Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Gingerbread Girl


I recently listened to The Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King. This is a story about a woman, Em, who has recently lost her baby girl to SIDS and has taken up running as a way of dealing with it. Or maybe it's her way of running away from it. Em's husband doesn't understand her obsession and pushes her away. She has comforted her husband and doesn't understand his unwillingness to be there for her. Em decides to go to Florida and stay at her dad's conch shack on a very secluded area of Vermillion Key, to get away and clear her mind.

In Florida, Em continues her running, and one day she stops to talk to the old man who runs the booth at the bridge. They talk about the few people who live there and he tells her of Pickering. Pickering is a rich man who brings his young "nieces" down to his place and always brings them back home on his boat. As Em is running home she looks in on Pickering and sees something disturbing. As she goes in for a closer look, she realizes that her next run, if she gets it, will be the one for her life.

This book was a short one, a little ick, much suspense, nothing "supernatural". This was a book about resilience and letting go. About finding a purpose in and of yourself.

I give it a 3 1/2 out of 5.
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