Review: Eldfödd

Eldfödd by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is kinda like a mix between Carrie and The Shining: psychic powers bestowed upon a young girl (because her parents needed 200 dollars back in 1969 and allowed the government to do weird experiments on them. For real) that she can't really control. This girl, Charlie, specifically starts fires, but she also has some sort of Shining-ability where she gets hints on what's about to happen. As well as good old telekinesis, I think.

Definitely not one of King's best, but still better than a lot of other books I've read. What put me off was all these HORRIBLE goverment agents who just enjoyed power-tripping, and the extremely creepy Native American guy who fucking falls in love with Charlie. She's like nine or something, so it's creepy as hell. Add a subplot about a guy who is ashamed of his desire to wear women's dresses and ... yeah, it's too many things that are off-putting for me.

Also, the translation (it was translated and released in Swedish in 2010, though originally published in 1980) is fucking shit. There are spelling errors on every five page or so, which is very sloppy and could've been avoided if someone had read it through before printing it. It also takes some liberties when translating, such as claiming that Charlie at one point wathces Swedish cartoons. I get wanting to use stuff that your Swedish audience is familiar with, but this book is so OBVIOUSLY set in the US that changing stuff like that just comes off as weird. Other times expressions are translated wrongly, which is also very off-putting.

Most of the book is about Charlie and her dad running from the government, which is my least favourite plot of any books ever. But it worked, and I especially liked the ending, which I did not think I would.

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