AUTHOR: Stephen King & Richard Chizmar
PUBLISHER: Cemetery Dance Publications
PUBLISHING DATE: March 16, 2017
FROM GOODREADS: The little town of Castle Rock, Maine has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one story that has never been told... until now.
There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974 twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zig-zag up the cliffside.
At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground. From a bit farther away comes the chink of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball as the Senior League kids practice for the Labor Day charity game.
One day, a stranger calls to Gwendy: "Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me."
On a bench in the shade sits a man in black jeans, a black coat like for a suit, and a white shirt unbuttoned at the top. On his head is a small neat black hat. The time will come when Gwendy has nightmares about that hat...
Journey back to Castle Rock again in this chilling new novella by Stephen King, bestselling author of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, and Richard Chizmar, award-winning author of A Long December. This book will be a Cemetery Dance Publications exclusive with no other editions currently planned anywhere in the world!
MY THOUGHTS:
So having just finished this book, and by just I mean within the last hour, I'm kind of going with an impulse rating. Part of me wants to go with 3/5 but then there really isn't anything horribly wrong with it and there are a few things that I really like that to me deserve more than a 3/5, so I'm going a tad higher.
The summer before she starts middle school, Gwendy spends everyday running up the "suicide steps" at her local park. Before school finished, some classmates had taken to calling her "goodyear" because she is somewhat on the chubby side, and Gwendy is determined to have a fresh start. Toward the end of summer, she is approached by a man at the top of the stairs wearing a black suit and hat. Gwendy thinks the man is a creeper, but she talks to him anyway and at the end of the encounter, she is given a box with two levers on the sides and different colored buttons on top. One lever opens a door which produces a tiny chocolate candy which makes her no longer want to overeat and crave food, and the other produces a silver coin, worth quite a bit of money. The buttons are a different story and Gwendy knows that if she chooses to push one, something bad will likely happen. The remainder of the story revolves around Gwendy's care of the box, the decisions she makes and the things that happen to her.
My main issue with "Gwendy's Button Box" is its length. Call me crazy, but I'd rather read one of King's mammoth tomes than a book which has less than 200 pages. I like his character development and how everything from the town to its people weave together and I just believe there was a lot more in this story that could have been fleshed out. Overall it felt kind of rushed. However, in my opinion, the concept is pure King. The book has some cool artwork sporadically throughout and on a side note, my hometown has its own set of suicide stairs which made for a fun extra. The ending of the tale is quite satisfying and I was immediately attached to Gwendy and cared what happened to her.
So basically my opinion is this - if you are a big King fan, you're probably going to read this book. I don't think it's one of his stellar works, but it's a strong read and quite enjoyable. If you're not a collector of his books, grab this one from your library because it was somewhat painful to pay such a high price for this Cemetery Dance hardback release given it is so short. However, I don't regret my decision one bit!
RATING: 4 PAWS
