Rashmi bookmarks “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon”

I will begin this blog by saying that I did not like this novel by Stephen King at all. Everything that follows from this point on will just be my reason why.

The Girl Who… is the story of 9-year-old Patricia (Trisha) McFarland who, while on a family hiking trip, takes a bathroom break in the woods and gets lost. The story consists of her trying to stay alive and be rescued. For the most part, she draws strength from thoughts about her idol, baseball’s Tom Gordon.

Here is my main reason for not liking this book: nothing happens. Girl gets lost. Girl walks through the forest. Girl is rescued. The end.

In all that nothingness, there were a few glimmers of hope - when the three evil entities appeared, I thought it finally got interesting. Barely had I finished the thought, when they left - only to come back very rarely, and very briefly through the remainder of the book. Worse, it was very possible that the supernatural beings were just her hallucinations.

To add to those false hopes, every now and then, there was a spooky mention of “the cold voice” - was that intended to scare the reader? For it was quite obviously her inner voice.

Also every now and then, a “scary” image was abruptly thrown upon us - like the deer’s head, or the bloody intestines - again, was that supposed to shock us? It’s a forest. It is natural to find dead animals that have fallen prey to some other animal.

That reminds me: all attempts at comedy were so feeble. Example, when Trisha was fleeing, petrified by the sight of the head, her running was awkward, and - in the midst of all her fear - she actually managed to picture herself in a leotard, as a guest on a T.V. exercise show and even branded the “getting away from the torn-off deer’s head” move. Considering she was genuinely scared, that comment seemed to come from an outsider - the writer - trying to be funny, and was one of the many jarring moments in the story.

In fact, like the humour, all the dialogue, all the likes and dislikes of the girl and her friends as she reminisces, were quite cheesy. I got the impression that an older person created the character of a young girl, but was quite out of his depths when it came to writing what would be considered “cool” by the next generation.

The “supernatural” being that was hinted at briefly along the way, finally appears in about the last 30 pages of the book. Unfortunately by this time I had lost all interest in this creature from hell… Which was good, because it was actually a bear. Trisha hallucinates (again) about it. But it was just a bear. To add to that weak end of a dull adventure, hitherto unknown Travis Herrick, a random passer-by, emerged as one of the - if not the - final hero.

The cover of the book I read has this quote from a major newspaper - “Frightening… feverish terror”. I think it was meant to be printed on some other book.