The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

It’s a descriptive masterpiece by Stephen King, the kind of book where you MUST know what happens next and keep reading until you find out. I devoured the book in one day. It’s my first and probably only Stephen King book- it’s likely among the mildest of his books but even so quite a gritty read for me.

It’s not the visual gore – it’s not wholly a bloody, gruesome book – but it is an emotionally taxing read. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is about a nine-year-old girl who gets lost in the woods. Trisha McFarland is a protagonist that you can root for, and her eerie and terrifying time being lost in Appalachia triggers a kind of primal and universal fear of the dark and of encountering creepy animals when alone. It’s very easy to picture the woods, easy to get sucked into the book because we want to know what Trisha does next.

It’s a beautiful story of survival because it’s told from a child’s point of view – there aren’t unnecessary details or weird side stories. Trisha manages to quell her fear and summon up courage even in the devastatingly difficult situation by thinking of her favorite baseball player, Red Sox closing pitcher Tom Gordon.

Even as her internal doubts (which she imagines manifest in a “tough tootsie”) plague her, and she is stalked by a mysterious something, her imaginary Tom Gordon is there to protect her. It’s a fascinating story and worth a read on a rainy day. 🌲