The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Rating:
Summary: One of King's best yet!
Review: I love Stephen King, I've read probably all of his books at least 2 times. When I got this book for my birthday, I read the inside flaps of the book and thought I wouldn't like it. I expected a supernatural story with vampires and ghosts and other stuff like that (but, hey, doesn't all Stephen King fans expect that).

I started reading the book. It is about a 9 year old girl named Trisha, who lives with her brother and mom, her parents are divorced. Her brother is constantly arguing with her mom because he wants to live with their dad. Trisha's mom is always taking Trisha and her brother on family outings, despite Trisha's brother's complaints. This is where it begins.

They're hiking in the woods in Maine, and Trisha decides to go pee. Her mom and her brother are fighting so she walks off without telling one of them. She goes off and then gets lost trying to find her way back. I was stuck in the book thinking about what would happen to Trisha.

I felt sorry for her and was hoping for her to get out of the woods, but I won't tell you if she does, you have to read that and find that out yourself. Stephen King does an excellent job of writing a real life terror story. It made me think about various endings during the time I read it and when I was finished, I finished it in about 1:30 hours. I recommend that you buy this book and read it.

Rating:
Summary: Horror in a new perspective
Review: "The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon" is an excellent novel. Stephen King has done a great job with this one. It isn't the typical horror story, rather, it is... Unnerving. It gave me an uneasy feeling as I read it. This story is about a girl who gets lost in the woods during a hike because she had to pee. Her constantly arguing mom and brother didn't take notice of her momentary leave. When she is finished, she begins walking but never finds the path. Now her only connection to the outside world is her walkman, which she uses to listen to baseball games where Tom Gordon is up. She is forced to survive the horrors of the woods - deadly snakes, swarms of stinging wasps, thousands of biting misquitoes, thick murky bogs, and many other dangers. The story was worded to strike horror the the reader's heart. The story's ending will leave you thinking for days. This book is MOVING, and it was very enjoyable to read. I may even read it again some day. The effect is a grand one.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I loved this book. It is not one of King's back-breaking, eye-strainig 800+ page book. It is a breath of fresh air. It follows the lines of a classic horror movie where you're not sure if the mosnter is real or not. It is saturated in lovely symbolism and addresses issues like religion and self realization. You actually begin to love the main character. As a warning, this is not your typical overly-words, pedantic King. This gets straight to the point and is a very fast read, but worth reading more than once. One of my favorite books, ever!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Thrillers that have ever been written!
Review: Stephen King writes diffrent kinds of stories; this is a really frightenig one. When I bought the book I thought it would be a classic Monster- Novel with beasts and stuff but it really isn't. First: it's a very short story for Stephen, that's what made me curious, second: everything about and around the girl in this story (the woods, the animals, the fear, the behaviour) is so real, that you're really frightened about her destiny. After reading two pages, you have feelings for that girl. Stephen King has a special kind of thrilling in this story; he doesn't bring in monsters, no, what he does is much heavier. When you almost think that the girl finally arrives in a town or finds a road she decides to not crossing the not very deep lake but to go around it, the wrong way, right into nothing (400 miles 'til Montreal and almost no town or anything human between them). Those moments make it worth to read the book. And on my opinion this is not just one of the best King novels, it's also one of the best thrillers that have ever been written. Thanks for reading my review.

Rating:
Summary: not among King's best, but definitely worth reading
Review: I'll admit that "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" isn't as gripping as Stephen King's other novels, but I found it to be an enjoyable, quick read. Enough has already been said about the plot, so I won't rehash it. Instead I'll comment on why I found this novel to be worthwhile.

For one, King does a commendable job with making the story flow, considering the fact that the vast majority of the novel has no dialogue and centers around Trisha's character, alone by herself in the woods. Instead of the typical dialogue, King must rely on imagery and narrative alone to carry the story. Accomplishing this isn't an easy task.

Anyone who sees this novel as simply "a girl lost in the woods" isn't looking deep enough. This novel has many themes including the feeling of isolation, survival, facing our most primitive fears, and in my view, coming-of-age to a certain point. And maybe the scariest thing about it is that any one of us could be faced with a similar situation.

I give this novel a strong recommendation even if it may not be as "loaded" as King's other novels. Here he strips down the story to the most basic form and the result is one that works. And to other fans of this novel: there's supposedly a movie adaptation in the works that will star the real-life Tom Gordon.

Rating:
Summary: She was a lost girl who had no hope until she met Tom Gordon
Review: The book "The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon" written by Stephen King was the kind of book you couldnt put down! It was awesome. Its about a girl who goes hiking in the woods with her family and they constantly agrue and she had to use the bathroom really bad so she went in the woods without telling her mom or brother,and when she was done she was LOST! for several days and ran into some unusal things. This is the book that you wonder "whats going to happen next?". I would say for everyone to read this book,and this isnt the typical Stephen King book you would have in mind its from a whole different point of view.

Rating:
Summary: Story is good, but still has many problems.
Review: I must admit that I enjoyed this book, but I was only able to do so because I suspended my belief in reality and accepted King's premise. The little girl is lost early in the book, and from there I read each page wanting to find out if and when and how she would be rescued. The rescue at the end would be the big payoff. The girl Trisha spent several weeks in the woods, getting bitten to death by bugs, slowly going crazy, starving and sick, but somehow she keeps moving. Her favorite baseball player is Tom Gordon, and she listens to his games on her Walkman and talks to him to try and keep her sanity. All of this works well, and the end is a satisfying payoff to the girl lost in the woods story.

But was this good for a Stephen King effort? Sure it was, but it wasn't worthy of a novel. Even at large print and 220 pages, this short novel seemed to drag in places and to also be repititive. This would have been better a short story part of a larger collection. I think King could have done better than producing this afterthought of a novel. Other recent novels are probably 4 times longer than this one.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was definitely a slow mover and not what is a normal Stephen King novel. Though, I have to admit, I had to finish the book because I needed to know if and how the little girl gets out of the woods.

Rating:
Summary: She was a lost girl who had no hope until she met Tom Gordon
Review: The book "The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon" written by Stephen King was the kind of book you couldnt put down! It was awesome. Its about a girl who goes hiking in the woods with her family and they constantly agrue and she had to use the bathroom really bad so she went in the woods without telling her mom or brother,and when she was done she was LOST! for several days and ran into some unusal things. This is the book that you wonder "whats going to happen next?". I would say for everyone to read this book,and this isnt the typical Stephen King book you would have in mind its from a whole different point of view.

Rating:
Summary: Sparse plot.
Review: I read Stephen King because Stephen King spins a wonderful yarn. I don't think that this novel represents what the majority of Stephen King fans (like me!) expect when they buy one of his books. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if it had been a short story instead of a novella. The material (plot) is too thin for the number of pages it fills....and the target audience seems to be smaller than that of the usual Stephen King novel.