Gwendy's Button Box

Gwendy’s Button Box – by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

In addition to Stephen King’s remarkable total of about 60 or so full-length novels, he’s also written quite a few compilations of short stories. In those books, some of the stories run as few as 10 pages; some as many as 65 or 70.  Well, what if he took one of those 65 or 70-page stories and released it as a full-length book?  He could easily “double” the page length by adding a lot of unnecessary chapter breaks within the story. He could then add a blank page between each chapter, use very thick paper and add a few illustrations throughout.  He could then publish it as a stand-alone hardback, charge about $25 and, due to his reputation, easily rake in a couple extra million.

This is exactly what Gwendy’s Button Box feels like.  Was it planned this way? Well, probably not.  For starters, this book has a co-author, Richard Chizmar.  I don’t know anything about Chizmar, nor the level of contribution from both the authors, but I’m sure Chizmar was quite pleased when he got ‘the check’.

I confess I didn’t buy this book.  I borrowed it from my local library. I’m glad I did. I wasn’t kidding about the $25 price tag.  I’m not a person who can shell out so much for so little.  You can easily read this book in one sitting (I did it in two).  No matter how a great a reputation Stephen King has, there’s simply too much out there of high value with a significantly lower cost.

That’s not to say this is a bad story. It’s quite good, in fact.  Gwendy Peterson is a 12-year old girl who hasn’t grown out of her chubby adolescence yet. She decides to do something about it by doing a daily run of the “Suicide Stairs” in a park area in her hometown of Castle Rock, Maine.  One day she meets a mysterious stranger who gives her a mysterious gift – a box with mysterious buttons.  She’s given vague instructions by the stranger who then inexplicably vanishes.

Without going into much detail, this ‘box’ is both powerfully good and powerfully bad. We grow up with Gwendy until high school and live through the highs and lows of her young life.  This is basically a nice, short tale that I couldn’t help thinking could have easily been added to one of Kings many compendiums. Yes, Castle Rock is a familiar place for many of King’s stories (Anyone remember Sheriff George Bannerman?), but overall, I can’t help but conclude that this was a pleasant read, yet not really worth all that money.

Maybe much of the work here is co-author Richard Chizmar, and if so, God bless him.  I’m sure he can sell quite a few more books on his own after this one had been published due to the curiosity of King’s bazillion fans.  Those familiar with the business know how tough it is to make at is a well-read, respected author, and by King giving his brethren exposure anyway he can, I’m perfectly fine with that.

Unless you’re one of those ‘collectors’ though, I would recommend renting or borrowing as opposed to buying.  Maybe there will be a cheap paperback one day.