22, live in North Wales. I've done quite a few reviews that aren't on Ciao here: http://www.gamesboo...
22, live in North Wales. I've done quite a few reviews that aren't on Ciao here: http://www.gamesbooksfilms.com :)
Member since:19.06.2003
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First question - who is Tom Gordon? He is a baseball player who closes for the Boston Red Sox, so in the U.K he is almost completely unknown. Unsurprisingly, Stephen King's novel is not based around a baseball season, but a young girls desperate struggle for survival.
Trisha McFarland is off on a day-trip to the woods with her mother and brother. The two are arguing as usual due to the mother and father breaking up and having to move to a new area. Trisha has had enough and so leaves the trail momentairily to have a break from the endless bickering, but as she tries to rejoin the trail, she manages to get lost in the woods. What follows is a tough battle for survival against a variety of nasty obstacles.
As Trisha wonders further away from the perimeter of search and rescue parties, she has to survive in the wild on her own by scrounging for food and water, plus creating a suitable shelter at night. As time passes and hope of a rescue all but diminishes completely, Trisha's last remaining motivation is listening to her walkman - Red Sox games and especially for her hero Tom Gordon. The joker in the pack comes in the form of an entity that appears to watch her while she sleeps at night, leaving its mark on nearby woodland by tearing down trees and mutilating animals. It seems only a matter of time before it goes for the girl.
'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' is pretty unique among Stephen King's novels for a couple of reasons - firstly, Trisha is essentially the only real character in the whole story, others appear only very briefly or are a figment of her imagenation. The story tracks the movements of Trisha through the woods in the thrid-person, mainly. King had written and elderly man in to the lead role in 1994's 'Insomnia', and a couple of books later does the exact opposite - Trisha being a nine year-old girl. A great deal of focus is put on her and her thoughts but she proves to be a likable character that is for the most part, pretty convincing in her innocence.
On the whole, 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' is a decent and enjoyable read. It is just short of three hundred pages and though this is quite short compared with other King books, it isn't really noticable and doesn't hamper the story. Trisha's defenceless appearance and rapidly declining health plus the feeling she is being watched add considerably to the tense atmosphere that runs throughout.
On the downside, the ending seems a little short considering the almost epic nature of the adventure leading up to it, the final 'showdown' falls short of expectations and there are inevitably some questions left unanswered.
This isn't King in full flight but is a real page-turner, with a spooky atmosphere, an interesting setting and an unlikely central hero. Well worth investigating.
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Stephen King has been for so long the master of the thick blockbuster horror paperback ... more
that it is salutary to be reminded of the quieter writer of shorter, tighter stories that he also is. His new novella could hardly be simpler--a nine-year-old girl...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Stephen King has been for so long the master of the thick blockbuster horror paperback ... more
that it is salutary to be reminded of the quieter writer of shorter, tighter stories that he also is. His new novella could hardly be simpler--a nine-year-old girl...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Stephen King has been for so long the master of the thick blockbuster horror paperback ... more
that it is salutary to be reminded of the quieter writer of shorter, tighter stories that he also is. His new novella could hardly be simpler--a nine-year-old girl...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
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