So I’m sure I’m going to get judged for this but I don’t care: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is the best book I’ve read all year besides Pachinko. I would have read it in one sitting if I allowed myself. Just... so good. This is an amazing story about resilience, trauma, and the absolute strength of the human person. King has an unreal grasp on the profound yet simple mind of a child. It’s also unlike any other King book I’ve read. If you’ve always been skeptical about the horror genre, but you’re also curious about if there is any actual merit to King’s writing, but you’re also not interested in gratuitous violence or unbelievable scares then I think this is a great book for you. This book was an absolute feast and I enjoyed every minute. I forgot what it was like to absolutely be engrossed in a story, counting down the minutes until you get to pick it up again, and actually caring what happens to the protagonist. This book reminded me why I love reading and I only wish I could experience it again for the first time!
I just finished this one last night and was delightfully surprised about how much I liked it! The setting was beautiful and sinister at all the right times and Trisha McFarland is one of the more relatable and likeable characters I've met so far.
To those of you who have read this one, what did you think?
This is one of King’s thinner books and is also very ”one sitting-friendly” due to its structure, so I dove in eagerly and finished it in one evening, but having just come out of it, I’m left wondering what I actually got from it... I realize this is one of his lesser known/read/celebrated books, and while the writing was just as exquisite as always, I just didn’t really care afterwards. Is there anyone who thoroughly loved it? Or hated it? Or, like me, just feel kind of ”eh” about it?
As an Angels fan let me start 9ff by saying fuck the Red Sox's. As a King fan I have to say i loved this ending. I know King gets a lot of flack for his ending and a lot of the time it's well deserved but this time he hit it out the park pun intended.
I've heard quite a few people say they aren't baseball fans and thus haven't read it. Believe me you don't have to care about baseball to enjoy this book. But like a lot of games this book does get way better when it comes to the end of a close game. I honestly wasn't sure how the book would end but the last third of the book had me hooked!
I wouldn't say it's a top ten King book but I haven't lived with it long enough that might change.
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OK so I finished the book, I thought it was OK. People seem love it. anyway my question is I thought the creature following her was Wendigo? (Pet Semetary)
But I was reading a website it said it's a character form DT 3 or 4. It's a Machine whose head is like a Radar. The name escapes me.
They came to this conclusion because the girl gets surprised when she sees 2 batteries come out, I thought it was the walkman it has energizer batteries... Like we used to have back in the day... (Hello 90s kids!) And the walkman battery popped out... She pitches it to the animals head like a ball...
So is it.. Wendigo or DT character?
(I have obviously not read any of the DT yet.)
I picked up a copy at Publix today. I’ve only read The Body, Sundog, and The Long Walk so far. Did I waste money?
Anyone else like this one?
Anyone else got recommendations like it?
Hello
So I've asked around the internet and outside and none know about this book I need to discuss this and hear other people's opinion's and recomendation,I cant be the only one who has read it.
I needed something short after reading Insomnia, and heard good things about this one. I just thought it was pretty ok, like a cross between Gerald's Game and parts of The Wind Through The Keyhole, but ultimately not as good as either of those. And if I had to "hear" that jingle about the windshield being busted one more time...
King has definitely written some gutsy young characters in his career. I try to think back to when I was around 10 and can't imagine what I'd do in the situations those kids find themselves in.
I never hear people talk about this one! It was the first King book I ever read from when I was 12, so it has a soft spot in my heart. I’ve read it multiple times(due for another go) and would love to hear what others have to say about it!
First off..I loved it. I really dig books where you get into ONE characters mind and follow them around. Misery and The Long Walk are my two favorite books and Misery follows that formula well.
You feel anxious and hungry and scared and tired with Trisha. And then it leaves you wondering “How Long could I survive out there”?
Best scene is the Wasp Priest. The description of the bees buzzing in its empty sockets and covering its face. Then reaching a hand up and clawing down its face to the bone. And it talking reminded me of that Girl from “Us” when she first talks...one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve ever read from King. Nightmare fuel.
Favorite quotes: “The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted.”
“The skin of the world is woven of stinger, a fact you have now learned for yourself. Beneath there is nothing but bone and the God we share.”
I’ve been ranking all King books as I read them and TGWLTG ranks at #7/9. It’s only 7th because the top 6 are so strong. Amazing book though.
I'll get right to it. My 8th grade social studies teacher was a bitch, hands down. everybody thought that and even some teachers. I happened to have reading period in her class. On one day on my way to this said class, I am getting prepared for being bitched at as i didn't have a book for reading period.
"NEVER COME TO CLASS WITHOUT A BOOK OR YOU WILL GET WRITTEN UP."
Whoops. Sorry, my adhd self forgot my book at home. So i'm about to get a beat down. But would it be the best beat down of my life, that changed everything.
"Um..Mrs. Westing...I don't have a-"
"where's your book? you know your supposed to bring a book to class every day."
Stuttering stuttering, yeah, yeah, yeah.
She brought me over to her library and took out a thin hardcover book. She handed it to me and said, "Read this one."
I had already known of Stephen King of course. But the book she laid in my hands was "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon."
That was ten years ago. I was an eighth grader. But when I read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, that was when King had officially became my idol. Such a wonderful read for all ages.
For instance, is the God of the Lost a character who appears in another book?
Please no heavy spoilers
I haven't read all of King's novels, probably only 15 or so, but I have to say, of all the novels and stories I've read by him, the ending of this one was the best. I even cried a little. Great book! Great ending!
What an incredible book, for how short it is! I loved every single minute! I really got invested in the imagery.
My mind keeps bouncing around trying to decide if Trisha was just hallucinating due to fever, or if the God of the Lost is somewhere in King’s supernatural realm. But the part with the Energizer batteries falling out of its back made me wonder. Perhaps it’s akin to IT? That’s all I could think of when she kept thinking of the God as ‘It’. I was discussing the book with a coworker and he mentioned the same idea, that maybe they were the same being.
What did you all think?
It has easily rocketed into my top 5 King books. I've avoided this one for the longest time, because for some reason I always thought it was about baseball. I should've known better. How does he take one simple premise - a girl gets lost in the woods - and turn it into this amazing commentary on survival and inner strength?
I really liked Pet Semetary and I was wondering if you guys could suggest which one of the two should I read first.
These two particular King novels caught my interest but if you guys have any others that you'd recommend I'd like to hear it as well. I am more into King's creepy supernatural stuff than his dystopian or sci-fi novels. I am also considering The Outsider as well.
I got that book for Christmas and I was wondering how you folks felt about it. I don't see it talked about much here, so I wasn't sure if it was overlooked or just negatively received.
I also keep confusing Tom Gordon with Jim Gordon.
It's one of his shorter books. Is it a good fun read? Especially as a Sox?
Did anyone else think it was kind of forced and the supernatural element could have been played up a bit more throughout the story to make the ending more impactful? I didn't think the whole bear thing really fit in the tone of the rest of the story. The supernatural bits felt completely separate from the story about a girl slowly losing her mind as she tries to find her way out of the woods.
Also, was I the only one who thought the monster sounded A LOT like Pennywise.
Basically the title.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was one of my very first King reads.
It's really hard to describe the feeling of that book. I've since read all of The Dark Tower series, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, The Regulators, and IT. While all of these are amazing and have turned me into a King fan for sure, none have ever really had that same impact or feeling that The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon had.
It's honestly not even my favorite book of King's. But I enjoyed the atmosphere and the way the story progressed.
I was just curious if he had written anything remotely similar?
Thanks so much for any and all help!
