Stephen King is at his best when he keeps it simple, in my humble opinion: a rabid dog terrorizes a family, a bullied girl uses her telekinetic powers to terrorize a school, the Devil turns residents against each other, a psychopath traps an author in her house, a hotel drives a man to madness. There’s also getting lost alone in the woods, and that’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
And at just over 300 pages, it’s pleasant deviation from King’s normal marathon 700+ page reads.
Tricia McFarland strays off the Appalachian Trail in Maine and finds herself in a world of shifting shadows, buzzing insects, mysterious cabins, and a stalker.
Her solace is Boston Red Sox games on her Walkman and the hope that her favorite player, Tom Gordon, will make an appearance.
She grows desperate in her survival, and the only one who can bring her comfort is the love of her life. She adores Tom, and has faith that with every relief appearance he makes, she draws closer to escaping the jam she’s in, just as Tom does for her favorite baseball team nearly every night.
(Yankees fans, don’t worry. This isn’t a literary love letter to the Red Sox. More so, a fun project from King, who is a lifelong Sox fan.)
Told in innings rather than chapters, King plays off the slow-burn, rising tension of America’s pastime, which happens to be his bread-and-butter way of storytelling as well.
This book is far less supernatural than the classics that made King famous, and perhaps that’s why it flies under the radar. I found it an enjoyable detour into a world where our primal fears, in a situation very much possible, take over when survival instincts go haywire.
It’s 9 days and 9 innings against nature, where the monsters of our imagination lurk so naturally.
Have you read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon? What did you think? Comment below.
You can reserve it in the BCCLS system here, or access the audiobook on Hoopla.
Horror fan and interested in the Hoboken Library’s Horror/Thriller Book Club? Please email reference@hobokenlibrary.org, or register for our next meeting by searching under Events on our website.
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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant
Hoboken Library Staff Picks 
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