I've always had a great passion for man versus nature stories, and I firmly believe that this one is truly outstanding.

It centers around a 9-year-old girl who unfortunately gets lost in the wilds of the Appalachian trail. Just picture it - for a young girl accustomed to the comforts of a soft bed, the glow of electric lights, and the security of a ceiling above her head, this is an absolutely terrifying and horrible experience. She really shouldn't have strayed from the trail, but she did. And the alarming speed at which she became lost, confused, and disoriented vividly demonstrates just how perilous the woods can be. In reality, people go missing in the woods every single day, and tragically, some are never found.

At its core, this is a gripping survival story. The girl desperately needs food, water, and shelter. But the question arises - what can one actually eat in the woods? The descriptions provided are so vivid that they truly bring the wilderness to life in all its complex and glorious aspects. Moreover, a lot of the language used is perfectly suited for a young girl.

However, there's more to this story than just the survival aspect. There are those truly creepy and bizarre elements straight out of a twisted nightmare, which are also described in vivid detail. Some dark, horrid buzzing thing from a bad dream haunts the narrative. One is constantly left wondering if the creature, as there indeed is one in the story, is real or just a figment of a fever dream. I did have my suspicions about what it might be, and in the end, I was delighted to find that I was right! But this didn't in any way spoil the story. In fact, I felt rather proud of my correct guess.

The plot also revolves around a baseball player who is the girl's hero. She uses her imagination of him to cope with being lost and completely alone. In the end, this makes little Trisha one of the strongest female characters I've ever come across in a book.

I must also admit that I really don't know much about baseball, but this had no impact whatsoever on my enjoyment of the book. It's a testament to the story's power that it can engage and captivate readers regardless of their knowledge of a particular subject.

It has been an incredibly long time since a story has had such a profound impact on me that it made me eager to flip to the last page just to ensure that everything turns out all right.

I, however, managed to resist that strong urge. And for being able to do so, I am truly grateful.

This story is, in my personal opinion, one of Sai King's absolute best. It has captivated me from the very beginning, with its engaging plot, well-developed characters, and masterful writing.

Every page has been a journey, filled with anticipation, excitement, and a hint of mystery. I have found myself completely immersed in the world that Sai King has created, and I can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

Whether it's the thrilling twists and turns, the emotional depth of the characters, or the beautiful prose, this story has it all. It is a true masterpiece that will stay with me for a long time to come.

I was well aware before delving into this that it was one of the less renowned King novels. Consequently, I had lowered my expectations accordingly. However, it's not a terrible book by any means.

The second half progresses at a rapid pace, and there are several spine-chilling hallucinatory scenes involving a wasp-faced monster, which bear a striking resemblance to the atmosphere in "Lord of the Flies".

I firmly believe that this work would have been more favorably received had it been trimmed down through editing and included in one of his novella collections.

Edit: I read this particular book prior to the 2018 Red Sox season as a good luck charm, and lo and behold, they went on to win the World Series. Yup, I'm convinced that I played a part in making that happen.

With my holidays finally coming to a close after a busy month, I was in desperate need of a quick, fast-paced read. A few of my Goodreads friends in a group I regularly participate in, the Reading for Pleasure Book Group, engage in many buddy reads of thrillers and spooky stories that are otherwise out of my comfort zone. Psychological thrillers have always given me the creeps, and I still can't watch a scary movie past three in the afternoon in case it plants an idea in my head that would give me a nightmare.

Yet, when the small group decided to read Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, I decided to join them. King is an ardent Boston Red Sox fan and even owns a minor league team, so what could be better than a book by an impassioned baseball enthusiast read during baseball's post season?

Trisha McFarland is nine going on ten and tall for her age. Her parents had gotten divorced the year before, and her mother won custody. Both Trisha and her older brother Pete would have rather lived with their father Larry McFarland. Even though he on occasion could down a few beers too many, he still lived in the house that they knew as home, and they would be allowed to stay in the same schools. Trisha also shares a bond with her father, a love of baseball, specifically the Boston Red Sox. Larry saw how much the divorce had taken a toll on his kids, so he wrote to Tom Gordon, Boston's closer at the time of this book (1998) and Trisha's favorite player, and asked him to sign a Sox cap for her. This cap cements the bond that Trisha shares with her father and becomes her most prized possession.

While Trisha and Pete prefer the company of their father, their mother Quilla Andersen overcompensates by dragging them on outings each Saturday when Pete would rather be playing video games and Trisha hanging out with her friend Pepsi or watching the Red Sox. After the divorce, Quilla appeared to lose sense of who her children were, becoming self-centered and uncompromising. Her staunch behavior would come back to haunt her.

On a seemingly normal Saturday outing, Quilla has dragged Pete and Trisha to an Appalachian Trail hike near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. Instantly, Quilla and Pete commence on one of their classic arguments, losing sight of Trisha. Immediately, she becomes lost in the woods. King paints a vivid picture of a girl on the cusp of adolescence who is forced to come of age before her time. Relying on basic survival skills taught by both her parents and in science class, Trisha is forced to utilize her knowledge to not succumb to the big bad woods. The one link to the outside world that Trisha has left is her Walkman radio and with it Red Sox broadcasts each night as long as her batteries last. It is Trisha's imagination and her love of the Sox and Tom Gordon that have her creating life-imparting wisdom from Gordon as a means for survival. This wisdom comes from being the ninth inning pitcher, the one called on when the game is on the line, who must have ice water in his veins at all times. In creating these imaginary scenarios in which Tom Gordon is her safety net and guiding light, Trisha attempts to defeat the opposition, the woods, unscathed.

In his prose that comes from being a master of his genre, one can see that King can create a scary story in no time at all. Yet, for someone who is scared if a person walks up behind her, I was not scared at all. Part of this is having an imagination as rampant as Trisha's, especially an imagination that created scenarios with a childhood me having conversations with my favorite baseball players. That time is based on when the Red Sox play and how the team kept her tethered to reality felt normal to me. If I ever got lost as a child, God forbid, I would probably have had imaginary conversations with baseball players in my head too, if it meant staying focused on the task ahead of me. Empathizing with Trisha's situation and having a similar imagination, I did not scare when she created big bad monsters, real or imagined. All along I figured that Tom Gordon would save Trisha just as baseball players saved me from a recurring nightmare I had as a kid.

For someone who does not enjoy being spooked, I was not scared at all by reading Stephen King. I viewed this story as a coming-of-age tale of a girl who is a product of divorce and finds herself lost in the woods, using baseball as her anchor. It is evident from reading The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon that Stephen King is a huge fan of the game, as he inserts baseball facts and statistics within the story. Perhaps for someone who does not have as large of an imagination as I have or who is not a fan of baseball, this book would be scary. After all, the woods, as King states initially, is a scary place, especially for a girl who is nine turning ten and big for her age, who finds herself lost. If I really want to get scared, I will maybe just maybe read another of King's non-baseball centric stories at a later date. That is, if I read it before three in the afternoon so it doesn't give me nightmares. 3.5 stars.