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Book Review: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

One girl's trials in the woods and her struggle for sanity

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a horror-suspense novel by New England's legendary Stephen King. The story is told through the eyes of Trisha McFarland; a Boston-raised and Red Sox-crazed nine-year-old girl.

Trisha is now lost in the woods, and reaching the conclusion that something is chasing her. Something big. Something with teeth. Something looking for blood.

Trisha is crazy about the Red Sox. Her favorite player is Tom Gordon, a starter for the Red Sox  at the time. Gordon is her absolute hero; she has all his jerseys, even his practice jersey. Her prized possession though is the signed Sox cap she got when she went to Fenway with her family.

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The story takes place in Maine in 1998, when Trisha, her mom and her brother go out on a hiking trip in the woods. Her mother and father recently divorced, with the mother gaining custody and moving out to Maine. Trisha's brother and mother are arguing incessantly the whole trip about this; the brother was upset that they moved to Maine, but really he just wants to see his father. Trisha leaves the two to their bickering to go into the woods to pee, and then losses the path.

The story is amazing, and unconventional for King. It was around this time, (1998) that some of his books were beginning to focus more on the effects fear itself and the idea of evil, rather than a crazed antagonist or a supernatural terror. Trisha is lost in the woods for several days, and, she starts to get the feeling that there is an unholy evil following her. She names it The God of the Lost, and envisions a huge bloodthirsty creature.

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But she doesn't lose hope. In her mind it's a test of her strength, courage and intelligence. So she draws her strength from her hero, Tom Gordon, with a hand-held radio she brought with her for the trip, and her vision and idea of her hero helps her through the ordeal.

This is a slight breakaway from most of King's previous works, where character backgrounds and the establishment of normalcy in the beginning creates stark contrast to the weird and/or horrific events bound to ensue. In this book, the story starts off with immediate action and pulls the reader in right off the bat.

Another rare thing about this book is that the suspense is not based in the events of story itself, but rather the question of existence of the supernatural beings in the mind of the reader. It's not a question of whether or not Trisha lives through her ordeal; since the book is framed from her point-of-view, she has to make it, otherwise she wouldn't be telling the story.

The thrilling aspect of this book is that, because of his previous works, the reader is never quite sure what to expect, and it always keeps you guessing right up until the end as to the reality of the numerous supernatural events that take place in the woods. Is Trisha hallucinating these things, or is there really a malicious spirit stalking her? It makes the imagination of the reader the deciding factor for the story, and creates a unique experience for anyone who reads it.

An amazing and fast-paced read, this book will keep you in literary limbo right up until you turn the last page. A great book for fans of horror stories or the Red Sox. Or even a combination of the two, like last year's season.


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