Customer Reviews

The Gingerbread Girl

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

<rant mode on>
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.
<rant mode off>

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_.

This novella from Stephen King is available only in audio, read very effectively by Mare Winningham. We already know that King can do amazing things with the novella and short story formats, and here he delivers his usual stylish writing. If you are willing to accept terror rather than horror as the genre, then The Gingerbread Girl will keep you absorbed for its two-hour running time.

The title character, Emily, runs to get away from the pain of a dead baby and a failing marriage. She leaves her home with nothing but a credit card and the clothes she has on. Taking refuge in her father's beach house in the Florida Keys, she runs in the off-season solitude. One day she finds a house occupied, sees a dead girl in the trunk of a car - and is abducted by a mad serial killer. Em winds up running for her life.

Em, the killer, and the steamy beauty of the island are the main elements in this tale. The plot may not be full of surprises but it parlays a somewhat predictable story into two hours of tension. Neither Em nor the knife-wielding stalker are as fully developed as a novel would permit, but when Stephen King's in charge, you know you're in for some good stuff. Like the gingerbread man who jumped off the pan and ran out the door, Em is running to save her life. Will she meet the same tragic end as the gingerbread man? You'll have to listen for yourself to find out.

[ETA: I've been advised that this novella IS available in print, in the anthology JUST AFTER SUNSET, first published by Scribner in December 2008 and reprinted by Pocket in September 2009. Thanks to my commenters for the tip. LB]

Linda Bulger, 2008

Very tight story.. leaves little time to catch your breath, but still has those bits of King humor that keep it from being unbearable. If you are a fan of his recent short stories, you are going to love this one too!

Another plus - Mare Winningham has such an amazing voice... she does an incredible job (as usual)!

I highly recommend - and I bet you can't keep from listening to the whole thing in one sitting (or run)!!!

All the best,

Jay

I'm hooked on all the Stephen King audiobooks, having just finished the Dark Tower series doing time in my Toyota over the last 4 months and loving every minute! I'm a big fan and was just mildly disappointed that the "bad guy" in this offering was underdeveloped--so much so that he seemed less frightening than stereotypical. Definitely entertaining but not so much 'meat' here, in my opinion.

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.

Mare Winningham does an excellent job narrating this two-CD audio version of Stephen King's long story. It doesn't feel long, though. This one is a well-built thrill ride, and King proves once again that he can reach into his bag of tricks and scare the daylights out of the listener. The story is simple almost to the point of bare-bones, but it has a lot of tension and plenty of surprises in store. Any fan of King who enjoys audiobooks will like this one. It's not profound, but it's great at what it does, gripping the listener in a vice of tension and suspense and not letting go. Saying any more would only risk spoiling this delightful treat for King's fans.

This is decent little tale by King. He sure knows how to put knots in the belly via suspense. As with all of Kings short stories I'm left wanting more.
This abbreviated yarn is about a lady who's driven to run. She's lost a child and to fill in the empty hole, she runs. She runs out of her current life sans house and hubby and goes to live in a conch shack on a nearly deserted Key in Florida. Here she comes face to face with evil and must summon from the strength her running has built in her to escape.
One can never trust King not to "off" a main character so the tension continues to the end. Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Girl.....but can he????...bg

I was a little disappointed that is was so short, but it was entertaining like most of King's books, but for a quick read it was good.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. It didn't have the "Boo! Ahhhh!" or "I don't want to go to bed tonight" feel that I want/expect from King. However, being a story that is only 2 hours long, it doesn't necessarily leave enough room to build up to something like that either.

The majority of the story takes place over a matter of a couple of hours (besides the flashbacks and stuff like that). King goes into great detail, as he tends to do, about Emily's, the main character, plight with the antagonist, Pickering, and getting away from him.

I won't retell the whole story, as I'm sure others have already and because I don't want to give too much away. Just know that it's well written, only 2 hours long, and more thriller/gruesome than horror/scary, if that makes sense.

It was suspenseful even though you have a pretty good idea how it is going to turn out, but other than that it seemed pointless.