The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Stephen King)

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Stephen King
Scribner
Fiction, Horror
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland wanted to enjoy the hike along the Appalachian Trail, one of many recent weekend outings planned by her divorced mother to rebuild a family bond with Trisha and her angry older brother Pete... but from before they left the house, Mom and Pete were fighting. They never stopped fighting, no matter how much Trisha tried to play the peacemaker, tried to swallow her own feelings and smile and defuse the tension. It's like they don't even realize she's there, listening to the terrible things they say to each other. At last, she couldn't stand it anymore. Even a quick bathroom break off the trail would be a welcome respite. She just took a few paces into the brush, far enough not to be seen by any passing day hikers.
She thought she knew the way back...
Soon, Trisha realizes that she must have taken a wrong turn - but the Appalachian Trail is wide and well traveled, and surely she can find it if she just keeps going. Only minutes become hours, and she has to admit that she's hopelessly lost in the wilderness, having few supplies in her pack and no more survival skills than scraps she's read in books or learned from a mother who was far more city than country. To keep her spirits up, she uses her Walkman to listen to radio broadcasts of her favorite baseball team, the Red Sox, and her favorite player, closing pitcher Tom Gordon. She even imagines him there with her, giving her encouragement. But when she realizes that she's not as alone as she thinks, that something of inhuman patience and malevolence stalks her, she finds herself facing a threat that not even her hero can help her escape...

REVIEW: Reading like a cross between Gary Paulsen's classic Hatchet and, well, Stephen King, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon drops an ordinary girl into an extraordinary situation, one where wilderness survival is complicated by supernatural elements. Not that nature needs any help to be deceptive and deadly on its own, especially to an inexperienced kid who never anticipated anything more strenuous than the "moderate to difficult" day hike Mom planned that morning, and most especially to one already distracted by her own anxieties. Some small part of her almost wanted to get lost when she left the trail, just to get away from Mom and Pete... only Trisha never meant it so literally. From denial to determination to find her own way back to panic to practical (if scared) acceptance, Trisha makes some mistakes but tries to get her head together and think her way out of her bad situation - and that's before the animal instincts wake to alert her of her stalker, often more feeling than physical entity, which seems to be herding her deeper into the wilderness and toying with her along the way. As a coping mechanism, an inner voice - often dark, but sometimes helpful - speaks up to guide her, and her imagined companion Tom Gordon offers company that becomes more tangible as her physical and mental conditions deteriorate. As is often the case with these tales, Trisha does a lot of growing up in her time alone... though, this being Stephen King, there is no guarantee that she'll survive long enough to apply the hard-won wisdom of the wilds. Amid the terrors and failures are moments of peace and beauty, and Trisha learns to see and appreciate those, too, even as everything else goes wrong. The whole may not be top-notch Stephen King, but makes for a solid, often gruesome tale of survival and finding inner strength in unexpected places.

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