
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* BadassDecay: Andy's power wounds his brain every time he uses it [[spoiler:and in the book, he finally dies from a stroke after massive overuse.]] He fakes the BadassDecay while a prisoner in the Shop, trying to store up his powers for his BatmanGambit.
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* TookALevelInBadass: Charlie starts the story giving people hotfoots when she loses her temper. By the end, she's creating ''high-explosive plasma projectiles'' with her mind and rapid-firing them into everything in the vicinity.
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* TookALevelInBadass: Charlie starts the story giving people hotfoots when she loses her temper. By the end, she's creating ''high-explosive plasma projectiles'' with her mind and rapid-firing them into everything in the vicinity.
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* TookALevelInBadass: Charlie starts the story giving people hotfoots when she loses her temper. By the end, she's creating high-explosive plasma projectiles ''with her mind'' and rapid-firing them into everything in the vicinity.
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* TookALevelInBadass: Charlie starts the story giving people hotfoots when she loses her temper. By the end, she's creating high-explosive ''high-explosive plasma projectiles ''with projectiles'' with her mind'' mind and rapid-firing them into everything in the vicinity.
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* TookALevelInBadass: Charlie starts the movie giving people hotfoots when she loses her temper. By the end, she's creating high-explosive plasma projectiles ''with her mind'' and rapid-firing them into everything in the vicinity.
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* TookALevelInBadass: Charlie starts the movie story giving people hotfoots when she loses her temper. By the end, she's creating high-explosive plasma projectiles ''with her mind'' and rapid-firing them into everything in the vicinity.
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* BurningWithAnger
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* BurningWithAngerBurningWithAnger: Charlie's getting close to puberty, and that makes her a [[JustForPun little hot under the collar]] sometimes...combine that with the murder of her mother and being on the run, and she's a lit fuse the Shop willingly takes into itself.
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* TooDumbToLive: You have a girl who you ''know'' can start fires -- ''BIG'' honkin' fires -- just with her mind. Wouldn't it be a lot better to, oh, be ''nice'' to her?
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* TooDumbToLive: Like with many horror stories, lots of examples from the heroes and villains alike.
** You have a girl who you ''know'' can start fires -- ''BIG'' honkin' fires -- just with her mind. Wouldn't it be a lot better to, oh, be ''nice'' to her?
** You have a girl who you ''know'' can start fires -- ''BIG'' honkin' fires -- just with her mind. Wouldn't it be a lot better to, oh, be ''nice'' to her?
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** The movie finale definitely counts. After she puts up a bulletproof heat shield and absolutely destroys the first two or three agents that try to shoot her, you'd think that the rest of them would just get the hell out of there, but no, they keep right on marching up and trying to shoot her, and keep right on getting fried.
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** The movie finale definitely counts. After she puts up a bulletproof heat shield and absolutely destroys Actually averted at the first two or three end with the Shop agents. Once they figure out Charlie's impenetrable from the front (and lose several agents that horribly in the process), they try to shoot going at her from the back, sniping her, you'd think that the rest of them would using heavier and heavier firepower, and finally just get the hell out of there, but no, they keep right on marching [[VillainsDyingGrace line up and trying to shoot her, and keep right on getting fried.be fried]], to give as many civilians time to escape as possible.
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* TookALevelInBadass: Charlie starts the movie giving people hotfoots when she loses her temper. By the end, she's creating high-explosive plasma projectiles ''with her mind'' and rapid-firing them into everything in the vicinity.
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** Mostly averted with the Shop people. They do everything possible to keep Charlie happy, including using Rainbird as TheMole, and give her a chance to exercise her power in safe confines. However, the one thing they ''cannot'' do is let her see her father, and after a while, that's all she wants to do...
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** There's a heroic example too: after watching his daughter get shot (with a tranq dart) by Rainbird, does he grab her and run for cover? Nope, just kneels right out there in the open holding her (unconscious) body until Rainbird shoots him too.
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** There's a heroic example too: after watching Andy watches his daughter get shot (with a tranq dart) by Rainbird, does he grab her and run for cover? Nope, just kneels right out there in the open holding her (unconscious) body until Rainbird shoots him too.
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** There's a heroic example too: after watching his daughter get shot (with a tranq dart) by Rainbird, does he grab her and run for cover? Nope, just kneels right out there in the open holding her (unconscious) body until Rainbird shoots him too.
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* {{Blackmail}}: Rainbird blackmails Captain Hollister into both letting him live (Hollister want's him to have an "accident" after he captures Charlie) and letting him get close to Charlie, by revealing he has gathered enough incrimidating evidence to have the Shop closed down and Captain Hollister put behind bars for the rest of his life.
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* {{Blackmail}}: Rainbird blackmails Captain Hollister into both letting him live (Hollister want's wants him to have an "accident" after he captures Charlie) and letting him get close to Charlie, by revealing he has gathered enough incrimidating incriminating evidence to have the Shop closed down and Captain Hollister put behind bars for the rest of his life.
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No, he didn\'t think that. He makes it clear. He said he could shoot only Andy. After that, Charlie would destroy him, but he doesn\'t care.
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*** Not that Rainbird really had any room to talk. He was there in the barn when Charlie burnt the gun out of one agent's hand, did he honestly think he could get away with shooting Andy right in front of her and then simply shooting her, too?
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*** Not that Rainbird really had any room to talk. He was there in the barn when Charlie burnt the gun out of one agent's hand, did he honestly think he could get away with shooting Andy right in front of her and then simply shooting her, too?
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* {{Blackmail}}: Rainbird blackmails Captain Hollister into both letting him live (Hollister want's him to have an "accident" after he captures Charlie) and letting him get close to Charlie, by revealing he has gathered enough incrimidating evidence to have the Shop closed down and Captain Hollister put behind bars for the rest of his life.
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* HypnoFool: The Shop agent that Andy puts into a coma. He wakes up after six months, but from that moment on, everytime somebody mentions the word "sleep" in his presence, he will fall into a deep slumber again that usually lasts for four hours to a day.
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* NoSell: When Andy first describes his powers, he makes it clear that his "push" does not work on everybody. How effective it will be depends on a persons ethnicity (caucasians are easy to manipulate, while Aziatic are very hard), age (the older a person is, the harder it becomes to manipulate their mind), and intelligence (intelligent people are the easiest to manipulate, while very dumb or even insane people are [[InsanityImmunity immune]] to the push).
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* NoSell: When Andy first describes his powers, he makes it clear that his "push" does not work on everybody. How effective it will be depends on a persons ethnicity (caucasians (Caucasians are easy to manipulate, while Aziatic Asians are very hard), age (the older a person is, the harder it becomes to manipulate their mind), and intelligence (intelligent people are the easiest to manipulate, while very dumb or even insane people are [[InsanityImmunity immune]] to the push).
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* NoSell: When Andy first describes his powers, he makes it clear that his "push" does not work on everybody. How effective it will be depends on a persons ethnicity (caucasians are easy to manipulate, while Aziatic are very hard), age (the older a person is, the harder it becomes to manipulate their mind), and intelligence (intelligent people are the easiest to manipulate, while very dumb or even insane people are [[InsanityImmunity immune]] to the push).
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* GildedCage: [[spoiler:When Charlie and her father Andy get kidnapped by the Shop they are given attractive living quarters. Any notes however that his apartment has no inside handle.]]
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* GildedCage: [[spoiler:When Charlie and her father Andy get kidnapped by the Shop they are given attractive living quarters. Any Andy notes however that his apartment has no inside handle.]]
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* DramaticChaseOpening
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* DramaticChaseOpeningDramaticChaseOpening: The book starts with Andy and Charlie chased by the Shop agents in New York.
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Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring Creator/DrewBarrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, George C. Scott as Rainbird, Martin Sheen as Hollister and Heather Locklear as Vicky. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.
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Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring Creator/DrewBarrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, George C. Scott as Rainbird, Martin Sheen MartinSheen as Hollister and Heather Locklear as Vicky. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.
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-->--'''Epigraph''' (from ''{{Fahrenheit 451}}'')
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-->--'''Epigraph''' (from ''{{Fahrenheit ''Literature/{{Fahrenheit 451}}'')
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Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring DrewBarrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, George C. Scott as Rainbird, Martin Sheen as Hollister and Heather Locklear as Vicky. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.
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Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring DrewBarrymore Creator/DrewBarrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, George C. Scott as Rainbird, Martin Sheen as Hollister and Heather Locklear as Vicky. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.
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* PeterPrinciple: Lampshaded by Rainbird in reference to Patrick Hockstetter, one of the shop doctors in charge of Andy and Charlie. When summoned back to the shop one night for an emergency involving Charlie, Hockstetter is mainly peeved that he was interrupted while watching a James Bond film.
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* PeterPrinciple: ThePeterPrinciple: Lampshaded by Rainbird in reference to Patrick Hockstetter, one of the shop doctors in charge of Andy and Charlie. Charlie. When summoned back to the shop one night for an emergency involving Charlie, Hockstetter is mainly peeved that he was interrupted while watching a James Bond film.
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* PeterPrinciple: Lampshaded by Rainbird in reference to Patrick Hockstetter, one of the shop doctors in charge of Andy and Charlie. When summoned back to the shop one night for an emergency involving Charlie, Hockstetter is mainly peeved that he was interrupted while watching a James Bond film.
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* GildedCage: [[spoiler:When Charlie and her father Andy get kidnapped by the Shop.]]
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* GildedCage: [[spoiler:When Charlie and her father Andy get kidnapped by the Shop.Shop they are given attractive living quarters. Any notes however that his apartment has no inside handle.]]
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* HappilyMarried: Andy and Vicky, before she is murdered.
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->''It was a pleasure to burn.''
-->--'''Epigraph''' (from ''{{Fahrenheit 451}}'')
''Firestarter'' is a 1980 novel by Creator/StephenKing. It's about a 7-year-old girl named Charlene Roberta [=McGee=] (she goes by Charlie), who can start fires just by thinking about it, or if she's feeling particularly upset; she also has a hint of precognition and a fair amount of telekinesis. Her father, Andy, has an ability he calls the 'push', allowing him to influence people; and her mother, Vicky, has a very limited form of telekinesis, which only extends to closing doors and turning off the television from across the room.
They have those abilities because Andy and Vicky participated in an experiment sponsored by a government organization called The Shop during their college days; they were told that there was a 50% chance they would be injected with a small dose of harmless hallucinogenic drug and a 50% chance of being injected with water. It was actually an incredibly dangerous PsychoSerum, which gave them - and all the other participants in the test - paranormal abilities. Out of these other people, all but 3 are either dead or in a mental asylum of some sort. (The third one lost his abilities and is living a normal life.)
The agents of the Shop kept the [=McGees=] under surveillance, eventually killing Vicky and kidnapping Charlie. However, Andy freed her, using his 'mind domination' ability. At the beginning of the book, Charlie and her father are on the run from the Shop, whose members want to use Charlie's power to "influence" world leaders.
Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring DrewBarrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, George C. Scott as Rainbird, Martin Sheen as Hollister and Heather Locklear as Vicky. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.
JuliaEcklar has written and recorded a song based on the novel, called "Daddy's Little Girl."
Referenced by the VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2 mod saga Dark Waters with an incident in the second chapter involving a girl about to be burned at the stake for starting fires.
----
!!This book has examples of:
* AffablyEvil: Rainbird gains Charlie's trust by posing as a friendly janitor.
** Cap Hollister often comes across as a kind, elderly gentleman.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Wanless' explanation of Charlie's relationship with her father, and how the [=McGee=]s controlled her ability by creating a complex.
* ArcadianInterlude: Andy and Charlie have a short break from being chased by the Shop when they stop for a big country lunch at Irv and Norma Manders' farm. Charlie returns alone after the death of her father and the destruction of the Shop.
** Although the weather is rough, the winter Andy and Charlie spend hiding out at his grandfather's cottage in Vermont is on the whole peaceful and restorative.
* BadassAdorable: Movie version Charlie. Aww, [[ImTakingHerHomeWithMe can I take her home with me?]]
* BlessedWithSuck: Andy's powers give him pain and minor brain hemorrhages when he uses them; Charlie's does not, but she has a hard time controlling them (and, of course, they are chased because of them).
* BullyingADragon: The government ''knows'' how powerful Charlie and Andy are, or have the potential to be, so what do they do? Give them all sorts of reasons to hate the government!
* BurningWithAnger
* CementShoes: The subjects for the Lot Six experiment were chosen from people with no living relatives, so there would be fewer problems if they die. The Shop still had to kill the godfather of one of the victims, who had been determined to find out the truth of what had happened to his godson. Rather than getting to the bottom of what happened, the only place he wound up getting to was "the bottom of the Baltimore Trench, where he presumably still was, with two cement blocks tied around whatever remained of his legs."
* CreepyCrossdresser: Dr. Pynchot who has secretly enjoyed dressing up in women's underwear since his college days.
* DaddysGirl: Charlie (though it's because her mother is killed).
* DeathSeeker: Rainbird pretty much. The root of his obsession with Charlie.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Rainbird goes barefoot when he's alone. He's fascinated with shoes and has a whole collection of them; he just doesn't like ''wearing'' them.
* TheDragon: Rainbird to Captain Hollister.
* DragonInChief: Rainbird
* DramaticChaseOpening
* DrivenToSuicide: Several participants of the Lot Six experiment. Also, [[spoiler: Dr. Pynchot (in the book) who commits suicide by shoving his arm into the garbage disposal while it's running, after Andy triggered an 'echo' in his mind.]]
* EmptyPromise: After Charlie finds out that her mother is dead, Andy tells her that everything will be all right, while knowing perfectly well that nothing is ever all right.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cap Hollister on a number of occasions. He is disgusted when Dr. Wanless tells him about how his brother burned his child's hand with a match to stop him from playing with matches and about an experiment that tried to convince participants to wet their pants. He is also horrified when he mistakenly thinks Rainbird wants to rape Charlie and loathes Rainbird's enthusiasm about killing her.
* FateWorseThanDeath / CoolAndUnusualPunishment: When Andy and Charlie escape from the Shop the first time he puts one of the agents responsible for Vicky's death in a coma, and permanently blinds the other one.
** And by that, we mean he {{mindrape}}s him into "knowing" he's blind.
* EyeScream: One of the participants in the Lot Six experiment goes insane and claws out his own eyes.
* {{Fingore}}: The Shop agents pulled some of Vicky's fingernails out before killing her to get her to tell where Charlie was.
* GildedCage: [[spoiler:When Charlie and her father Andy get kidnapped by the Shop.]]
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Department of Scientific Intelligence (the Shop).
* HeroicRROD: [[spoiler: Andy eventually has a stroke because he overuses his power.]]
* ILoveTheDead: When Andy temporarily gains telepathic powers during the Lot Six experiment, he reads the mind of one of the Shop agents present, and learns that he killed four people and raped one of the bodies.
* ImmuneToBullets: At the end, Charlie reaches this; her powers become fast and strong enough to ''boil'' bullets before reaching her.
* InMediasRes: The novel starts with Andy and Charlie escaping from the agents of the Shop. Their backstory is told in parts in Andy's flashbacks.
* KnockoutAmbush: The Shop agents capture Andy and Charlie this way. Charlie is shot by Rainbird with a tranquilizer dart from long range, and Andy, distraught over this, is easily taken out from short range.
* LamarckWasRight: Andy and Vicky gain mental domination powers and telekinesis, respectively, from a [[PsychoSerum drug]] given to them in an experiment. Their daughter is born with telekinesis and pyrokinesis as a result. This is HandWaved when the father speculates that the drug must have affected their DNA. [[WordOfGod King]] mentioned afterwards that he never liked that explanation, preferring stories where supernatural things just happen, and are never explained.
* MadScientist: Dr. Wanless. Lampshaded when Andy's friend compares him to Dr. Cyclops.
* MagicalDefibrillator: Averted; Lot Six causes a heart attack for one of the participants of the experiment. They use a defibrillator on him, but he dies anyway.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: A rare example of subversion. Rainbird's death-oriented mysticism makes him terrifying and dangerous rather than understanding and helpful.
* MeaningfulName: ''Char''lie.
* MexicanStandoff: At the end, Charlie, Andy and Rainbird have a three-way MexicanStandoff, with Rainbird being the only one with a gun.
* MundaneUtility: Andy uses his powers to hold diet classes and confidence classes. Charlie once uses hers to light a fireplace.
* NextSundayAD: The novel is set between 1981-1983.
* NoControlGroup: The participants of the Lot Six experiment are told that half of them will only be injected with distilled water in a double-blind test. Actually, everyone gets Lot Six.
* NoConservationOfEnergy: Lampshaded. In an interdepartmental memo, a Shop scientist writes that they have no idea where the heat Charlie is producing is coming from. "Figure that one out and you've got the Nobel Prize in your hip pocket!"
* OneDimensionalThinking: Subverted. Three men try and run away from a line of fire at the climax. It seems to be played straight until two of them try changing direction. Possibly double subverted when the fire just splits in three and follows them anyway.
* [[OneManArmy One Girl Army]]: Charlie, as the arrogant idiots of The Shop found out the ''hard'' way.
* OnlySaneMan: Rainbird; see TooDumbToLive below.
* MistakenForPedophile: Cap in the book wrongly assumes Rainbird wants to rape Charlie when he says he plans to know her "intimately." Rainbird's intentions towards Charlie are murkier in the movie, however.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Charlie, obviously.
* PinealWeirdness: An acceptable variation. The extrasensory powers induced by Lot Six are connected to changes this drug creates in the pituitary gland. Dr. Wanless says that if the soul exists, it is probably located in this gland.
* PowerIncontinence: Charlie finds it very hard to control her power.
* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Cap thinks that the Shop could use Andy's power for that: "Imagine him getting close enough to that pinko Ted Kennedy to suggest in a low voice of utter conviction that suicide was the best answer."
* PsychicNosebleed / DeadlyNosebleed: In the film, Andy gets one of these whenever he uses his power (in the book, he has terrible headaches).
* PsychicPowers: Well, yes.
** CompellingVoice - Andy's "Push" ability.
** MindOverMatter - Charlie's mother, Vicky, has some limited powers of telekinesis. Charlie also has this power; she uses it to get change from payphones.
** PlayingWithFire - Charlie, of course.
** {{Telepathy}} - Andy and Vicky could converse without talking when they were under the effect of Lot Six (though not later). Charlie also has limited telepathic powers.
* PsychoForHire: Rainbird. He kills people because he's obsessed with death. From the money he receives for it, he mostly buys shoes that he never wears.
* PsychoPsychologist: Dr. Pynchot who grins too much and gets Andy hooked on Thorazine. He also suggests torturing Andy with electric shocks in front of Charlie to convince her to start lighting fires.
* PsychoSerum: Lot Six, the experimental substance given to 12 college students, including Charlie's parents, in hopes of boosting their ESP abilities. Most of the participants [[GoneHorriblyWrong didn't live very long afterward]].
* PubertySuperpower: Not precisely, but it's hinted that the psychic powers are linked to the pituitary gland, which goes nuts at puberty. Charlie is already extremely powerful, and she's ''prepubescent.'' At the end she reflects that someday she might be able to affect the sun itself.
** At least some of the Shop's scientists think that the pituitary gland is the key to the powers, and during puberty they fear Charlie will literally be able to destroy the world at will.
* RaceLift: Rainbird in the novel is Native American. In the movie, he's played by George C. Scott.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:Charlie burns down every building belonging to the Shop, and kills Rainbird, Dr. Pynchot and pretty much every agent in her line of sight after her father dies]].
* TheSoCalledCoward: The Shop continually underestimates Andy, regarding him as an outclassed English professor.
* SternChase: About half the book.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Andy finds Vicky's body in an ironing closet after the Shop agents killed her.
* SuperSoldiers: One of the goals of The Shop's experiments on parapsychology is creating people who might be useful as weapons.
* TheMovieOfTheBook
* TomboyishName: Charlene's nickname "Charlie". Also her alias "Bobbi" used by the kind-hearted farmer Irv Manders.
* TooDumbToLive: You have a girl who you ''know'' can start fires -- ''BIG'' honkin' fires -- just with her mind. Wouldn't it be a lot better to, oh, be ''nice'' to her?
** Rainbird once muses how stupid the Shop's agents are, comparing them to thieves who he had heard of. They blew a safe, destroying all the money in it because they used too much explosive. "The Shop, like the FBI and CIA, had a long history of killing the money. If you can't get what you want with foreign aid, go in there with some Thompsons and gelignite and assassinate the bastard. Put some cyanide gas in Castro's cigars. It was crazy, but you couldn't tell them that. All they could see where RESULTS, glittering and blinking like some mythical Vegas jackpot. So they killed the money and stood there with a bunch of useless green scraps sifting through their fingers and wondered what the hell had happened."
** The movie finale definitely counts. After she puts up a bulletproof heat shield and absolutely destroys the first two or three agents that try to shoot her, you'd think that the rest of them would just get the hell out of there, but no, they keep right on marching up and trying to shoot her, and keep right on getting fried.
* {{Transvestite}}: [[spoiler:Dr. Pynchot]] returns to being one of these in the book, as a side effect of being "pushed" by Andy.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Captain Hollister receives an awful side-effect of Andy's powers, heightening his love for golf and fear of snakes, to the point that they're pretty much the only things he can think of. When Andy and Charlie finally meet, he believes he finds a snake in the barn and screams loudly in terror. This leads to the complete and utter destruction of the compound, and the deaths of himself, Andy, Rainbird, and countless Shop employees.]]
* VillainsOutShopping: Rainbird's home has entire rooms full of shoes that he collects during his travels.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility
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-->--'''Epigraph''' (from ''{{Fahrenheit 451}}'')
''Firestarter'' is a 1980 novel by Creator/StephenKing. It's about a 7-year-old girl named Charlene Roberta [=McGee=] (she goes by Charlie), who can start fires just by thinking about it, or if she's feeling particularly upset; she also has a hint of precognition and a fair amount of telekinesis. Her father, Andy, has an ability he calls the 'push', allowing him to influence people; and her mother, Vicky, has a very limited form of telekinesis, which only extends to closing doors and turning off the television from across the room.
They have those abilities because Andy and Vicky participated in an experiment sponsored by a government organization called The Shop during their college days; they were told that there was a 50% chance they would be injected with a small dose of harmless hallucinogenic drug and a 50% chance of being injected with water. It was actually an incredibly dangerous PsychoSerum, which gave them - and all the other participants in the test - paranormal abilities. Out of these other people, all but 3 are either dead or in a mental asylum of some sort. (The third one lost his abilities and is living a normal life.)
The agents of the Shop kept the [=McGees=] under surveillance, eventually killing Vicky and kidnapping Charlie. However, Andy freed her, using his 'mind domination' ability. At the beginning of the book, Charlie and her father are on the run from the Shop, whose members want to use Charlie's power to "influence" world leaders.
Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring DrewBarrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, George C. Scott as Rainbird, Martin Sheen as Hollister and Heather Locklear as Vicky. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.
JuliaEcklar has written and recorded a song based on the novel, called "Daddy's Little Girl."
Referenced by the VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2 mod saga Dark Waters with an incident in the second chapter involving a girl about to be burned at the stake for starting fires.
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!!This book has examples of:
* AffablyEvil: Rainbird gains Charlie's trust by posing as a friendly janitor.
** Cap Hollister often comes across as a kind, elderly gentleman.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Wanless' explanation of Charlie's relationship with her father, and how the [=McGee=]s controlled her ability by creating a complex.
* ArcadianInterlude: Andy and Charlie have a short break from being chased by the Shop when they stop for a big country lunch at Irv and Norma Manders' farm. Charlie returns alone after the death of her father and the destruction of the Shop.
** Although the weather is rough, the winter Andy and Charlie spend hiding out at his grandfather's cottage in Vermont is on the whole peaceful and restorative.
* BadassAdorable: Movie version Charlie. Aww, [[ImTakingHerHomeWithMe can I take her home with me?]]
* BlessedWithSuck: Andy's powers give him pain and minor brain hemorrhages when he uses them; Charlie's does not, but she has a hard time controlling them (and, of course, they are chased because of them).
* BullyingADragon: The government ''knows'' how powerful Charlie and Andy are, or have the potential to be, so what do they do? Give them all sorts of reasons to hate the government!
* BurningWithAnger
* CementShoes: The subjects for the Lot Six experiment were chosen from people with no living relatives, so there would be fewer problems if they die. The Shop still had to kill the godfather of one of the victims, who had been determined to find out the truth of what had happened to his godson. Rather than getting to the bottom of what happened, the only place he wound up getting to was "the bottom of the Baltimore Trench, where he presumably still was, with two cement blocks tied around whatever remained of his legs."
* CreepyCrossdresser: Dr. Pynchot who has secretly enjoyed dressing up in women's underwear since his college days.
* DaddysGirl: Charlie (though it's because her mother is killed).
* DeathSeeker: Rainbird pretty much. The root of his obsession with Charlie.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Rainbird goes barefoot when he's alone. He's fascinated with shoes and has a whole collection of them; he just doesn't like ''wearing'' them.
* TheDragon: Rainbird to Captain Hollister.
* DragonInChief: Rainbird
* DramaticChaseOpening
* DrivenToSuicide: Several participants of the Lot Six experiment. Also, [[spoiler: Dr. Pynchot (in the book) who commits suicide by shoving his arm into the garbage disposal while it's running, after Andy triggered an 'echo' in his mind.]]
* EmptyPromise: After Charlie finds out that her mother is dead, Andy tells her that everything will be all right, while knowing perfectly well that nothing is ever all right.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cap Hollister on a number of occasions. He is disgusted when Dr. Wanless tells him about how his brother burned his child's hand with a match to stop him from playing with matches and about an experiment that tried to convince participants to wet their pants. He is also horrified when he mistakenly thinks Rainbird wants to rape Charlie and loathes Rainbird's enthusiasm about killing her.
* FateWorseThanDeath / CoolAndUnusualPunishment: When Andy and Charlie escape from the Shop the first time he puts one of the agents responsible for Vicky's death in a coma, and permanently blinds the other one.
** And by that, we mean he {{mindrape}}s him into "knowing" he's blind.
* EyeScream: One of the participants in the Lot Six experiment goes insane and claws out his own eyes.
* {{Fingore}}: The Shop agents pulled some of Vicky's fingernails out before killing her to get her to tell where Charlie was.
* GildedCage: [[spoiler:When Charlie and her father Andy get kidnapped by the Shop.]]
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Department of Scientific Intelligence (the Shop).
* HeroicRROD: [[spoiler: Andy eventually has a stroke because he overuses his power.]]
* ILoveTheDead: When Andy temporarily gains telepathic powers during the Lot Six experiment, he reads the mind of one of the Shop agents present, and learns that he killed four people and raped one of the bodies.
* ImmuneToBullets: At the end, Charlie reaches this; her powers become fast and strong enough to ''boil'' bullets before reaching her.
* InMediasRes: The novel starts with Andy and Charlie escaping from the agents of the Shop. Their backstory is told in parts in Andy's flashbacks.
* KnockoutAmbush: The Shop agents capture Andy and Charlie this way. Charlie is shot by Rainbird with a tranquilizer dart from long range, and Andy, distraught over this, is easily taken out from short range.
* LamarckWasRight: Andy and Vicky gain mental domination powers and telekinesis, respectively, from a [[PsychoSerum drug]] given to them in an experiment. Their daughter is born with telekinesis and pyrokinesis as a result. This is HandWaved when the father speculates that the drug must have affected their DNA. [[WordOfGod King]] mentioned afterwards that he never liked that explanation, preferring stories where supernatural things just happen, and are never explained.
* MadScientist: Dr. Wanless. Lampshaded when Andy's friend compares him to Dr. Cyclops.
* MagicalDefibrillator: Averted; Lot Six causes a heart attack for one of the participants of the experiment. They use a defibrillator on him, but he dies anyway.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: A rare example of subversion. Rainbird's death-oriented mysticism makes him terrifying and dangerous rather than understanding and helpful.
* MeaningfulName: ''Char''lie.
* MexicanStandoff: At the end, Charlie, Andy and Rainbird have a three-way MexicanStandoff, with Rainbird being the only one with a gun.
* MundaneUtility: Andy uses his powers to hold diet classes and confidence classes. Charlie once uses hers to light a fireplace.
* NextSundayAD: The novel is set between 1981-1983.
* NoControlGroup: The participants of the Lot Six experiment are told that half of them will only be injected with distilled water in a double-blind test. Actually, everyone gets Lot Six.
* NoConservationOfEnergy: Lampshaded. In an interdepartmental memo, a Shop scientist writes that they have no idea where the heat Charlie is producing is coming from. "Figure that one out and you've got the Nobel Prize in your hip pocket!"
* OneDimensionalThinking: Subverted. Three men try and run away from a line of fire at the climax. It seems to be played straight until two of them try changing direction. Possibly double subverted when the fire just splits in three and follows them anyway.
* [[OneManArmy One Girl Army]]: Charlie, as the arrogant idiots of The Shop found out the ''hard'' way.
* OnlySaneMan: Rainbird; see TooDumbToLive below.
* MistakenForPedophile: Cap in the book wrongly assumes Rainbird wants to rape Charlie when he says he plans to know her "intimately." Rainbird's intentions towards Charlie are murkier in the movie, however.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Charlie, obviously.
* PinealWeirdness: An acceptable variation. The extrasensory powers induced by Lot Six are connected to changes this drug creates in the pituitary gland. Dr. Wanless says that if the soul exists, it is probably located in this gland.
* PowerIncontinence: Charlie finds it very hard to control her power.
* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Cap thinks that the Shop could use Andy's power for that: "Imagine him getting close enough to that pinko Ted Kennedy to suggest in a low voice of utter conviction that suicide was the best answer."
* PsychicNosebleed / DeadlyNosebleed: In the film, Andy gets one of these whenever he uses his power (in the book, he has terrible headaches).
* PsychicPowers: Well, yes.
** CompellingVoice - Andy's "Push" ability.
** MindOverMatter - Charlie's mother, Vicky, has some limited powers of telekinesis. Charlie also has this power; she uses it to get change from payphones.
** PlayingWithFire - Charlie, of course.
** {{Telepathy}} - Andy and Vicky could converse without talking when they were under the effect of Lot Six (though not later). Charlie also has limited telepathic powers.
* PsychoForHire: Rainbird. He kills people because he's obsessed with death. From the money he receives for it, he mostly buys shoes that he never wears.
* PsychoPsychologist: Dr. Pynchot who grins too much and gets Andy hooked on Thorazine. He also suggests torturing Andy with electric shocks in front of Charlie to convince her to start lighting fires.
* PsychoSerum: Lot Six, the experimental substance given to 12 college students, including Charlie's parents, in hopes of boosting their ESP abilities. Most of the participants [[GoneHorriblyWrong didn't live very long afterward]].
* PubertySuperpower: Not precisely, but it's hinted that the psychic powers are linked to the pituitary gland, which goes nuts at puberty. Charlie is already extremely powerful, and she's ''prepubescent.'' At the end she reflects that someday she might be able to affect the sun itself.
** At least some of the Shop's scientists think that the pituitary gland is the key to the powers, and during puberty they fear Charlie will literally be able to destroy the world at will.
* RaceLift: Rainbird in the novel is Native American. In the movie, he's played by George C. Scott.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:Charlie burns down every building belonging to the Shop, and kills Rainbird, Dr. Pynchot and pretty much every agent in her line of sight after her father dies]].
* TheSoCalledCoward: The Shop continually underestimates Andy, regarding him as an outclassed English professor.
* SternChase: About half the book.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Andy finds Vicky's body in an ironing closet after the Shop agents killed her.
* SuperSoldiers: One of the goals of The Shop's experiments on parapsychology is creating people who might be useful as weapons.
* TheMovieOfTheBook
* TomboyishName: Charlene's nickname "Charlie". Also her alias "Bobbi" used by the kind-hearted farmer Irv Manders.
* TooDumbToLive: You have a girl who you ''know'' can start fires -- ''BIG'' honkin' fires -- just with her mind. Wouldn't it be a lot better to, oh, be ''nice'' to her?
** Rainbird once muses how stupid the Shop's agents are, comparing them to thieves who he had heard of. They blew a safe, destroying all the money in it because they used too much explosive. "The Shop, like the FBI and CIA, had a long history of killing the money. If you can't get what you want with foreign aid, go in there with some Thompsons and gelignite and assassinate the bastard. Put some cyanide gas in Castro's cigars. It was crazy, but you couldn't tell them that. All they could see where RESULTS, glittering and blinking like some mythical Vegas jackpot. So they killed the money and stood there with a bunch of useless green scraps sifting through their fingers and wondered what the hell had happened."
** The movie finale definitely counts. After she puts up a bulletproof heat shield and absolutely destroys the first two or three agents that try to shoot her, you'd think that the rest of them would just get the hell out of there, but no, they keep right on marching up and trying to shoot her, and keep right on getting fried.
* {{Transvestite}}: [[spoiler:Dr. Pynchot]] returns to being one of these in the book, as a side effect of being "pushed" by Andy.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Captain Hollister receives an awful side-effect of Andy's powers, heightening his love for golf and fear of snakes, to the point that they're pretty much the only things he can think of. When Andy and Charlie finally meet, he believes he finds a snake in the barn and screams loudly in terror. This leads to the complete and utter destruction of the compound, and the deaths of himself, Andy, Rainbird, and countless Shop employees.]]
* VillainsOutShopping: Rainbird's home has entire rooms full of shoes that he collects during his travels.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility
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