I recently purchased Stephen King’s newest, Gwendy’s Button Box, written in collaboration with Richard Chizmar. I bought it for my kindle based on the author and the back-cover blurb, which sounded like another eerie tale from Castle Rock. Then I read the book, which is when the disappointment set in.
To start with, Stephen King’s contribution seems limited to providing the names of Castle Rock and environs. There are occasional flashes of him in the writing, but the novel was primarily written by Chizmar. I won’t say he is a bad writer, I’ll only say he is of lesser caliber.
The next big disappointment was that the novel is geared to the middle-grade or young-adult audience, which was not clear from the write-up. We are treated to involved descriptions of Gwendy’s teenage angst flowering into young womanhood, complete with the tribulations of dealing with a budding body and budding romance. Teenage girls might like it, I did not. I’d prefer a little budding suspense and terror.
Finally, it is a short novel (novella?), which is a mixed blessing: I felt bad having wasted $7 bucks on a two-hour read, but at least didn’t have to deal with anymore adolescent whining.
My advice, recommend it to a niece, but not your favorite one.