By: Stephen King
As a ten-year-old girl, there isn’t much Trisha can do to help keep her family together after the divorce except remain positive at all costs. In an attempt to be accommodating, Trisha joyfully excepts the opportunity to go hiking in the woods for a weekend get-away with her mother and brother. The plan does not go smoothly.
To get away from her mother and brother’s constant bickering, Trisha breaks away from the path to relieve herself. When she tries to return to the path, she discovers that she can no longer find where she started or hear the voices of her family. Not only that but she can’t find any path.
Now lost in the woods, Trisha must fight the elements and hunt for food to stay alive while a greater evil lurks in the shadows. The monster bides its time letting fear ripen the meat of Trisha’s body, and she knows that if she doesn’t get out of the forest soon, she will be consumed by it.
I went into this story hoping that it was going to be the next The Green Mile for me. This expectation was partially driven by the fact that someone else told me that The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was like my favorite King book and partially because it had baseball references. King also tends to make pretty compelling child characters because he makes them strong-willed but so physically weak. I can’t help but want them to triumph, but this novel just wasn’t it for me.
The hallucinations to me were definitely the best part. That an all the fun cursing phrases that a ten-year-old can think up. I also actually learned some foods that I can eat if I ever get stuck in the woods which I guess is kind of helpful.
The main things that I didn’t enjoy about this book were the repetitive nature of the scenes and the lack of horror. This is more of a slow-burning suspense kind of novel but one that I didn’t feel had a large payoff. I give it a solid “meh.”
Also, I thought frequently while reading this if Tom “Flash” Gordon ever read this story or thought it was weird that he was included in a book. Reading the postscript by King, I don’t think King consulted him about it first (of course not). I tried looking it up to see if he ever made a comment about it, but I got nothing. Maybe you will have better luck.
Overall rating: 3.5
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