This isn't a big book, but it holds a special place among my favorite Stephen King books.

It is brilliantly written, and I firmly believe that any other book centered around being lost in the woods will seem insignificant in comparison.

King has managed to keep his "I digress" waffling moments out of this particular work.

Don't misunderstand me; I love his waffling most of the time as it helps create great characters.

The ominous feeling of the little girl being stalked by something unknown is incredibly powerful.

I read this book in one sitting.

Any reader who doubts Stephen King's status as a literary genius should give this book a try.

This man is at his most formidable when writing within a small setting with just one character.

This book should indeed be studied in schools.

Also, there's a moral to be learned.

Kiddies, don't wander off on paths in the woods!

Bad things can and will happen.

Listen to your parents too, or else you might face the consequences. lol.

Overall, this is a remarkable book that showcases King's talent at its finest.

I have heard that this is one of the few books by Stephen that has a happy ending. Just saying that is enough to encourage one to read it.

It is a very lovely story, very easy to read (since it is very short) and most importantly; at no time does it lose that macabre and twisted essence that only the author knows how to create.

The plot unfolds in a captivating way, drawing the reader in from the very beginning. The characters are well-developed and their actions and emotions are relatable.

Despite its short length, the story manages to pack a punch and leave a lasting impression. It is a great example of Stephen's writing skills and his ability to create a unique and engaging world.

If you are a fan of Stephen's work or just looking for a quick and enjoyable read, this book is definitely worth checking out.

A remarkable story about the survival struggle of a 9-year-old who gets lost in a forest. Despite constantly being haunted by hallucinations, pain, and the fear of death, she grows beyond herself.

The young girl finds herself in a terrifying situation as she wanders aimlessly through the dense forest. The unfamiliar surroundings and the lack of any sign of civilization add to her anxiety. However, she refuses to give up and shows extraordinary courage and determination.

As she battles against the elements and her own inner demons, she discovers a strength within herself that she never knew existed. With each passing day, she becomes more resourceful and learns to adapt to her environment. Her will to survive is truly inspiring.

This story is a testament to the power of the human spirit and the ability to overcome even the most difficult of challenges. It shows that no matter how dire the circumstances may seem, there is always hope and the possibility of growth and transformation.

A little girl gets lost alone in the woods. But for better or worse, no one is ever really alone…

The world had teeth and it could bite you with them any time it wanted. Trisha McFarland discovered that when she was nine years old. Sounds like Cujo, doesn’t it? Sometimes bad things happen and it’s nobody’s fault, just the way of the world. Sometimes all the courage and willpower in the world isn’t enough to save you. And sometimes it is.

Along with the Dark Tower series, this unique little book was my favorite of the new-to-me King books I read this year. While it has a lot of aspects that I like about King in addition to tropes I like in general, it’s different from his other books I’ve read (much pithier, for one thing) and a bit sui generis overall.

If you read survival memoirs, you’ll notice that many real people who got lost in the wild, in addition to their suffering and fear and physical breakdown, also had some kind of transcendent or spiritual experience. In between periods of misery and despair, they came to understand themselves, the natural world, and some kind of greater force in a way which felt deeply and lastingly important to them, though many say that no attempt at description can convey what it was really like. King delves into this phenomenon, giving the book an atmosphere at once delicate and powerful, full of realistic and suspenseful wilderness details balanced with a satisfyingly ambiguous exploration of that which is inherently unknowable and indescribable.

Nine-year-old Trisha goes with her mother and older brother for a short hike on the Appalachian Trail. When she steps off the path for a pee break, she realizes that she’s fallen behind and tries to take a short cut to catch up with them. One easy-to-make mistake leads to another, and Trisha is soon lost in the woods. Very, very lost.

That’s the entire book: the extraordinary journey of an ordinary girl. But Trisha is extraordinary too, in the way that anyone may become if they hit the exact right— or wrong— circumstances to bring out their full potential, whether to do right or wrong or simply endure.

If you’ve been following my King reviews and thinking, “Man, these books sound interesting, but so dark! Does he ever write anything that wouldn’t traumatize me if I read it?” Unless you’re very sensitive to children in danger, this could be the one.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is way more emotionally realistic (and so harrowing) than something like Hatchet, but it’s more like that than it is like Carrie, and it’s a lot less traumatizing, to me anyway, than Julie of the Wolves. (No rape, no deaths of sympathic animals.) It’s a character and theme-driven adventure/survival novel with ambiguous fantasy elements and some scary moments, not a horror novel. There’s some snippets of Trisha’s family freaking out, but they get little page time. Trisha suffers, but she’s also very resilient.

Trisha has no special woodsy knowledge. Brian from Hatchet she’s not. Very unusually for a wilderness survival novel with a child hero, Trisha doesn’t do anything that a smart and resourceful but untrained kid couldn’t plausibly have done. The average kid wouldn’t have survived as long as she did, but that’s just statistics. She doesn’t build her own snowshoes, start fires with flint, befriend wolves, or trap rabbits. She eats stuff she finds, she makes a primitive lean-to from fallen branches, and she walks. And walks. No matter how bad things get, she doesn’t stop.

She does it all with nothing but a little bit of food and water, plus her Walkman, which picks up the broadcast of a Red Sox game in which her favorite baseball player, Tom Gordon, is playing. As she gets more and more lost, and is forced to reach deeper and deeper into her mind and body and soul to survive, she calls upon others to help her out: her memories of her family and her parentally disapproved-of friend Pepsi Robichaud, who could only be considered a bad influence if you’re nine and sheltered, her crush and idol Tom Gordon, and various conceptions of God or Godlike forces.

As time goes on, Tom Gordon becomes Trisha’s imaginary companion, becoming more and more of a presence as she goes from simply needing him more to outright hallucinating from hunger and illness. So another of King’s perennial themes comes into play, the relationship of the fan to the fan-object, and how real and important it can be, for better or worse. (You do not need to know or care about baseball to read this book. I don’t. Technical details are minimal, and King tells you everything you need to know.)

But there are other things in the woods which Trisha didn’t call, except in the sense that she attracted them by being there and vulnerable. Maybe it’s whatever animal predator happens to be around. Maybe it’s a specific animal that’s tracking her. Or maybe it’s supernatural. This part of the story is exceptionally well-done and comes to a very satisfying conclusion.

Back to God, King’s perennial question of “Does he exist and if so, where is he and why does he let bad things happen?” is prominent in this book. While lost, Trisha considers and possibly encounters multiple concepts of God. One is the mainstream idea of an interventionist God, whom Tom Gordon petitions with a gesture during games; if that God answers an athlete’s prayers to win, will He answer Trisha’s to live? Another is the Subaudible, which Trisha’s father explained to her when she asked him if he believed in God:

\\"It had electric heat, that house. Do you remember how the baseboard units would hum, even when they weren't heating? Even in the summer?\\"

Trisha had shaken her head.

\\"That's because you got used to it, but take my word, Trish, that sound was always there. Even in a house where there aren't any baseboard heaters, there are noises. The fridges goes on and off. The pipes thunk. The floors creak. The traffic goes by outside. We hear those things all the time, so most of the time we don't hear them at all. They become... Subaudible.

“I don't believe in any actual thinking God that marks the fall of every bird in Australia or every bug in India, a God that records all of our sins in a big golden book and judges us when we die— I don't want to believe in a God who would deliberately create bad people and then deliberately send them to roast in a hell He created— but I believe there has to be something.

“Yeah, something. Some kind of insensate force for the good.

“I think there's a force that keeps drunken teenagers— most drunken teenagers— from crashing their cars when they're coming home from the senior prom or their first big rock concert. That keeps most planes from crashing even when something goes wrong. Not all, just most. Hey, the fact that no one's used a nuclear weapon on actual living people since 1945 suggests there has to be something on our side.\\"

Much of the book interrogates the idea of a Subaudible, particularly the question of just how conscious it is and if we're our own Subaudible. It also introduces the idea that the Subaudible may have a less benevolent counterpart. This is the God of the Lost, which may be the thing (if there is a thing) stalking Trisha through the woods. If so, is it malevolent or simply dangerous? Is it another insensate force, or conscious and concrete?

What will determine Trisha’s fate? God and the Devil? The Subaudible and the God of the Lost? No supernatural forces at all, just human beings and nature and Trisha herself? Or some combination of those?

I normally find religion the most boring topic on Earth. I did not find it boring in this book. It comes up naturally, and it’s in the form of open questions rather than preaching. I excerpted the part about the Subaudible because it’s easier to quote than to summarize, not because it’s presented as the One Truth.

The prose, which swings easily from King’s usual not-quite-stream-of-consciousness interspersed with bits of omniscient narration to some passages of striking beauty, doesn’t try to imitate a child’s speech. But though the language is adult, the content of Trisha’s inner world did mostly feel convicingly nine-year-old. That’s an age when many kids are thinking about God and why bad things happen. I’ve had children that age talk to me unprompted about those issues in simple language but using pretty sophisticated ideas. The Subaudible isn’t Trisha’s idea, it’s her father’s, but I believed that once he told her about it, she’d keep on chewing over it.

Cut for spoilers. I would not read these if you might read the book; they spoil the climax, which is quite beautifully orchestrated.

A few bits I didn’t want to spoil but I wanted to mention because they felt so emotionally realistic: the bit early on where Trisha packs her scraps because she was taught not to litter, never thinking that she should leave them as markers. That was so believable as a kid’s mindset. Also, go King, you finally wrote a poop scene that actually felt like it needed to be in there. Trisha gets sick and has a miserable night, then comes to the consoling realization that if she never mentions it, no one will ever know. I think a lot of us have had some humiliating bodily issue followed by that exact thought. I had so much empathy for poor Trisha on that one. And there was just enough detail to show what was going on and why she felt that way about it, without tipping into shit-weasel unreadable grossness.

The use of omni was also very well-done, with King dropping in to explain what would have happened if Trisha had gone in the other direction, missed the fence post, etc. He does it just enough to satisfy curiosity, provide a plausible mix of good and bad luck, and give us some “Arrgh, go the other way!” moments.

The ambiguity of the fantasy/supernatural/spiritual elements really worked for me, mostly because the emotional meaning was consistent regardless of how you interpret them. Because King sometimes drops into omniscient, we know something is sniffing around Trisha. But what? An animal? Different animals? Or something else?

My interpretation is that the Subaudible and the God of the Lost are real, but they’re not quite as personal or anthropomorphic as Trisha sometimes sees them. I think the bit where they and Tom Gordon’s God actually talk to her is Trisha putting a human-understandable face and voice on forces that are not really within human comprehension.

When she finally meets the bear-demon, yes, I think it was sent by the God of the Lost… but I think it was a regular bear that got a nudge to go there, get her. Her perceptions are real, but she’s seeing the spiritual truth beneath the surface, not a literal physical demon-bear with literal bugs for eyes. I think both she and the God of the Lost were working with and through natural forces, so the Walkman scared off the bear because you can scare off bears by throwing things at them. But she also defeated the God of the Lost on a spiritual plane, and that’s why the bear fled rather than getting pushed into a second try. The guy with the gun only saved her by getting her to a hospital; Trisha took out the bear all by herself.

I’m with Trisha’s Dad on the existence of the Subaudible as a real thing existing in the world of the book, with the extension that it includes Trisha herself and all of humanity, from the real Tom Gordon to her fannish relationship with him. So it’s mostly the sum of what’s good in humanity. But the Walkman’s possible but unlikely ability to pick up a signal, and its suspiciously long battery life? I think the Subaudible gave that one to her. (Or possibly Tom Gordon’s God. But as King hilariously points out, God does not appear to be a Red Sox fan.)

Similarly, I think the God of the Lost is real, but not as anthropomorphized as Trisha perceives it to be. It’s amoral in the sense that morality does not apply; it goes after her not out of evil or cruelty or any personal desire to get her, but because she stepped into a situation that was inevitably going to kill her if she didn’t escape first. It’s the embodiment of “nature will kill you because that’s what nature does.”

Then again, there’s Trisha’s brief but unsettling perception that the Subaudible is the God of the Lost. But even if that's correct, it still doesn't settle things: maybe the only goodness is us, or maybe the universe consists of us, a vast inimical force of questionable consciousness, and a conscious benevolent God. Ultimately, the book refuses to take a stand on things that are inherently unknowable, and I think that’s the right way to go.

Trisha’s final confrontation is beautifully written, perfect in prose and theme. She faces a bear and a God and the random machinery of death, and her response is to move from having Tom Gordon as a companion and inspiration to taking what she needs from him and making it her own. She’s a dying little girl squared off against a God, a demon, or maybe just (just) a fucking huge hungry bear— but she’s got icewater in her veins, the words of her fannish love in her mouth, and the willingness to give everything she has in this last fight, spit in the face of her greatest fear, and live or die on her feet.

Throwing the Walkman as a pitch was satisfyingly heroic— a perfect story climax— while still being something a kid could plausibly do. It brings together all the themes and plotlines— baseball, Tom Gordon, the Walkman itself, the forces against her, the forces protecting her, the entire question of spirituality, civilization versus nature, the idea that fannish love can literally save your life, and her own indomitable spirit even at death’s door— and makes the same crucial points no matter what interpretation you take of exactly what she faced or did.

Was it an ordinary bear that had been stalking her from hunger? A new bear that turned up then for the first time? A bear sent by the God of the Lost? A supernatural being? An incarnation of Mid-World’s Shardik? A hallucination? (The last is unlikely, because there was a witness… but he’s not the most reliable witness.) Or some combination of those, like a regular bear with added hallucinatory details?

Whatever it was, Trisha exerted the utmost heroism to save herself with the tools she had, and that’s true even if it was purely hallucinatory: she thought she fought it, and she certainly saved herself by walking that far.

The same coherence of theme with ambiguity of interpretation goes for the forces that help Trisha. The guy who finds her: was he sent in some way? By God? By the Subaudible? Or was he just an ordinary guy who happened to be there because she’d gotten far enough to hit a place where people were? And the times when she gets lucky: is luck alone, or did she get a nudge from the Subaudible or God? Any interpretation is satisfying, because none of them could have helped her if she hadn’t already gotten so far out of sheer persistence.

But in the end, when even her extraordinary determination isn’t enough by itself, even when her spiritual perception, whether right or wrong, is that the universe is nothing but teeth, she still doesn’t go down. Instead, she takes a battle that has never been on her turf and that she could only ever survive by going somewhere else, and drags it to a place where she belongs. After an entire book of trying to bring Tom Gordon into the wilderness, Trisha wins by taking the God of the Lost out to the ball game.

I first read this book during my high school days, and to my great delight, I found myself loving it just as deeply (if not even more) this time around as I did back then.

Despite being a rather short book, it has an uncanny ability to evoke a plethora of emotions within me every single time I pick it up and delve into its pages.

I firmly believe that a significant reason why this book resonates so strongly with me is because I, too, have an incredibly abysmal sense of direction. One of my most profound fears is getting hopelessly lost and being unable to find my way back. This book vividly brings that very fear to life, making me feel as if I am lost right there beside Trisha.

However, I highly doubt that I would possess the same strength as her in such a situation. She is an incredibly fierce child. No matter how petrified she might be or how strongly she feels like throwing in the towel, she simply refuses to give up. She keeps pushing forward, defying the odds and somehow managing to survive. She has always been and will forever remain one of my all-time favorite King characters.

I truly adore how the supernatural element is present in the story, yet it sort of hovers on the periphery, leaving you constantly wondering if it is truly there, just as Trisha herself often finds herself doing. This aspect really enhances the overall atmosphere of the story and makes it all the more terrifying and captivating!

A tense and claustrophobic novel.

Yes, it seems like an irony since the entire novel takes place outdoors - in a forest - but no, it isn't. The feeling that you can't get out of that huge forest - so huge that it seems to have no end - makes it claustrophobic. The intuition or belief that someone is watching you is also very scary.

I can't even imagine what the protagonist must have felt, and we mustn't forget that she is a 9-year-old girl.

A short novel that is enjoyable from start to finish. It didn't seem to me the best of King, but as always, thanks to his characters and the author's prose, it is read quickly and hooks you.

1.5 stars. This is truly an awful book. From the moment I started reading it, I knew it was going to be a disappointment. The plot was weak, the characters were uninteresting, and the writing style was just plain bad. I found myself constantly skimming through the pages, hoping to find something that would redeem the book, but there was nothing. I'm not sure I even want to waste any more time with this by writing a review for it. Ugh. It's rare that I come across a book that is this bad, and I would not recommend it to anyone. Save your time and money and pick up a different book.

Imagine if in summary I say that the story is about a girl who gets lost in the forest. Many might think it must be an extremely dense thing. The truth is that in a forest, so many things can happen that one can't rely on something like that, and Stephen King demonstrates this in this book. It is desperate to see how a little girl struggles to survive in a raw and pitiless nature.

However, to be frank, my only criticism stems from something very obvious: a fucking super-talented nine-year-old girl who calculated everything almost perfectly, knew every consequence that each wrong move would bring, and acted in an extremely adult way. Perhaps there are things that we can indeed attribute to her considering she is someone going through a desperate situation, and at times, one is capable of doing ANYTHING to get out of danger or reduce some disturbing feeling. But again, I think that at times there are things that are not characteristic of a nine-year-old girl.

We could add it to the part that everything is fiction, and that wouldn't be bad. It is the only thing I have to highlight. The rest seemed incredible to me. Highly recommended book.

“Trisha turned back toward the slope, and then turned around again as the worst idea of her life came to her. This idea was to go forward instead of backtracking to the Kezar Notch Trail. The paths had forked in a Y; she would simply walk across the gap and rejoin the main trail. Piece of cake. There was no chance of getting lost, because she could hear the voices of the other hikers so clearly. There was really no chance of getting lost at all…”

- Stephen King, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Major League Baseball pitcher Tom “Flash” Gordon had a remarkable professional baseball career. Spanning twenty-one years with eight different teams, mainly the Kansas City Royals, Philadelphia Phillies, and the Boston Red Sox, he achieved an impressive record. He won 138 games, saved 158 more, had a sub-four earned-run-average, and accumulated 35 wins-above-replacement. Although these numbers might not earn him a place in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, with three All Star game appearances and a standout year in 1998 when he led the American League in saves, it's clear that he had a successful career. However, it's likely that he will be remembered more for his supporting role in Stephen King's novel.

For all his renown as a horror author, King is an incredibly creative writer. He has penned large, elaborate works as well as extremely short stories. His diverse body of work includes various genres such as ghost stories, science fiction, dystopian fiction, fantasy, splatter-fests, psychological thrillers, and even detective fiction. While he may not always succeed in his endeavors, he is never dull. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a reimagining of a fairy tale through King's unique mind. Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland gets lost while on a hike with her mother and brother. She begins to sense a menacing presence and imagines her favorite baseball player, Tom Gordon, by her side.

Few novels are without flaws, and King's are no exception. In this book, the main conceit is Trisha's age. She acts more like a teenager in her physical abilities and situational logic, and her thoughts and beliefs seem closer to those of a sixty-year-old. This isn't just a matter of precocity but of maturity that requires time and experience. Additionally, she is a familiar King archetype, with an interior monologue filled with pop-cultural references. Despite these issues, King's writing is still engaging. The Appalachian Trail is the true star of the book, with King vividly描绘ing its geographical features and weaving them into the narrative. The atmosphere is palpable, and the reader can feel the sting of mosquitoes, the cold water of a swamp, and the solitude of being lost in the wilderness. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a product of its time, with contemporary details that may not age well. However, when the flaws are set aside, it remains a solid novel that showcases King's talent for creating a gripping story.

A nine-year-old girl finds herself lost in the woods. The situation seems dire, but her radio and her deep love for baseball become her unlikely allies in the struggle for survival.

This is the sort of horror book that keeps you on the edge of your seat, constantly wondering if there is something truly paranormal taking place, or if it's all just a figment of the character's imagination. It's this ambiguity that I really like about it.

While the book may not be revolutionary or offer anything truly special in terms of its plot or writing style, I still had an enjoyable time reading it. It managed to engage my attention and hold it throughout, which is no small feat for a horror story.

Sometimes, a book doesn't have to be a masterpiece to provide entertainment and a bit of a thrill. And that's exactly what this one did for me.

My favorite place to be is in a leafy green wood. It is so tranquil, so airy, and so full of nature.

Stephen King takes us there in the dark when there are watchers and the atmosphere is palpable. It's truly scary! I couldn't listen at night.

Patricia "Trisha" McFarland is the main character of this story. She is "the girl," age nine. She is truly plucky and I marveled at her thought processes and how she keeps moving forward despite her many setbacks, while trying to find her way out of the terrifying forest.

Favorite lines:

"The woods came in clenches it seemed to her. For a while she would walk through great old stands of pine and there the forest seemed almost alright, like the woods in a Disney cartoon. Then one of those clenches would come and she would find herself struggling through snarly clumps of scrubby trees and thick bushes, all too many of the latter, the kind with thorns, fighting past interlaced branches that clawed for her arms and eyes." This description really brings the forest to life and makes you feel like you are right there with Trisha, experiencing the same struggles and fears.

Overall, this story is a thrilling and engaging read that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

Once upon a time, I could purchase Stephen King books with full confidence that it would offer a great reading experience.

However, this particular book has completely shattered that belief. I firmly believe that this is the worst one I've read by King, and perhaps even one of the worst books I've ever come across in my entire reading history.

I am truly at a loss for words when it comes to properly expressing just how incredibly crappy this book was. The story lacked the usual depth and creativity that King is renowned for. The characters felt flat and uninteresting, and the plot was convoluted and failed to engage me from the very beginning.

I was extremely disappointed with this book and would not recommend it to anyone. It's a real let-down considering King's previous body of work.