GWENDY’S BUTTON BOX
Twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson lives in Castle Rock, Maine. Like many girls her age, she has confidence issues and concerns of her weight and fitting in with other students her age. She will be going to middle school at the end of summer and she does not want her nickname – Goodyear – to follow her to school.
One day a man (he introduces himself as Richard Farris) calls out to her and he gives her a special box … he calls it a button box due to the buttons and levers around it. One lever dispenses chocolates, another issues rare Morgan Silver Dollars. Just as Mr. Farris has promised, the box has magical properties that are just right for a 12 year old girl, and Gwendy will discover that those chocolates themselves have magical properties. And when Mr. Farris warns Gwendy that there are buttons that she should be wary of, and even a button she should never push, Gwendy comes to learn that as delightful the box can be, it is a burden to care for it. The temptation to push a button in retribution or punishment for the way she’s treated by other school kids can be overwhelming. And what would be the harm? The magical properties of the button box would mean she would never be directly responsible for anything bad that might happen so someone else. Right?
This is a really great little psychological horror novella. Authors King and Chizmar have captured the desires of a pre-teen girl pretty well, and put some incredible responsibility and power in the palms of her hands … literally.
As readers, we have our hopes and desires for how Gwendy will act with her new-found power and aren’t surprised if she exercises some youthful logic.
I really appreciated the slow approach here – not slow story-telling. We aren’t hit with splatter or gore, we’re connected with a young girl at odds with her peers – but who of us haven’t felt this way? We’re then kept interested to see what Gwendy will do.
Looking for a good book? The novella, Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar is not the strongest horror story, but is a very good psychological suspense story, with just the right amount of mystery and magic tossed in.
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Gwendy’s Button Box
authors: Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
series: The Button Box #1
publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications
ISBN: 1587676109
hardcover, 171 pages
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GWENDY’S MAGIC FEATHER
Many years have passed since the events of the previous book unfolded. Gwendy is now successful by all accounts. She is a published author and now also a Congresswoman! But just as things seem to be really flowing her way, life starts throwing curveballs. First there’s the vile, loud-mouth racist president in office, her mother’s health is rapidly declining, there might be a serial killer in her home town of Castle Rock killing girls, and someone from her past reconnects (which is not a good thing). There couldn’t be both a better and a worse time for the Button Box to make a reappearance.
This volume in the Gwendy series is seriously dull. We get a lot of set-up … look at Gwendy now! She’s a success! Everything’s going her way … just look! And we’re shown her successful life, with a few minor challenges along the way, but nothing that would be beyond normal or worthy of a Stephen King/Richard Chizmar book (Anne Tyler … maybe). (And, to be clear, Stephen King did not write or co-write this. He gave his nod to Chizmar, who co-authored the first book.)
The problem with the book is that nothing happens. It’s a long narrative hinting at something to come, presumably to keep us excited and engaged, but we don’t need all the mundane details in Gwendy’s life to get the idea that she has put the button box behind her (or at least thought she had) and lives a relatively well-adjusted life. Chizmar lays it on thick and it slows everything down.
Once the guts of the story really start, we’re well into the book and have already mentally checked out and it’s a bit late. On top of that, the action, as it is, is all settled quite abruptly which is quite unsatisfying.
This is the middle book in a trilogy, with Stephen King’s name attached to it, so of course we’re going to read it, but it could have, should have, been so much better.
Looking for a good book? If Gwendy’s Magic Feather by Richard Chizmar were only the second of two books, it wouldn’t be worth recommending. But as it’s the middle of a trilogy, there may be some appeal to get the whole story (we won’t know for sure until after the next book.
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Gwendy’s Magic Feather
author: Richard Chizmar
series: The Button Box #2
publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 1982139722
paperback, 212 pages
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GWENDY’S FINAL TASK
Gwendy Peterson, the girl with the button box, is now 64 years old. She’s a senator from Maine and a successful author. She is also in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. It takes some time for Gwendy to recognize that her forgetfulness is the sign of something bigger to come, but once she does, she realizes the potential dangers of herself, with Alzheimer’s, in control of the button box. She also knows that it is absolutely impossible to get rid of or destroy the dangerous box.
Gwendy manages to hide her on-coming Alzheimer’s from her colleagues and constituents (though those closest to her are not surprised when they learn of it), and as a special guest/Senator she is planning a trip of a lifetime to visit the International Space Station. She sees an opportunity here to finally take care of a nagging problem.
This third book does a fine job of wrapping up some of the storylines throughout the trilogy. I liked that the now mature Gwendy faces some real-life issues (Alzheimer’s) and that the button box, which was her own saving grace back when she was a tween, has become a constant burden (and temptation) throughout her life.
It is nice to have Stephen King back as co-author and this book moves the story along swiftly.
A down-side to the book is the very overt politics and clear comparison of the whacked-out politicians in the book to our current (2020’s) political leaders and want-to-be leaders. I happen to follow King’s twitter posts, so I know his leanings – I don’t need the politics here in this story as well. Yes, given that Gwendy is a Congressperson, it’s hard to escape, but it did feel heavy-handed.
This was not my favorite Stephen King book (or series), but I’m really glad I took this little three-book trip.
Looking for a good book? For simple reading pleasure, Gwendy’s Final Task, as the third book in the Button Box trilogy, by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar satisfies.
I received a digital copy of this book from the published, through Netgalley, in exchange for an hoenst review.
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Gwendy’s Final Task
authors: Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
series: The Button Box #3
publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 1982191554
paperback, 288 pages
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