Reviews

Gwendy's Final Task, by Stephen King, Richard Chizmar

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natattack_11's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

carterwheeler9's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

charlottekaas's review

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4.0

Not all of King's books are equally amazing and I, too, get annoyed with the extreme political focus of his newer works in particular. But dangit, the man can tell a story.

accidentallyinspace's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Feels like a definite drop in quality from the first two. From giving

Spoiler

COVID

an in-universe magical explanation to seemingly reconning / changing some of the aspects of the box from the first book all the way to completely fucking copping out of a foreshadowing done in the first book, this one was just kind of trash. I usually like King's Dark Tower tie-ins but I wonder on this one if his writing partner shouldn't have reined him in a little. On top of all that, it was the longest one.

One other thing. While I agree with nearly every stated or implied political and sociological moral point in the book, I have never liked being beaten over the head with them. I hated how the villian had to not only be

Spoiler

rich, but also ugly and fat and boorish and greedy and lecherous and cowardly etc... Feels like they really had to go on and on to be like "look, we also think billionaires are bad!" which like yeah, they are, but this was childish and uninteresting.

Read this one if you've got time and want to know how gwendy Peterson's story ends, but be warned that despite a massive handicap, she still manages to be a Mary Sue and always make the perfect right decision and line of dialogue every time.

jleov2's review against another edition

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5.0

I forgot to write reviews for the other two books previous to this one. Gwendy is delegated the important task of protecting a box. Not just any box, a box that with one wrong touch could change the fate of the world. The box knows yearns to wreck havoc on the world and fights Gwendy begging her to let it free. Will Gwendy be strong enough to fight it one last time? Or will the box finally win? An amazing read from an amazing author I can't praise Richard Chizmar enough!

verkisto's review against another edition

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2.0

Like any Stephen King book (co-written or otherwise), this is a story that's compelling, engaging, and even has some heart as it winds down to its conclusion. None of that, though, makes up for the raging stupidity that is this plot. It may as well have been called "Gwendy's Button Box ... IN SPACE", since that exact-damn-ly what this is. To add insult to injury, this is yet another book that adds to the Dark Tower mythology, and I wish SO HARD that King would let that go. Not everything has to serve the beam, does it? Did 11/22/63? No (though, it did feature Derry, which is also featured in this book, so there's definitely a connection now), and that was a damn fine book, all on its own. I should have realized it before I started, but I didn't recognize the Dark Tower in the cover artwork until I was over 50% of the way through the book, so shame on me....