The Gingerbread Girl

A great reader does not a great audiobook make.

This one has a fine narrator, but few people pick up King stories for their narrators alone. You go to him for engaging, character-strong stories with bad endings that are somehow still worth the ride. Unfortunately, this one's ending is okay but the ride is unbearable. Way too much navel-gazing here before the real story and more-than-anyone-needs micromanagement of the lead character's physical dilemmas.

You could skip this retread ("Gerlad's Game" at one-tenth the length and half the genuine suspense) and not have missed a beat.

This novella is read by Mare Winningham who did a great job with King's Lisey's Story. She does the same here, so the reading is professional and top notch. Now the story is another matter. It is a well told story; fleshed out, believable, and the character is developed to the usual high standards by King. But, it's a story that has been told before a thousand times, a woman character abducted by a psychopath. As a result it just wasn't that exciting for a thriller story.

It tells of a woman after losing her child in birth, starts to run to escape, and eventually she runs away from her husband and settles on her fathers beach vacation home. While prodding her future with her husband she jogs every day on the beach, until one day she jogs past a house with a body in the back of a trunk. She gets abducted by the psychopath and tied up. And she must escape as usual. The running theme is used throughout this story, as it applies to this woman and she uses it in her situation with her abductor.

This wasn't a bad story, but I've read too many of these similar in style stories to garner any excitement over this tale.

I loved Stephen King before it was cool to love Stephen King. I've ridden this roller coaster from _Carrie_ to the present. There have been high points, and there have been low points, but like any charter member of the "constant reader" club, I stay strapped in, waiting for the next big hill. _The Gingerbread Girl_ isn't it.

This is a short novel of a young woman, Em, who takes up running after the loss of a child. Once again, Stephen King excels at creating believable and fleshed-out characters, but once again it falls short on the "horror factor". This novel is very similar to _Lizey's Story_, another woman who is pursued by a psycho following the unexpected death of a loved one. At one point, and sadly, only one, when said psycho begins speaking to an invisible accomplice, and it looks like we're going to get a touch of _Blaze_ blended in as well. It looks like we're going to have a psycho who isn't just nuts. However, like the demon in the closet early in _Cujo_, Psycho's inner voice is never referred to again, the haunting presence as well as a wonderful opportunity to kick the horror up a notch, is discarded.


Not to be prudish, but while I understand the need for colorful language in dialogue, because that's just the way some people speak, I am really at a loss why a description of a setting needs the same treatment. It seems lazy. Like the right word is out there somewhere, but this one will do.


That being said, King is still capable of occasionally leaving you speechless. "Donning wax wings on a sunny day" is masterful writing, and there are jewels like this peppered throughout the novel. He can make you laugh or cry or scare the "hoohaa" out of you. It's just been such a long time since he's done the latter. It's a good story, and he does a good job telling it, but if you want to read great Stephen King, pick up _It_ or _The Stand_.

2008-10-20

This audio book was read by Mare Winningham, and she does a fine job. The story is the main draw, and you want this one. It is not really a horror story; it is a tale of terror, with more of a 'how badly do you want to survive?' theme. Lots of action, lots of clues as to what may happen next, with lots (and lots) of tension.

As others have indicated this story/audio-book was good but not great. For a short story it was ok - it was a nice easy listen in the car to and from work, not something that required a great deal of concentration.

For those who prefer a good long meaty Stephen King story this will be a disappointment.

I did like the narrator - she did a really good job capturing the emotion and expression of the characters.