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The Gwendy Trilogy

by Stephen King

The Gwendy Trilogy series by Stephen King has 3 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Gwendy's Button Box (2017).

Books
2 novels + 1 novella
First published
2017
Status
completed
Last checked

Start here: Gwendy's Button Box (2017) — then read straight through in publication order.

Cover of Gwendy's Button Box, the first book in The Gwendy Trilogy

Reading order

The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.

  1. Gwendy's Button Box

    Novella

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  2. Gwendy's Magic Feather

    Novel

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  3. Gwendy's Final Task

    Novel

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About The Gwendy Trilogy

In 1974 Castle Rock, Maine -- King's frequent fictional setting -- twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson is given a mysterious button box by a stranger in a black hat: pressing its buttons dispenses rare coins and chocolate that keeps her young, but one button, he warns, could end the world. Gwendy's Button Box (2017), a novella co-written by King with Cemetery Dance publisher Richard Chizmar, follows Gwendy's adolescence under the weight of a power she never asked for and can't safely give away.

Gwendy's Magic Feather (2019), written solely by Chizmar with a foreword by King, catches up with an adult Gwendy -- now a novelist and U.S. congresswoman -- when the button box mysteriously reappears just as two girls go missing from Castle Rock. King returned as co-author for the finale, Gwendy's Final Task (2022), which sends an older Gwendy into orbit aboard a space station carrying the box, and ties the trilogy's cosmic stakes directly into King's Dark Tower mythology. Together the three books form a compact, decades-spanning story about power, temptation, and the cost of carrying both.

How to read this series

Read in publication order: Gwendy's Button Box, Gwendy's Magic Feather, Gwendy's Final Task. The trilogy follows Gwendy Peterson across roughly forty years of her life, so each book assumes you know what happened -- and what she gave up -- in the one before. Gwendy's Final Task leans on Dark Tower concepts in its climax; you don't need to have read that series to follow the plot, but fans of it will get more out of the ending.

Frequently asked questions

How many Gwendy books are there?

Three: Gwendy's Button Box (2017), Gwendy's Magic Feather (2019), and Gwendy's Final Task (2022), forming a complete trilogy.

What order should I read the Gwendy books in?

Publication order: Gwendy's Button Box, Gwendy's Magic Feather, Gwendy's Final Task. The trilogy follows Gwendy Peterson from age twelve into adulthood in sequence.

Did Stephen King write all three Gwendy books?

No -- King co-wrote Gwendy's Button Box and Gwendy's Final Task with Richard Chizmar, but Gwendy's Magic Feather was written by Chizmar alone, with a foreword by King.

Is the Gwendy trilogy connected to Stephen King's other Castle Rock stories?

Yes -- it's set in Castle Rock, Maine, the fictional town King has used since Cujo and The Dead Zone, and its ending draws on the cosmology of King's Dark Tower series.

Do I need to read the Gwendy trilogy in order, or can Gwendy's Magic Feather stand alone?

It can technically be read alone, but it's written as the middle chapter of Gwendy's life story and lands much better after Gwendy's Button Box.

Reading order last verified .