Editing The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

{{short description|Novel by Stephen King}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book| <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = Girl Gordon cover.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = First edition cover
| author        = [[Stephen King]]
| cover_artist  = Shasti O'Leary
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        =
| genre         = [[Horror fiction|Horror]]
| publisher     = [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]]
| release_date  = April 6, [[1999 in literature|1999]]
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover]])
| pages         = 224
| isbn          = 978-0-684-86762-5
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}

'''''The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon''''' (1999) is a [[psychological horror novel]] by American writer [[Stephen King]]. In 2004, a [[pop-up book]] adaptation was released with design by Kees Moerbeek and illustration by Alan Dingman. A film adaptation to be produced by Chris Romero was announced in 2019.

== Plot summary ==

The story is set in motion by a family hiking trip, during which Trisha's brother, Pete, and mother  constantly squabble about the mother's divorce from their father, as well as other topics. Trisha falls back to avoid listening and is therefore unable to find her family again after she wanders off the trail to take a bathroom break. Trying to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she  slips and falls down a steep embankment and ends up hopelessly lost, heading deeper into the heart of the forest. She is left with a bottle of water, two [[Twinkies]], a [[boiled egg]], celery sticks, a [[tuna sandwich]], a bottle of [[Surge (drink)|Surge]], a [[poncho]], a [[Game Boy]], and a [[Walkman]]. She listens to her Walkman to keep her mood up, either to learn of news of the search for her, or to listen to the baseball game featuring her favorite player, and "heartthrob", [[Tom Gordon]].

As she starts to take steps to survive by conserving what little food she has with her while consuming edible flora, Trisha's family return to their car without her and call the police to start a search. The rescuers search in the area around the path, but not as far as Trisha has gone. The girl decides to follow a creek because of what she read in ''[[Little House on the Prairie]]'' (though it soon turns into a swamp-like river), rationalizing that all bodies of water lead eventually to inhabited areas.

As the cops stop searching for the night, she huddles up underneath a tree to rest. Eventually, a combination of fear, hunger, and thirst causes Trisha to hallucinate. She imagines several people from her life, as well as her hero, [[Tom Gordon]], appearing to her.

Hours and soon days begin to pass, with Trisha wandering further into the woods. Eventually, Trisha begins to believe that she is headed for a confrontation with the God of the Lost, a wasp-faced evil entity who is hunting her down. Her trial becomes a test of a 9-year-old girl's ability to maintain sanity in the face of seemingly certain death. Wracked with pneumonia and near death, she comes upon a road, but just as she discovers signs of civilization, she's confronted by a bear, which she interprets as the God of the Lost in disguise. Facing down her fear, she realizes it's the bottom of the ninth, and she must close the game. In imitation of Tom Gordon, she takes a pitcher's stance and throws her Walkman like a baseball, hitting the bear in the face, and startling it enough to make it back away. A hunter, who has come upon the confrontation between girl and beast, frightens the animal away and takes Trisha to safety, but Trisha knows that she earned her rescue.

Trisha wakes up in a hospital room. She finds her divorced parents and older brother waiting near her bedside. A nurse tells the girl's family that they must leave so that Trisha can rest because "her numbers are up and we don't want that". Her father is the last to leave. Before he does Trisha asks him to hand her a Red Sox hat (autographed by Tom Gordon) and she points towards the sky, just as Tom Gordon does when he closes a game.

==Film adaptation==
Although [[George A. Romero]] was attached to write and direct a film adaptation,<ref>[http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/movies.php?id=1346 Movies Coming Soon - RopeofSilicon.com<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061018110548/http://ropeofsilicon.com/movies.php?id=1346 |date=2006-10-18 }}</ref><ref name="AD">{{cite news|last=Hayes |first=Britt |date=August 21, 2019 |title=Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon next in line for movie adaptation from It producers |url=https://www.avclub.com/stephen-kings-the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-next-in-lin-1837446550 |work=[[The A.V. Club]] |access-date=August 26, 2019 }}</ref> plans for it stalled in October 2005<ref>[http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/4904 BD Horror News - Romero Talks 'Land of the Dead' Sequel!!<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526012344/http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/4904 |date=2006-05-26 }}</ref> before his death.<ref name="AF">{{cite news|last=Graves |first=Wren |date=August 2019 |title=The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon |url=https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/08/stephen-king-the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-adaptation/ |work=[[Consequence of Sound]] |access-date= August 26, 2019}}</ref>

In August 2019, the project was revived, with Romero's production company still attached.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/stephen-king-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-1203310032/|title=Film News Roundup: Stephen King's 'Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' Movie in the Works|last=McNary|first=Dave|website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=August 21, 2019|access-date=August 21, 2019}}</ref> Involved parties with the new production include [[Christine Forrest|Chris Romero]] as producer, ''[[It (2017 film)|It]]'' producer [[Roy Lee]],<ref name="AE">{{cite news |date=August 21, 2019 |title=Stephen King's 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' Is Being Made Into A Movie |url=https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/08/21/the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-stephen-king-movie/ |work=[[CBS]] |access-date=August 26, 2019 }}</ref> [[Jon Berg]] of [[Vertigo Entertainment]] and [[Ryan Silbert]] of Origin Story.<ref name="AA">{{cite news|last=Kit |first=Borys |date=August 21, 2019 |title=Stephen King Novel 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' Getting the Movie Treatment (Exclusive) |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/stephen-king-novel-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-become-movie-1233348 |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |access-date=August 26, 2019 }}</ref> The production company is Sanibel Films, the production company of Chris Romero and her late husband George Romero. As of the announcement on August 21, 2019, a writer or director had yet to be announced.<ref name="AB">{{cite magazine|last=Holub |first=Christian |date=August 21, 2019 |title=Another Stephen King novel is getting made into a movie |url=https://ew.com/movies/2019/08/21/stephen-king-the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-movie-adaptation/ |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |access-date=August 26, 2019 }}</ref> Andrew Childs serves as executive producer.<ref name="AC">{{cite news|last=Sneider |first=Jeff |date=August 21, 2019 |title='It' Producer Roy Lee Developing Film Based on Stephen King's 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' |url=http://collider.com/stephen-king-the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-movie/ |work=[[Collider (website)|Collider]] |access-date=August 26, 2019 }}</ref> On November 16, 2020, it was announced that [[Lynne Ramsay]] had been picked to direct the film.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kit |first=Borys |date=November 16, 2020 |title=Lynne Ramsay to Direct Stephen King Adaptation 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/lynne-ramsay-to-direct-stephen-king-adaptation-the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon |access-date=November 16, 2020 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Stephen King}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The}}
[[Category:1999 American novels]]
[[Category:1990s horror novels]]
[[Category:American horror novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Stephen King]]
[[Category:Novels set in forests]]
[[Category:Novels set in Maine]]
[[Category:Novels set in New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Third-person narrative novels]]