King and Chizmar join forces again with a powerful stand-alone novel that is also the final chapter in the Gwendy trilogy.
When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its seven coloured buttons promised death and destruction.
Years later, the button box re-entered Gwendy’s life. A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once more forced to deal with the temptations that the box represented – an amazing sense of wellbeing, balanced by a terrifyingly dark urge towards disaster.
With the passing of time, the box has grown ever stronger and evil forces are striving to possess it. Once again, it is up to Gwendy Peterson, now a United States Senator battling the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease, to keep it from them. At all costs. But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?
Gwendy’s Final Task is a wildly suspenseful and at the same time deeply moving novel in which ‘horror giants’ (Publishers Weekly) Stephen King and Richard Chizmar take us on a journey from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Maine city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.
When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its seven coloured buttons promised death and destruction.
Years later, the button box re-entered Gwendy’s life. A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once more forced to deal with the temptations that the box represented – an amazing sense of wellbeing, balanced by a terrifyingly dark urge towards disaster.
With the passing of time, the box has grown ever stronger and evil forces are striving to possess it. Once again, it is up to Gwendy Peterson, now a United States Senator battling the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease, to keep it from them. At all costs. But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?
Gwendy’s Final Task is a wildly suspenseful and at the same time deeply moving novel in which ‘horror giants’ (Publishers Weekly) Stephen King and Richard Chizmar take us on a journey from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Maine city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.
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Reviews
Man, I love this story! The whole thing just races and feels so right-sized and so scarily and sadly relevant. Loved the characters . . . and the sense of one little girl's connection to the whole world through this weird device. It all just sang
A resonant novella set in one of King's signature locales: the small town of Castle Rock, Maine
[An] appealing chiller . . . The charming protagonist and thrill of temptation will enthrall fans and new readers alike
This charming, whimsical tale about a woman with an enchanted toy deepens into a story of pain and threat, destiny and desire
Has genuine charm
Tense and yet simultaneously moving
A well-written, seamless read (you can't see the join between the chapters King wrote and Chizmar wrote), that racks up the tension and dread, as well as the horror and the sense of wonder in this modern fairy story. The ending will bring a smile to the face, and possibly a tear to the eye. A fine end to the series and Gwendy's journey
Stephen King and Richard Chizmar's Gwendy saga comes to a satisfying conclusion . . . Unexpectedly moving. Like its predecessors, Gwendy's Final Task is both a seamless act of collaboration and a deeply felt reflection on the perilous state of our fractured modern world
