Gwendy's Magic Feather: (The Button Box Series) (Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy)

Really satisfying read, I kept forgetting it wasn't written by Stephen King, and I can't pay Richard Chizmar a bigger compliment than that! Anyone unsure about reading it because it's not King should read it, trust me!

I have now read  Gwendy's Button Box  twice and I really, really enjoy it. It sparks my imagination, and it's something that would have definitely done so as a child.After reading it again for the second time, shortly before reading the sequel, I was still unsure as to whether it was crying out for a sequel. It was all packaged up nicely, no loose ends, but clearly Richard Chizmar had been inspired by collaborating with Stephen King (who he refers to as "Steve" in his acknowledgements) and wanted to continue the story.Except ... he forgot about the button box. The button box does make an appearance, but apart from Gwendy dispensing more "magic" chocolates from it, it's pretty much kept in the background of the book, being all ominous.Instead the focus is on the "magic" feather mentioned in the title, which gets touched upon about three quarters of the way through the book, and was never mentioned before in the earlier book. So why bring it up now? Clearly Richard didn't want all the focus to be on the button box again (which I still think is begging to be explored and utilised more), but at the same time, I don't think he made much use of the feather either.And was it the feather that was working its magic, or the button box? Did Gwendy make her own destiny, or was it the box/feather? That's the real story needing to be told, and I still don't think it has been told. Yes, all the buttons relate to a continent, but apart a couple of incidents in the first book, the rest of the buttons are not explored. I kept thinking they would be further when I started this, but unfortunately not.Despite my grumblings, Richard has still written a good book, and it's clear that he has incorporated Stephen's tone into his writing and kept Castle Rock at the forefront of the story. Alan Pangborn is also mentioned in passing, who Stephen King fans will recognise from  The Dark Half  and  Needful Things  but also more recently in  Castle Rock  for me. (There's probably other names, but that was the only obvious one that I knew from the TV show.)I'm still non the wiser as to who the mysterious, omnipotent Richard Farris is, or if Richard Chizmar knows what his purpose is. Neither do we find out what happened to the box between it being taken away from 18-year-old Gwendy, to the now 37-year-old Gwendy - we know it goes to someone else/multiple people to "look after" and there are hints that previous people have used the box for darker means. Frequent references to a sex starved creepy President and missing girls liberally sprinkled throughout the story will satisfy the Stephen King stans.It is an incredibly short read though - the page count is 323, but if you take out the blank pages between chapters, the single page drawings, the "one paragraph" chapters, you'll easily read this in no time. I read this in a couple of hours, and I didn't feel that it was a waste of a couple of hours either.I enjoyed revisiting Gwendy's life, and seeing her grow after we left her in Castle Rock in her teens. There are touches and reminders of the first book, for the people who didn't re-read the first book, so you will be able to pick up the story again. I wouldn't say that this is a stand alone book - I would say that you would need to have read Button Box first.At the end of reading, I find myself a little at a loss. On the one hand, it's still an excellent follow up to Gwendy's Button Box, the story is really good - but there's something missing. I wanted the button box to be explored and I think there's possibly another story in there, just begging to be written. I need to find out more about Richard Farris and this box. If you can get past that, then it's an excellent book. ​

This is the second installment of a trilogy and follows Gwendy's Button Box. In this book Gwendy is now an adult and working as a congresswoman when the box appears back in her life. She is unhappy with the President, more aware of the behaviour and misdeeds of other countries. Is the box still in safe hands?I zoomed through this book and found it really difficult to put down. The chapters are short so I kept thinking 'I'll just read one more chapter' and then I was finished! Despite it feeling quite pacey, not much happened, but the 4 star rating reflects how the book held my interest. You could read this as a stand alone book but I think its best enjoyed if you have knowledge from the first book about how the button box works. Stephen King wrote the first book and then reports he lost his way with it and the idea was then picked up by Richard Chizmar... consequently this book doesn't read like a Stephen King book.... because it isn't. It also doesn't feel as dark as the first book in the series. Its a decent book in its own right.

The follow-up to the original Button Box novel is a workmanlike sequel written by Chizmar with King on editing duty. There’s a lot to commend it. Chizmar has more or less nailed King’s style, a combination of the homely and the macabre set against the backdrop of small-town America. It probably promises a bit more than it delivers. The novel is highly readable and over too soon - as its title suggests, it’s fairly lightweight. Gwendy continues to be highly engaging, and the ensemble of Castle View residents is outlined with attention to detail and a lightness of touch. But incident is fairly thin on the ground - there’s not really a huge amount of plot, at least concerning the eponymous box… Overall it doesn’t quite clear the runway, so a fairer adjudication would be 3.5 stars, if that were the option. I’ve raced through the first two stories in this series, largely because the third instalment has just been published, and I liked the sound of it, so wanted to read them in order. King fans will probably enjoy this for reading so effortlessly like a King novel (it’s all based on his original idea but perhaps tellingly he let Chizmar get on with the second title solo, bar editing, and initially King says in a foreword that he didn’t think a sequel would have legs). It does, just, but it also feels a little like an opportunity missed - though it’s far from a failure - and I can’t wait to tackle the next book in the series.