content: Don't get me wrong- this story was well written, but it lacked the punch that other Steven King books delivered for me when I last read some of them years ago (e.g., The Stand, Pet Cemetery, It). King is gifted at describing horror in the commonplace (think Cujo or Christine), but even he couldn't wring macabre out of a simple case of a girl lost in the woods. The story was convincing in that I believed it accurately depicted what a 9 year old would do if lost in the woods, but I just didn't care that much. Also, the creature stalking the girl is a let down and kind of seems tossed in as an afterthought. The girl was perishing all right on her own without the intervention of evil incarnate shaped like a badly drawn bear.