Gwendy's Button Box

Gwendy's Button Box is a horror novella by American writers Stephen King and Richard Chizmar.^[1] It was announced by Entertainment Weekly on February 28, 2017.^[2] 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.^[3]

Gwendy's Button Box

First edition cover
Author	Stephen King, Richard Chizmar
Audio read by	Maggie Siff
Language	English
Series	The Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy
Genre	Horror
Publisher	Cemetery Dance
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	175
ISBN	978-1-58767-610-9
Followed by	Gwendy's Magic Feather

A sequel titled Gwendy's Magic Feather, penned solely by Chizmar, was released in November 2019.^[4][5] 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.^[6][7] It was published in 2022. After a book box release, containing all three installments, the trilogy was named The Gwendy Trilogy.^[8]

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."^[2]