hated this book

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
I actually found this to be one of his worst (although still re-readable!) I found there was a little bit too much description and not too much happening, however the premise of the wendigo at the end did give me a lot of creepy thoughts and redeemed it, I'll definitely read it different when I re read.
I agree. It would've been a fine short story. This one and Rose Madder felt forced. I didn't hate it but my patience was tested with this one.
 

mjs9153

Peripherally known member..
Nov 21, 2014
3,494
22,165
I actually found this to be one of his worst (although still re-readable!) I found there was a little bit too much description and not too much happening, however the premise of the wendigo at the end did give me a lot of creepy thoughts and redeemed it, I'll definitely read it different when I re read.

Wendigos have been referred to in literature for many decades, most notably in Algernon Blackwood's 1910 story "The Wendigo", which introduced the legend to horror fiction,[39] and in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary

Wiki has a good article on Wendigo's,or Manitou,goes in depth with history and different manifestations..I don't remember SK specifically calling this creature(the bearlike one in TGWLTG) a wendigo,though I guess it could be considered one,but it seemed more Dark Tower related than Indian mythology,to me..I thought the length was just right,it is a really quite thin paperback,can read it in one or two sittings..each to their own though! :grinning:
 
Last edited:

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
Wendigos have been referred to in literature for many decades, most notably in Algernon Blackwood's 1910 story "The Wendigo", which introduced the legend to horror fiction,[39] and in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary

Wiki has a good article on Wendigo's,or Manitou,goes in depth with history and different manifestations..I don't remember SK specifically calling this creature(the bearlike one in TGWLTG) a wendigo,though I guess it could be considered one,but it seemed more Dark Tower related than Indian mythology,to me..I thought the length was just right,it is a really quite thin paperback,can read it in one or two sittings..each to their own though! :grinning:
...it was a Yogi, seen through peepers of a yong girl at the end of her physical and mental ropes....the "look" though I agree is more DT....I think a true Wendigo would have driven her completely off the rails...
latest
 

amaunder

Abby
Feb 19, 2016
156
591
Horror is subjective IMO. What seems like a horror story to me may not seem so to another reader. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was a good story....from a parent's perspective, a lost child is every parent's nightmare but I could identify with the young girl Trish, being lost...even the hallucinations, which are very frightening. Certainly was not my favorite SK novel, but no author bats a 1000.
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
Horror is subjective IMO. What seems like a horror story to me may not seem so to another reader. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was a good story....from a parent's perspective, a lost child is every parent's nightmare but I could identify with the young girl Trish, being lost...even the hallucinations, which are very frightening. Certainly was not my favorite SK novel, but no author bats a 1000.
4 more posts and you are unmoderated.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
What does unmoderated mean? Does that mean your being observed all the time? Am I still moderated for instance? I heard something like after 1000 posts you are unmoderated, is this true? I think I've proven I can be trusted.
...it's after 100 posts and unless you give them reason, the Mods no longer have to review each and every post...
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
I think Tom Gordon is excellent. I could really feel every step of the way that that girl took. And to get get lost in the woods is horrific for a little girl so there was plenty of that everyday horror that SK is so good at. It just shows his strength that he doesn't need monsters to create horror and his strenth as a writer to keep at least me caught in the story when there only one person on stage. It is rather characteristic of him that he sometimes writes books with a lot of characters like IT. The Stand or Under the dome and sometimes books with a very limited cast of characters like Geralds Game, Dolores Claiburne or TGWLTG. I like them both.
Stephen King has referred to his stories as "innies" and "outies", innies being stories focused on one individual and his/her personal experience(s), while outies are about the experience(s) of a group of people. He has said that Gerald's Game is his "inniest of innies". The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a very innie.
 

Geminii23

Well-Known Member
Jul 10, 2015
223
1,677
VA
Haven't read it. There are some I didn't care too much for, but a long way from hate. Those would be Cell, Blaze, HIA, Dreamcatcher, Thinner, Buick 8.

He's a commercial business. Some probably are just to fill quotas, more than works from the heart.

Nothing wrong with that.

They were all entertaining enough though.

Haven't read it yet, but I definitely plan to. But I actually really liked Blaze and Thinner as well as Hearts in Atlantis. So I am looking forward to reading Tom Gordon soon.
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
65,192
59
sweden
Stephen King has referred to his stories as "innies" and "outies", innies being stories focused on one individual and his/her personal experience(s), while outies are about the experience(s) of a group of people. He has said that Gerald's Game is his "inniest of innies". The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a very innie.
Exactly! That is another of his strengths, that he can do both very convincingly. Usually an author has one way or perhaps two to attack a story but he is comfortable with many very different way to approach a story and does them equally good.