Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining disappointment
Review: As a huge and long-time Stephen King fan, my first warning was the shortness of this book. Stephen King books are generally in excess of 400 pages, and this is a lightweight in comparison. Although some of his short books are excellent, such as Misery or Gerald's Game, I have found most of them to also be short of his standard.I found myself caught up in the story, as always with this author, with the vivid imagery and excellent character insight drawing me into the novel. I felt a real sympathy for the girl child heroine, and her thoughts rang true. However, I was left with a feeling of incompleteness. Perhaps he had to make a deadline so did not flesh out the story as he normally would have. If you're a big King fan, go ahead and get this book, but if you're looking for true horror or suspense, this does not deliver it.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad try stephen. Bad
Review: This was one of the worst books I have ever read. And usually I love King's work. The girl isn't very bright and she doesn't develope like a regular character of stephen king's. The book was a great dissappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast Paced Look At the Mettle of a Nine Year Old
Review: I picked up Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" to see how well the author's work hewed to the writing advice he gives in "On Writing." Pretty well, it turns out. As a bonus, I liked this story. The simple premise revolves around a nine year old lost in a huge woods with only her wits and a few supplies to sustain her. Her wits devolve upon Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon, her favorite player, whose image accompanies her. The imagined Gordon provides the inner voice she needs to meet the challenges of the deep woods and her own mind. Of course, there also lurks the unknown terror at the edge of the wood, but from King's reputation I assume that this nemesis provides much less horror than is usually found in his more famous works. Rather, the unknown terror provides suspense and a motivating force that this child must deal with. More would give away the crux of the story. Suffice to say the reader won't be disappointed by the end of the book. Simple, but King's excellent writing sustains this simple premise over two hundred and fifty odd pages. His character development is wonderful -- one feels the little girl's (Trisha)emotions as she confronts her trials. His dialogue (in flashbacks) feels real and the whole story is believable. This book works and is an excellent quick read.
Rating:
Summary: Realistically creepy
Review: A great one by Stephen King. It was sweet and to the point not all long and drawn out like King's books often are. I read it in one day and loved it. Trisha, a little girl lost in the woods off the Appalachian Trail, has to learn survival while trying to find a way out of the forest. Her encounters are spooky and her thoughts terrifying. It is a great and exciting read!
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of boring
Review: I read this book from cover to cover on a two day road trip and there were times that talkin to my mother was more interesting. Like all Stephen King books, there is some great imagery in there. But it just doesn't have the edge that his really great books do. Stephen King has proven that he has the ability to write a gripping story even though there is very little character interaction or scenery change (see Gerald's Game) but it just didn't happen in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the woods
Review: After reading Jaws, my carefree days at the beach were ruined forever. Likewise, after listening to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, my camping gear was sold at the next yard sale. While I can laugh off vampires and resurrected pets, getting lost in the woods could happen to anyone. Trisha's indefatigable courage was awe inspiring. I don't think I would last nine hours alone in the forest, much less nine days. Anne Heche's child-like voice as nine year old Trisha is perfect and the story is wonderful. Please, Mr. King, give us more books like this. (This refers to the unabridged audio-book version)
Rating:
Summary: Strong Follow-up to Bag of Bones
Review: There are a great number of ways people read. Some love short anthology books, other are more keen to go through novels and eat them whole. Still some readers are more of on a genre basis, reading just horror, romance or what have you. I love reading. Perhaps one of the great past times that I never tire of is just sitting down and going for a really good read. To move from places you can only imagine and try to be in. To actually live in the setting the author draws on with his words. When it comes to reading I would go forth by reading a novel or two after each other and them taking a break by reading some short story anthology. Kind of a way top draw a breather. My last Stephen King book was Bag of Bones and that story grabbed by the neck and kept me completely enthralled by every aspect of it. The whole thing. I stood and wondered how a man like King could actually scribe such a masterpiece. He was more cast as a stereotypical horror writer, but what Bag of Bones had was something that not authors can emulate or draw from. That work was so much different from all his previous work that a person could have been fooled that the author was not really King himself. That book was big and long and after reading it, I thought that I needed time off from big novels and, though he's my fave author, from King himself. Through it all, I was thinking, ok, Stephen, you did it once, but can you really do it again?? It was only after more than a year from my last King book that I finally knew the answer. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a short book by all standards. A fast reader could gulp it up in one setting and an average one could go with it for around a week. The book follows the same trend as Bag of Bones, with King relying more on his literary prowess more than his ability to scare powers. But does that mean, he doesn't have that in him. Oh no no! He just has it more in check and it's really in it. The whole idea of a girl being lost in the woods for God knows how long alone, and the reader experiencing what she has to go through is a feat all by itself. The notion of having a nine year old, alone, scared s just too incredulous to really fathom. Only King could have tackled such a thing and he does it superlatively. King's descriptive abilities are so strong that you will feel that you're with Trisha, wherever she goes, feeling whatever she does and seeing what she is seeing. Her dreams become reality and even her delirious hallucinations make the fear crawl inside you. This book is a winner. I won't go into what I think King was going for in the story, but I guarantee that you will be touched by it. By the determination of that plucky 9 year old girl who looks older than her age.
Rating:
Summary: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??
Review: From time to time, King write something that the line between horror and a "normal" book is very thin. This is one of then, not a horror story (but there is a evil entity), is more like him, telling us how some parents are so self-centerd that they won't notice until way too late that their children are missing or anything like that. No gore, no scares, only the suspense of whether the girl lifes or dies (which i won't tell, so you go read it). Not a bad book, yet not one of his best work. What it lacks in horror made up in impressive descriptions and suspense. Buy it so you can have the King collection.
Rating:
Summary: Not the typical Stephen King novel.
Review: This book is far different from other SK novels, first of all this has to be the shortest book from Stephen King I've ever read. Second, unlike "Insomnia" and "Desperation" this book lacks a strong supernatural tone. But, over all, this book was a nice read and might just get some new Stephen King readers, while keeping the returning victims of his books interested.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Review: Stephen King has been under fire of late by some of his so-called fans for daring to move away from his traditional style of writing and exploring new themes. Books like "Hearts in Atlantis" and this novel have received scathing reviews from "veteran" King readers, but I implore anyone who has not yet read one to do so before making up their mind. "The Girl Who..." is a beautifully written, rite-of-passage novel detailing the exploits of 9 year old Trisha McFarland when she finds herself lost in the woods of Maine. Trisha's odyssey begins when her divorcee mother takes Trisha and her brother for a hike through the woods. However, mother and son's constant bickering soon becomes too much for her, and she momentarily steps off the trail to relieve both her bladder and her aching head. Big mistake. She soon finds herself lost and blundering deeper and deeper into the woods, stalked by something that may be the object of her imagination, or may not... King so accurately describes the thoughts, fears and emotions of a 9 year old girl that one has to wonder if perhaps he might have been one in a former life. There are times during the book when you think that if one more misfortune befalls Trisha, you might just give up and die yourself. We feel her pain just as keenly as trisha herself. There are people who have reviewed this book and complained about the baseball references. However, they obviously do not see them for what they are; the means by which Trisha keeps herself sane. Her precious walkman and the Sox games are her only link to the civilised world while she stumbles through the wilderness. Please do not let the prospect of baseball references turn you away from reading this book. They are few and far between, and easily understood, even if you've never seen or played baseball in your life.
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