Rating: 
Summary: Somewhere in between...
Review: 'The girl who loved Tom Gordon' will never be considered one of King's best works and righteously so. But this book does have a certain quality to it...King is right on the money as far as Trisha, the main character. He thoroughly explores her emotions as she wanders in the woods of rural Maine (where else?) and becomes increasingly helpless and hopeless. The treatment of this character is up to par for King. Through the use of reflective imagery mixed with humor and a voice that really does seem like that of a nine year old (without seeming childish), King manages to suck the readers into this story and forces you to continue just to see what happens next. That is where the problem begins.The "thing in the woods" at first, is an abstract image that the reader is not really sure is real or imagined by a little girl pushed way past the breaking point. King lightly touches on this force then abruptly removes Trisha from it with the break of day. As the story progresses, the creature reappears and moves in closer and closer to do what Trisha (and the reader) fear most. But the mistake in this novel is pushing the envelope too far...way too far. This creature becomes more than a shadowy image that personifies Trisha's (and the reader's) worst fears, a force that may or may not exist outside the imagination. Instead it becomes real and quite ridiculous, which totally throws off what King tried to accomplish in the majority of the novel. As I said early on, this will never be considered one of his best works, but it could have been appreciated, as the saying goes, as a new trick for an old dog, as far as accomplished writers go. The writing style, as always, is exceptional. King's main character reflects bravery, resolve and a sense of realism that is typical for this writer...that is what makes his work so popular. You can't help but get attached to the characters but his effort to incorporate some form of horror made the story dissolve quickly and only served to diminish what he had accomplished up to that point. King gets good marks for storytelling and the creation of a truly interesting and well-developed character, but points off for what seemed like a last ditch effort to transform a harrowing story into a horror story.
Rating:
Summary: O.K But not Great....
Review: I have read a lot of stephen king books and the other day i saw this one at the store so i thought that i would pick it up i didnt really like it that much, there was not a lot going on like in most Stephen King novels. Another thing was that this book was not scary at all, i dont think it was meant to be a thriller but all the critics are saying it is scary, i didnt see any scary parts in it at all. so if you want to get scared dont read this book. But if you do want to get scared read Salems lot, also by King Strangers, By dean Koontz Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris
Rating: 
Summary: A Bit Disappointing, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Review: The book starts out with the main character, Patricia McFarland. Trisha is a 9-year-old die-hard Red Sox fan who lives a fairly normal life with her brother and her mother. Her parents are divorced and her father lives halfway across the country in Las Vegas. Trisha and her family are taking their annual trip hiking through the Appalachian Mountain trails. Trisha really wants to get away from the incessant fighting of her other 2 family members, and she stops to pee in a fork in the path. Her family goes right, and she decides to take the left path, figuring she'll enjoy the scene until they meet again when the two paths meet. Unfortunately for her, they never do meet again. Trisha lives for about 2 weeks in the wilderness. She faces many problems. One of the major problems that go on for the majority of the book is insects. Moths, mosquitoes, and wasps make up half of this depressing story. Mosquitoes torment her, which causes her to fall down a hill into a wasp's nest. Through the story she faces problems like bears, bad water, lack of food, and a rapist supposedly lurking through the woods (although he never actually APPEARS.) In the end, she dies of pneumonia, what a horrible ending! Because of the way my book was written, there was only 1 character. An interesting aspect of her would be her love for the Red Sox closer, Tom Gordon. During her adventure in the wilderness, she starts becoming delirious and she starts seeing things. She believes her heartthrob, Tom, is with her, and she has many conversations (although they're mainly 1 sided) with him. She also tries her best not to get her autographed hat dirty and lost. She even jumps into a raging river to get it back. I think that this is pretty realistic, because many girls hold celebrities in a special place in their hearts. To many readers, I would not recommend this book. This is more of a story to read for die-hard Stephen King reader. This is certainly a break from his writing style, because the horror was weak and almost non-existent. I was very disappointed, and horror readers will be too.
Rating: 
Summary: Something for everyone
Review: A great short story from the master of writing. King does some of his best work when keeping the story short and too the point. Something for everyone not too scary and not too big just right for a quick 1 to 2 night read.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not best
Review: This book is good but to me when I compare it with other Stephen King books this one falls short. Don't get me wrong this is a good book with a good story and a good main character, but I just don't think it is nearly as good as other King books. In my opinoin if you want to read a good Stephen King book read this one the last.
Rating: 
Summary: Haunting, visoinary and suspenceful!
Review: The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, is a truly haunting and all to believable book. Even though there is an evil lurking around it is still a truly wonderful adventure book. It was so good as an adventure/survival book that I didn't want ti to become the usual Stephen King book with some sort of evil lurking around. Trisha Gets lost in the words and for the first day she thinks that she will just find her mom and brother again but she dosn't. So she decides to Ration the food, but she didn't do it enough so she runs out of it in two days and has to begin eating berries and drinking creek water. The Girl who Loves tom gordon is an absolutly brilliant visionary tale, it is well written and very colorful, a true treat that is brilliant, but a little to much of the same Stephen King to be his best.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Steven King I remembered as a kid
Review: Don't get me wrong- this story was well written, but it lacked the punch that other Steven King books delivered for me when I last read some of them years ago (e.g., The Stand, Pet Cemetery, It). King is gifted at describing horror in the commonplace (think Cujo or Christine), but even he couldn't wring macabre out of a simple case of a girl lost in the woods. The story was convincing in that I believed it accurately depicted what a 9 year old would do if lost in the woods, but I just didn't care that much. Also, the creature stalking the girl is a let down and kind of seems tossed in as an afterthought. The girl was perishing all right on her own without the intervention of evil incarnate shaped like a badly drawn bear.
Rating:
Summary: A Novel to Read Over and Over
Review: This novel is about survival to say the least. When reading this novel, you feel as though you are apart of it. Your heart will go out to this brave little girl as she struggles to overcome obstacles not only in the wilderness, but obstacles caused by family strife and fear. The girls survival through the wild goes far beyond what most adults could ever endure. Stephen King does another extordinary job creating a story that has you turning back to the first page to read it again!
Rating:
Summary: King is king
Review: This is indeed Stephen King. Who else could make a suspense story about a nine-year-old (but tall for her age) girl who strayed from the hiking trail on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail? Not only is King's story suspenseful, it is believeable. I had forgotten how well King writes--his other novels so gripped me with their story lines, I never really considered his writing skills. My loss. In Legend, King tells his story from the perspective of the lost Tricia McFarland. It's not in the first person--that would have detracted from the story line,as readers would wonder how a nin-year-old , one even tall for her age, could think in sentences of a mature adult. This approach to the narration allows the author to think like a young lady, but narrate in terms ofa young lady's perspective. Confusing? Trust me. Consider some of Tricia's thoughts as she muddles her way throught the forest. "She said the Our Father, but it came out of her mouth sounding flat and uncomforting, about as useful as an electric can opener would have been out here." Or,"The moon was so bright that it had embarrassed all but the brightest stars into invisibility." Or, when thinking of her mother,she says to herself, "If Mother had been at Little Bighorn, the Indians might still have won, but the body-count would have been considerably higher." When Triciaaccidently comes across an abandoned road in the forest, King captures the moment as "the night stretched out ahead of her like a thousand miles of empty road." Mosquitoes? They were clustered on the back of her neck, lined up just below the hairline like kdrinkers at happy hour, guzzling their fill" And the scene in which Tricia and a wild bear meet in the forest is uncomparable King. King's c hapter headings are called Pre-Game, First Inning, Second Inning, and so on.The title of the novel comes from TRicia's hero-worship of Tom Gordon, Boson Red Sox pitcher whose chief responsibility was that of entering the game as closing pitcher, that is, as the one responsibe for protecting a lead. There is a real Tom Gorgan on the Red Sox team,but King assures us in an author's Postscript that his Tom Gordon is fictional. Tricia hallucinates throughout her adventure,seeing Gordon, talking with him, and being guided by his calm and wisdom. Child=like, but not childish. Big Surprise.
Rating:
Summary: well written, the best yet.
Review: A nine-year-old girl and her family go on a six-mile trip on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trial. Trisha McFarland goes on this adventure to leave the city and forget their problems at home. Later her old brother, Pete,and her recently divorced mother start arguing. Trish wanders off, then realizes that her mom and Pete are nowhere to be found. She tries to catch up by taking a short cut, but finds herself lost as she goes on. As the night start to fall, she tries to find a place to rest and sleep for the night, but as soon as she tries her mind takes over. Then she finds herself scared walking around the woods finding a slaughtered animal, and thinking that a "THING" is watching her every move. The only thing that keeps her in contact with civilization is her Walkman, on which she listens to the broadcast of the Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows every performance of her favorite pitcher Tom Gordon. As her Walkman's batteries go low, Trisha starts to imagine her favorite Red Sox player Tom Gordon. Then days later her luck turns worse and she has all kind of misfortunes. This book is a mystery and suspense book that keeps you on the edge of your chair. I recommend this book to anybody that likes mystery and suspense books because Stephen King makes the characters seem real and this problem can happen to anyone.
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