The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

[CyberGhostface]

This is probably one of my favorite SK books. (Maybe in the Top Ten or Twenty...) Its short, and yet at the same time, its pretty effective. Trisha McFarland's also one of my favorite SK characters as well, and I'd like to see more characters like her someday. Anyone else like it?

[Jean]

I love it.

[ManOfWesternesse]

No, I was singularly unimpressed with this one.
I've only read it the once, and don't even recall it too well now. Maybe I ought to re-read it one of these days?

[Jean]

definitely

[Darkthoughts]

I loved it! It was an excellent book that dealt with fear in a really gripping and unique way.
For a story with essentially one character, I thought it was a great achievement, in that it held my attention throughout.

What King failed to do in Gerald's Game, he succeeded in ten fold here :thumbsup:

[Girlystevedave]

Compared to all the SK books Ive read, I think this one may have been one of the creepiest/scariest ones I read. It's the fact that it is something that can easily happen to somebody. That's what got to me, I think.
uuugh..Creepy :scared:

[LiveTransmission]

I like this book a lot. I don't think there's been another King book that has been so effective in making me feel the fear of the main character. Everytime I read it I want to try a fiddlehead just to see what they taste like.

[kirin]

other king books have had things that this one lacked but it was scary in its own singular fashion and reminded me to some degree of the time i got lost as a child, on top of that it was much more to the point than other books and straight to the point compelling even, i am finding blaze interesting for the same reasons

[sycorax82]

I can't believe it took me so long to pick this up. For some reason it never appealed to me (how foolish can one be? It has SK on the front...). It turned out to be one of my most refreshing reads in a while. Initially I thought it was a shame it was going to be so short but once you get into it you realise it's as long as it needs to be.

Trisha is a fantastic character, completely defined in just a few pages. I like how many of the things she comes out with are phrases she's learnt from her parents or her friend. And going off into her daydreams. That's exactly how a 9-year-old would act. Also, I'm not a baseball fan (I'm English...) but that didn't stop me getting or enjoying the baseball references. It's funny that my entire knowledge of baseball probably comes from King novels!

The last few lines actually had me in tears. I think it's one of his most pure and brilliant endings ever. The understanding between Trisha and her dad with her doing Gordon's finger pointing move...Steve did that so well. I was smiling as wide as her dad was. And just before that, how the 'hunter' thinks he sees something more than a bear for a split second, that gave me chills, mainly because it's pure King.
Definitely worth checking out if you've never picked it up.

[mia/susannah]

I loved this book. I felt really bad for her. I actually cried with some of this book. How corny is that

[Ruthful]

I really enjoyed reading this novel. I remember that at the time I was suffering from chicken pox-which is difficult for an adult to endure-and it served as a welcome distraction from my condition.

King did a surprisingly good job limning the thought process of a scared, pre-adolescent girl, IMO. It's also good that King wrote a piece of fiction that can be read by children, although I don't think you'd classify this as kiddie lit.

[candy]

i started off not liking this book, probabley because i dont think its very SK like, but i really got hooked in and as you have all said, ended up really caring for that little girl and her famiy.

i really agree with Darkers that GGame failed miserably (i didnt care for that book at all), whereas this little gem conveyed the fear and isolation so much better.:thumbsup:

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

I thought GG was better. Just my opinion.

[Jean]

Bears love both GG and TGWLTG, but the latter a bit more.

[Sam]

TGWLTG is King at his best in my opinion. He took us all back to our childhood and dropped us in the middle of the woods, alone. How many writers can reach back and remember the fears and thinkings of a child, and understand it well enough to write from that perspective. I had to read the entire book in one sitting myself. I did put it down once and tried to sleep, but I was truly and horribly stuck in the story, lost in the woods with Trisha. I had to go back to it and finish before the tale would let go of me.

[candy]

oh i know that feeling, tbh i get it with most of sk books

[Brice]

I just restarted this a little while ago today. I'd forgotten how good a story it is.

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

My brother and I were lost in the woods around Cloudcroft NM for about 12 hours once when I was about 8 and he was about 11. This book comes very close to describing ones thought processes in that situation. At first, its ok. We were kinda in disbelief. It was like we were on an adventure. Then the reality sets in and a feeling of dread settles over you. Then it starts to get dark, and dread becomes all-out panic.

[Sam]

I was lost as a young child, maybe 4 years old but I think 3, and vaguely remember pieces of it. I really believe this is one reason TGWLTG resonated so well with me. It also scared the living shit out of me.

[Jean]

I have never been lost - actually, having been a thoroughly city kid, I hardly ever was to any kind of forest... and I don't know a word of baseball, and the idea of listening to the radio is as foreign to me as foreign can be, etc, etc; but every word of TGWLTG resonated with me, and when I was reading that, I was her and she was me, although in everything we are as different as they come. That's what happens when you read a really great book.

[GirlGoneNineteen]

This is in my top 5 favorites by SK. I keep meaning to re-read it one day.

[ChildoftheTurtle]

Funny, this is the only SK book I did not care for. I thought it came across as GGredeaux...

[Ka-tet]

One of my fave books, i love it, must go back and re-read it soon :D.

Also does anyone think

Theres a link between the bear and Shardik? Possibly?

[GirlGoneNineteen]

It's hard to think that there are any coincidences in SK's work anymore!
:P

[Jean]

well, all us bears are related...

[Ka-tet]

Ill take your answers as a yes my friends :P

[WeDealInLead]

I really, really liked this book. King's strong point (other than the creep factor) is writting about childhoods and growing up (think It, The Body, The Wizard and Glass).

I don't think that 'bear' was any sort of Shardik.

[The Road Virus]

I did not especially like this one. It was an easy read and a good story but too anti-climatic and a littile predictable/cliche for my liking. I won't be re-reading it (good thing it's a book borrowed from a friend haha)

[mae]

The Losers Club podcast on this novel:

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-losers-club-a-stephen-king-podcast/episode/the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-88575878