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. She is about to begin middle school and wants to shed her pejorative nickname, “Goodyear,” before the school year starts. While running, she notices a man wearing a black hat. The man calls her over and introduces himself as Mr. Farris. He tells Gwendy he has a present for her and gives her a beautiful button box. He explains that the button box can cause both chaos and good, such as the animal-shaped chocolates and the valuable silver dollars it produces. Bewitched by the box, Gwendy takes it and goes home to hide it from her parents.

As time goes on, Gwendy begins eating chocolates from the button box and finds her life improves. She begins losing weight and gaining athletic prowess. Her parents’ previously fraught relationship also improves. She begins wondering what else the button box can do and particularly wonders if it truly can destroy a specific person or place.

Gwendy’s curiosity finally gets the best of her, and she decides to test the button box’s limits. After researching what area of the world is least populated, she chooses South America and presses the red button. Immediately, she feels ill and spends most of the next day sleeping. When she wakes up, she learns that the Jonestown Massacre has occurred in Guyana. She immediately feels terrible, assuming that she is responsible.

Gwendy and her best friend Olive have a falling out over Olive’s jealousy of Gwendy’s newfound popularity. Olive accuses Gwendy of being selfish, which deeply wounds Gwendy since she still feels guilt for the Jonestown Massacre.

Olive dies by suicide after jumping from the Suicide Steps. Upset by the loss of her best friend and determined to prevent anyone else from dying at the site, Gwendy uses the button box to destroy the Suicide Steps. Gwendy feels melancholy following Olive’s death and isolates herself from others.

While working at her job, Gwendy meets a boy named Harry, and the two quickly begin dating. Gwendy is so happy in her relationship with Harry that she doesn’t feel the need to rely on the button box for chocolates or happiness. As a result, some of the button box’s power and effects begin to wear off without her noticing.

Following graduation, Gwendy is accepted to Brown University. During her summer break, Frankie Stone, a bully and the novel’s main antagonist, breaks into her house, kills Harry with the button box, and attempts to rape Gwendy. Devastated by the loss of Harry, Gwendy presses the red button on the button box, wishing Frankie would die and rot in hell.

After Gwendy graduates from Brown, Mr. Farris comes to retrieve the button box. He praises her for her steady and responsible guardianship of the box and gives her a glimpse into her bright future as a novelist. He leaves with the button box, and Gwendy feels lighter and hopeful about her future.