#1307 in our old book database. Rated "Good." ( )

Going through this re-read is a fascinating experience. Books I remember loving the first time around, I'm only okay with this time around. Others that didn't do as much for me the first time around, I'm digging far more this time.

This, unfortunately was more the first one. I remember thinking this one, while not mind-blowing, was a really good one.

It's still good, but I think I can now pinpoint the precise point where King lost the ability to write a convincing child. Here. With this book.

Trish is a fun character, and I loved how King made her survive more due to her common sense than through some weirdly acquired survival skills. She's tenacious and she's interesting enough to hold the reader's attention.

However, King swings wildly between having her think like a young kid still in the single digits age, then shifting way over to a child who's point of view uses words like indecorous. She thinks about things like when the longest days of the year are, which—at least to me—are more the thoughts of, say, an author in his early fifties.

This way-off-the-mark narration and dialogue will, at least as of this writing in 2024, reach its zenith (or nadir, depending on your point of view) with FAIRY TALE and the utterly deplorable portrayal of 17-year-old Charlie Reade, a teenager who's a solid forty years out of date when it comes to expressions and thoughts.

But overall, the story was gripping. Trisha's plight was real, and awful, and King does his usual brilliant job of ratcheting up the tension.

I have complaints, primarily over the unseen threat hinted at throughout the novel. I would have loved to have seen King lean into the supernatural aspect harder, especially toward the end.

I also wouldn't have minded more cutaways to the parents and brother, and the manhunt.

So yeah, overall? Not a bad story, but not a great one. Kinda right in the middle. ( )

Stephen King knows how to tell you a story, and tell it masterfully. After just a few lines, there you are, lost in the woods together with Trisha (who is awesome).

The woods are real, as well as the fear, the panic, the hunger, things hiding and watching you in the dark. Slowly, the outside world disappears and Walkman radio is the only link to the rest of humanity.

I believe that I’ve read very few books that follow a single character, have a relatively small scope, and don’t let you catch your breath. How was this done? The power of the writing is impressive. I liked the descriptions of nature, various details, and Trisha's inner monologues.

I liked that the reader was free to choose both rational and supernatural explanations for things that happen in the woods. I found myself somewhere in the middle.

The ending was a catharsis. Thanks to Nataliya for letting me know this book existed :) ( )

For this author, this is a quick read. The basic premise is that Trisha, a girl of nine, nearly ten years of age, becomes lost in the woods when her mother and older brother are too busy arguing to note that she has opted for a comfort break in the trees. She then gets turned around and lost and keeps walking, getting more lost.

I liked the story on the whole. The character was both convincing and unconvincing in that she seemed far too together and clued up, for her age, on what to do to survive. On the other hand, she cried a fair bit, got scared and did the wrong things at times which was convincing. The perils and discomforts she faces, including blood-sucking insects, wasp stings, scrapes, bumps and bruises are well conveyed. Though I wasn't sure that drinking what appeared to be pure and fast flowing water would induce the symptoms described; I thought that was more likely to be caused by a diet of berries and nuts.

The book's title is explained by the fact that she is a big baseball fan and especially of a pitcher called Tom Gordon (based on a real person in the Red Sox team at the time). As she has a Walkman with her which can tune into radio stations, she keeps herself sane by listening to the game commentary once a day to conserve her batteries. She has 'conversations' with Tom and after a while imagines him so vividly that he seems to be with her at times. Unfortunately, as I live in the UK, the baseball aspect went over my head; there are some technical passages which I just gave up on.

The story has a supernatural element in that Trisha soon realises something is following her, a thing that slaughters deer along the way, leaves big scratches in trees and occasionally approaches her while sleeping (the story does include omniscient author commentary, including vignettes on what her family are doing, why searchers are looking in the wrong place for her and where she is actually located). That element is the only 'horror' aspect to the book, which otherwise is a coming of age story for a girl who goes through the mill and finds depths of character within herself that won't let her give up. She also meditates on her family situation: her parents have split up and both children are living with the mother, plus she realises, from her father's manner when she visits, that he is drinking too much beer. She is close to her father, sharing a love of baseball. There is a philosophical thread where she recalls what he told her about God and whether he exists etc; this is developed through the hallucinations she has more and more frequently as her time in the woods is extended and she starts to become ill.

Altogether I would rate this at 3 stars. ( )

What is worse than reading 200 pages about a girl lost in the woods? Not much. This was such a boring story, it was difficult to finish. You can only drag out a story so far about a girl lost in the woods before it becomes tiresome and boring.

The story follows nine-year old Trisha McFarland who is with her mother and brother on a nature hike and are arguing with each other and not paying attention to Trisha who is lagging behind them. Trisha has to go to the bathroom badly, so she wanders off into a wooded area to take care of her business, but somehow, she wanders too far and becomes lost in the woods for days on end. How someone could wander that far off from the pathway is incredulous to start with, but how her brother and mother could be paying so little attention to her that they do not notice for a long time that she is no longer with them, is stretching reality.

Almost the entire book is the story of Trisha’s survival in the woods, which became tedious after a while. Even the ending was not a surprise. You know she would eventually be found and rescued.

I enjoy most of King’s books, but this one really fell short and missed the mark. ( )