Gwendy's Button Box

{{Merge to|The Gwendy Trilogy|date=January 2025|discuss=Talk:The Gwendy Trilogy#Proposed merge of Gwendy's Magic Feather into The Gwendy Trilogy}}{{short description|Novella by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar}}

{{Infobox book |

| name = Gwendy's Button Box

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = Gwendys-button-box-cover-high-res.jpg

| image_size = 200px

| caption = First edition cover

| author = Stephen King,
Richard Chizmar

| audio_read_by= Maggie Siff

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language = English

| series = The Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy

| genre = Horror

| publisher = Cemetery Dance

| release_date = May 16, 2017

| media_type = Print (Hardcover)

| pages = 175

| isbn = 978-1-58767-610-9

| preceded_by =

| followed_by = Gwendy's Magic Feather

}}

Gwendy's Button Box is a horror novella by American writers Stephen King and Richard Chizmar.{{cite web|url=http://www.cemeterydance.com/gwendys-button-box-stephen-king-richard-chizmar.html|title=Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar!|access-date=3 March 2017}} It was announced by Entertainment Weekly on February 28, 2017.{{cite magazine|url=http://ew.com/books/2017/02/28/stephen-king-richard-chizmar-castle-rock-gwendys-button-box-cover-reveal/|title=See the Cover for Stephen King and Richard Chizmar's New Castle Rock Novella|magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=28 February 2017|access-date=3 March 2017}}

The American edition published by Cemetery Dance included illustrations by Keith Minnion. The French edition, released by Le Livre de Poche in September 2018, reproduced those illustrations with brand new ones by the same artist.{{cite web|url=https://club-stephenking.fr/gwendy-et-la-boite-a-boutons|title=Gwendy et la boite à boutons|date=8 September 2018|access-date=8 September 2018}}

A sequel titled Gwendy's Magic Feather, penned solely by Chizmar, was released in November 2019.{{cite web |title=Return to Stephen King's Castle Rock in Gwendy's Magic Feather |url=http://www.wboc.com/story/41065106/return-to-stephen-kings-castle-rock-in-gwendys-magic-feather |website=WBOC |access-date=November 23, 2019 |date=September 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191123004422/https://www.wboc.com/story/41065106/return-to-stephen-kings-castle-rock-in-gwendys-magic-feather |archive-date=2019-11-23 |url-status=dead}}{{Cite magazine |date=November 1, 2019 |title=Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy Book Review: Gwendy's Magic Feather by Richard Chizmar. Cemetery Dance, $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-58767-731-1 |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781587677311 |magazine=Publishers Weekly}} In November 2020, Chizmar announced that he and King were writing a third installment in the series titled Gwendy's Final Task, this time as a full-length novel.{{Cite tweet|author=Richard Chizmar|user=RichardChizmar|number=1333163849722310657|title=She's back.}}{{Cite tweet|author=Stephen King|user=StephenKing|number=1353890757485203456|title=Reading CHASING THE BOOGEYMAN, by my sometime collaborator, Rich Chizmar (GWENDY'S BUTTON BOX and the forthcoming GWENDY'S FINAL TASK). BOOGEYMAN is creepy and engrossing. You'll believe it.}} It was published in 2022. After a book box release, containing all three installments, the trilogy was named The Gwendy Trilogy.{{cite web|url=https://richardchizmar.com/book/the-gwendy-trilogy/|title=The Gwendy Trilogy|access-date=25 December 2024}}

Plot

The story takes place in King's fictional town of Castle Rock in 1974. Twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson encounters a stranger in dark clothes and a black hat who invites her to "palaver."

Conception

"I had a story I couldn't finish, and [Chizmar] showed me the way home with style and panache," King said in a statement. In describing the writing process, Richard Chizmar said, "Steve sent me the first chunk of a short story. I added quite a bit and sent it back to him. He did a pass, then bounced it back to me for another pass. Then, we did the same thing all over again – one more draft each. Next thing you know, we had a full-length novella on our hands. We took a free hand in rewriting each other and adding new ideas and characters. The whole process took about a month."

References

{{reflist}}