Book Review: Gwendy's Button Box

If you're a Stephen King fan but you don't quite have the time for his usual wonderful but lengthy novels, Gwendy's Button Box should satisfy your King craving. This horror-fantasy novella, written with Richard Chizmar (A Long December, October Dreams) clocks in under 200 pages.

We meet the titular character Gwendy in Castle Rock, Maine, in the summer of 1974. She is 12 years old and has committed herself to climbing the Suicide Stairs-- which zig-zag up a cliffside-- every day in order to lose weight before the school year begins. On this particular day she meets a strange, but not dangerous man in black named Richard Farris.

Mr. Farris gifts Gwendy with a button box that has several buttons of different colors and two levers, one which dispenses a piece of chocolate, the other giving out a valuable silver dollar. He explains how powerful the box is, and what the buttons do, and insists that Gwendy must keep it safe. The rest of the novella follows Gwendy through young adulthood, as the box both blesses and curses the course of her life.

It ends up being both a dark fairy tale and a coming of age story. Gwendy begins to realize the weight of her responsibility early on, but it's only as she reaches full adulthood that she experiences the real price of the box. It's a classic "What if?" kind of story that will make you wonder what you would have done in Gwendy's shoes.

Overall I enjoyed the story and Gwendy herself, although there were moments where I felt like she lost a little bit of dimension to her character. Was that supposed to happen as an effect of the box? I'm not sure. But it's a fun experience, and will leave you wanting to know more about the box and where it came from.

Haunting Reads

Earlier this year I had a rare opportunity to make some horror recommendations for a library user who likes creepy mysteries, horror, and ghost stories. What luck! I exploded with ideas. Since we're getting close to Halloween, I thought this would be the perfect time to pull out my choices for anyone looking for a last-minute haunting read.

 I’ve broken down my selections into classics, newer releases, and graphic novels, depending on what type of reading experience you’re looking for.

Book review: Doctor Sleep

It's sad, but I can count the number of Stephen King books I've read on one hand. THE SHINING, DUMA KEY and now, DOCTOR SLEEP. I've also read ON WRITING, I believe because it was required reading in a creative writing class I took in college. Deservedly so. If you're a writer and haven't read it yet, get on it right away.

And yet I wouldn't hesitate to say King is one of my favorite writers. I'm much more familiar with the film adaptations of his stories, but they are still his stories. So I'm a fan.

It is on my ever growing to-do list to read the original novels of stories like IT, CARRIE, THE STAND, PET SEMATARY, etc. but we all know how those lists tend to fare. I still haven't gotten to a bunch of Neil Gaiman books, like GOOD OMENS, AMERICAN GODS, and then of course, ANANSI BOYS. So King is in good company, I suppose.

I've missed a couple of his more recent novels, but I could not pass up DOCTOR SLEEP. It's the sequel to THE SHINING, which is one of my favorite horror novels, and in it King catches us up with how life has been treating Danny Torrance ever since he and his mother survived the insanity at the Overlook Hotel.

Film review: Nightmares in Red, White and Blue

I've been hanging on to NIGHTMARES IN RED, WHITE AND BLUE for a while, waiting for the right time to watch it. Not that I knew some way to identify the right time, because in retrospect I didn't realize how appropriate it would be to watch it right now. The past few months I've had some of the most in-depth conversations with people (and admittedly, sometimes myself) about storytelling, themes, what makes them compelling to a reader/viewer and what the films mean to them. This particular documentary touches on all of that, specifically within the horror genre.

Joe Hill and Stephen King on Richard Matheson's "Duel"

After posting about the Horror Comic Awards last month I've been playing catch-up on all the great titles I've missed. One that I've gotten really into, ROAD RAGE, is not my usual fare, but because I'm a big fan of the writers involved I couldn't help being curious.

Film review: Tales From the Darkside: The Movie

When it comes to horror anthologies, it's tough to live up to the standards set by THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE or CREEPSHOW. As I found out when watching recent anthology V/H/S, an uneven selection of segments can create a poor viewing experience, no matter how good even one of them may be.  In the case of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, the stories again vary in their effectiveness but not in as extreme a way as V/H/S. There is still a uniting theme and visual quality due to the single director that ties the entire film together.