Gwendy's Button Box

Gwendy’s Button Box is a horror fantasy novella written by the American authors Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. It is the first in a trilogy and was published in 2018. The novel follows Gwendy Peterson, a young and awkward middle school student, whose life changes when she becomes the guardian of a magical button box that has the potential for extreme good and extreme destruction. The novella explores themes such as Fate Versus Free Will, The Murky Line Between Selfishness and Selflessness, and The Weight and Isolation of Secrets.

Gwendy’s Button Box is set in Castle Rock, Maine, which is where many of King’s early novels, such as Cujo (1981) and The Dead Zone (1979), are set.

This guide refers to the 2018 paperback edition of the novella, published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Content Warning: The source text contains references to suicide, mass suicide, suicidal ideation, child death, alcohol use disorder, sexual assault, and violence.

Plot Summary

In the summer of 1974, rising middle schooler Gwendy Peterson decides to run up and down the Suicide Steps (a set of steps scaling a steep hill) to lose weight.