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Gwendy's Button Box (2017)

Before reading: I feel like I know a lot about this one but also nothing about it. I know nothing about the content and am going in completely blind. What I do know is that this is the first book in a trilogy. Additionally, this was co-authored by Richard Chizmar. This is only the second time we are getting a co-authored book so I am interested to see how it compares. Now what is slightly annoying about this trilogy is that King only worked on the first and third book. The second book is solely by Chizmar. That means for the purposes of this blog, I will only be writing about the first and third. However, I will still need to read the second one. That being said, I will include some brief thoughts of the second in my next blog. Luckily, this past year they released all three books together in one binding so at least it will be a little easier to read that way. Anyway, this is a short book and I've probably taken more time writing this than it'll take me to read so I'm going to stop now.

After reading: I liked this one quite a bit. I do want to preface by saying that this is a very very short book. Honestly, I'm surprised it was released on its own. So even though I really enjoyed it, it isn't necessarily one of the best King books in comparison to his other work. I did like length but I also do think it could have been longer and more fleshed out. Some parts that are pretty important kind of just happen quite quickly and then we move on. 

This story is very Dark Tower coded. The entire premise just screams DT and not to mention that the antagonist (?) has the initials RF which, in Stephen King stories, means they're actually Randall Flagg. Also, the story is set in Castle Rock. Overall, it is a very King story intertwined with other King stories. I'll definitely to be interested to see what all changes with the second book where King's voice is not present. 

I found this to be a very enjoyable and complete story. I wasn't left feeling unsatisfied but since Gwendy is still quite young at the end of it, adding on to this story does make sense. I will read the second story, Gwendy's Magic Feather, before moving on to my next King book. While it is longer than this one was, I do believe it is also quite short. So we should be back to our normal programming shortly. 

Earlier I had mentioned that King doesn't often co-author books, which is a bit ironic considering our next book is co-written. Next up is Sleeping Beauties. 

A chocolate easter bunny in a studio.

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