The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon in Around the Year in 52 Books

Aug 28, 2015 Book Concierge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: concierge, library, audio, suspense, nature, survival

Book on CD performed by Anne Heche

A young girl who loves baseball (and particularly one Red Sox player) takes a few steps off the path when on a hike through the Appalachian Trail with her mother and older brother. In the blink of an eye, she is lost and trying very hard not to be terrified.

King is a master craftsman and he is never better than when playing on all our childhood (and adult) fears, magnifying them tenfold and letting his (and our) imagination carry us away.

I loved Trisha McFarla Book on CD performed by Anne Heche

A young girl who loves baseball (and particularly one Red Sox player) takes a few steps off the path when on a hike through the Appalachian Trail with her mother and older brother. In the blink of an eye, she is lost and trying very hard not to be terrified.

King is a master craftsman and he is never better than when playing on all our childhood (and adult) fears, magnifying them tenfold and letting his (and our) imagination carry us away.

I loved Trisha McFarland! She’s resilient, intelligent, and brave. She’s also young and makes some wrong decisions which get her farther into trouble. (Number one rule of being lost in the woods – STOP moving, stay put and wait for rescue … but if she’d followed that rule there wouldn’t be much to the novel.)

I grew up going camping with my family. We slept out in the open (no tent), though we usually had a tarp of some kind to keep off the rain. But I don’t think I could fare half so well as young Trisha did. She remembered a science class that helped her, and lessons her mother imparted on other nature hikes helped her forage for a few berries or edible ferns.

This is not to say that she had an easy time of it. The “tough tootsie” voice in her head definitely shoots holes in each theory and idea Trisha has, filling her with doubt and increasing her fears. The noises and violence of nature can be frightening and shocking to anyone, let alone a nine-year-old town girl, not accustomed to such experiences. It’s easy to imagine boogie men and monsters lurking in the dark (not to mention the real dangers of snakes, poisonous plants and predators). The best thing she did, however, was keep her spirits up by relying on her beloved Tom Gordon, the Red Sox “closer.” It was those “conversations,” and using her Walkman to listen to the ball games, that sustained her and gave her hope and courage.

Anne Heche did a marvelous job of performing the audio version. She knocked it out of the park! 5***** for her narration.
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Sep 22, 2021 Sharon Dwyer rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-star, thriller

Nine year old Trisha McFarland (big for her age) gets separated from her mom and brother of a branch of the Appalachian Trail. First, this is not a horror story - but a survival thriller. I read this book a long time ago, but re-reading it as a parent...was a completely different experience. I read it through a whole different lens, that of mother with nothing but fear for this brave little girl.
I wanted nothing more than to race into the woods to save her. I had no idea I would have such a vis ...more

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Mar 18, 2016 Michele rated it really liked it

What a great read.

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Jun 17, 2009 Ryan Mac rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: summer-challenge

A nice little ghost story/fairy tale about a Trisha, a 9 year old girl (big for her age), who gets lost in the woods on a hike with her mother and brother. She has her Walkman, some water, a lunch and her Tom Gordon baseball hat with her to make it through the journey. There are some scary things in the woods, as Mr. King reminds us. One of his better recent efforst.

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Mar 26, 2013 Brett Dewey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Surprised to find nothing supernatural about it. Stephen King scares you with your own mind. Being lost in the woods - the natural fears, the complications of hazards, and the hallucinations that come with it... Scary because this could happen. And probably often does.

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