Set in 1974, Stephen King and Richard Chizmar s horror novella, Gwendy's Button Box (2017), follows twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson as she meets a stranger in a black hat who gives her a mysterious box that impacts her life in strange and frightening ways. King, a prolific and world-renowned author, is known for his horror stories such as IT, The Shining, and Salem's Lot. Chizmar, who writes fiction and screenplays, is best known as the editor of Cemetery Dance Magazine, a specialty publisher of horror and suspense fiction. In the town of Castle Rock, twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson is on a mission to lose weight in order to stop being bullied by her classmates. She is due to start middle school in the fall and doesn't want her nickname, "Goodyear," to follow her. Every day, she runs up the Suicide Stairs, a rusting structure that clings to the cliff side and leads up to Castle View. One day, as she catches her breath from atop Castle View, a man in the park below calls to her, "Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me." Wearing dark clothes and a black hat, he introduces himself as Richard Farris. Farris says he has noticed her because she's trying to better herself. Because of this, he would like to give her something. Farris shows Gwendy the Button Box, a mahogany box with eight colored buttons on top; she is immediately drawn to it. He briefly explains what the side levers do one gives out animal-shaped chocolate treats that will curb her appetite and help her lose weight; the other gives out silver dollars as payment for keeping the box. However, the eight buttons on the top of the box are a different story.
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