Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
This novella is the tale of a girl in Castle Rock in the 1970s who is entrusted with a box by a strange man. It can cause calamitous events and apparently Gwendy is full of trustworthiness and is clean and above suspicion and reproach for she has the dubious and morally confounding distinction of being its custodian.
This is a doom-laden yet fun tale that triumphs magnificently and keeps you rapt. Is Gwendy’s moral and familial rectitude keeping her from actively choosing to cause harm with the box? I loved this tale of melancholic menace and dark uncertainty. At the end there is emotional respite from her moral responsibility.
Best Line:
“Makes him a potential weirdo in Gwendy’s book.”