Needful Things: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – May 3, 2016

A lot of people don’t find King’s writing “scary” but there’s something to be said for the slow, creeping sense that something is just not right. Needful Things has this in spades, and it’s my favorite kind of King story.The town of Castle Rock has had its fair share of bad luck over the years (gruesome murders, rabid dogs and the like) but it’s still a nice, pleasant small town. Maybe the people gossip too much, but it’s a charming community.Yet when a new merchant comes to town, the townfolk’s careful, pleasant facades begin to slowly fall apart. Mr Gaunt has something they NEED and they’ll do just about anything to get it.Secrets, suspicions and old grudges rise to the surface and what starts with a simple purchase by an 11 year old boy unleashes the hidden hate boiling in this small town.

This book is filled with vulgarity in language and in sexual references. If you are a Christian and are sensitive to these elements, do not get this book.

Needful Things has Stephen King at his best in some places and at his worst in others.First, the good: Needful Things gives you 950 pages of classic King doing something he's really, really figured out how to do well: lock some average Joes in an enclosed space (usually a small town or a single building), introduce some horror/paranormal catalyst, and then bring it all to a slow boil before your eyes. This is a central driving force in Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Tommyknockers, IT, Misery, Under the Dome, and probably many others I haven't read yet. Also, the book concludes a loose series of novels and one novella that center around Castle Rock, ME... those being The Body (which became the 80s hit movie Stand By Me), The Dead Zone, Cujo, The Dark Half, and, finally, Needful Things. There are a few recurring characters and other Easter egg winks at those who've read the others, but there's no need to go through the "series" in any particular order.Now, the bad stuff: Parts of Needful Things are almost literally unbelievably cheesy – which is terrain King can fall into from time to time. Apparently when he was drafting "Needful Things" he was trying to put together a sort of 80's satire thing under a veneer of Horror Story. Something got mucked up in the works, however, and the result is entire sections and subplots that have that ghastly combo of being funny when they are not trying to be, and vice versa. This was also allegedly the first book King wrote sober in his entire career – which, good for him – but maybe some of the crap can be chalked up to the fried nerves of substance recovery. Gaunt is a pretty obvious Satan stand-in, okay, but I could have done without the scene where Ace Merrill catches him eating an uncooked rat.This book shares a ton of similarities with The Tommyknockers, that disaster of an alien book written just beforehand during whose creation King was for the most part coked straight out of his gizzard. The Setup: Conservative and Sexually Repressed and Abusive and Somewhat Dumb Rural Mainers Get Exposed to a FOREIGN ENTITY & Away Go Everyone's Pesky Repressions & Out Comes the Homicidal Lunatic Underneath (Us All?).In The Tommyknockers the FOREIGN ENTITY is a spaceship buried in the rural Maine woods, stumbled upon by Bobbi Anderson, who writes Western novels. Bobbi goes insane and unburies the thing and exposes the whole town to some weird cocktail of alien radiation that was insulated for millions of years by dirt. Everyone gains telepathic powers and genius mechanical insights but also loses his or her mind and slowly becomes an amorphous blob like the Adenoid in Gravity's Rainbow. The world is saved by a drunk poet named Jim G. Jim G. is insusceptible to the seduction of ancient intergalactic mind control air poison because of a steel plate in his head from an old skiing accident. King has since himself dismissed the book as quote "awful."In "Needful Things," the foreign entity in question goes by the name Leland Gaunt. Gaunt is a Twilight Zone-ish mystery man of assumed infinite age who opens a new flea market in Castle Rock, ME, setting in motion a catastrophic annihilation of the town from within. Once you buy something at Needful Things – something you feel you desperately need– for a low price, this Gaunt fellow gains hold of your mind and soul and dreams and sexual fantasies etc. etc. etc., and you start doing bad things to repay a debt which never ends.All things considered, like the Tommyknockers, Needful Things is an enjoyable book if you can choose to ignore its flaws, which abound, and which occur to some degree in a lot of King's stuff from this time period. Over-expositional dialogue, random cutesy tangents by the narrator that don't mean anything or go anywhere, gratuitous detail for its own sake, the occasional character who if real would perhaps be the dumbest human currently alive, etc. But the story remains thrilling and emotionally strong at times, and King takes expert care in weaving all these intersecting plot-lines and backstories in and out of one another, and you probably won't put the thing down if you start it. This is a testament to King's work ethic and bottomless imagination, which (as that unchecked combination tends to do, see D. Lynch or C. Dickens for more) has produced some great work and also some total stinkers.That said I'm happy King worked through this low period and kept chugging on rather than sitting back on his fortune from the 70s/early 80s, because some of his recent stuff has been a serious return to form in my opinion. He is a fiercely talented storyteller who remains as lovably fallible as ever. For the heavy duty King fans and/or compulsive completionists, Needful Things is a quick read and satisfying conclusion to the Castle Rock stories. For everyone else, please skip it and go read The Stand, IT, Dark Tower, The Dead Zone, Different Seasons, On Writing, or 11/22/63.

I've read Needful Things a couple times before but couldn't find my copy so i order another. In fact, I've reread a lot of his work. Normally, I order the Ebooks now but it was much cheaper ordering the used book (1st edition) so, go me. Love all books Stephen King except the Gunslinger series, just couldn't get into it. Best storyteller ever and i read a lot.

Good book. i'm re-reading all my stephen king books. i was able to read them all in paperback when they first came out--but now my re-reading is done on a kindle with the type set WAY bigger! in my opinion, this book is great but the movie was so much better. king goes on and on in his books and the movies always seem to get to the point quicker and better. still a good read though.

This is the 39th book of King's this constant reader has read and I'd put this one up towards the top 10 thus far. The book has everything I love in a King book: amazing and detailed characters, some great scenes, dialog, it can be very funny and disturbing. It is a long book but never, never boring (that isn't to say some of his books, a few, lag and I'm happy to move on). Like all artists, not every work is as strong as others, King hasn't written a book I didn't enjoy but a few were less successful than others. This one was outstanding. There are many dozens of characters large and small that are so well fleshed out. There are multiple protagonists and one outright scary bad guy and yet, with such superb writing, I felt both sympathy and loathing for them. There's no reason to give away the plot, you want to know if I enjoyed and recommend this book: YES! Some complain about the ending (par for the course with some King reviewers); I had no issues with the conclusion and the last 10% of the book is riveting and a page turner. If you have never read any of Kings books, this one while not as well know as many is certainly a good start for you. If you're a constant reader as I am, you do want this on your list of books to read. The book is funny, sad, action packed, brings old characters from other Kings universe into Castle Rock, it is creepy and it is a great read.Bravo Mr. King, bravo.

This was a good read, as I say most of the books I've read are. Stephen King has such an imagination, im not sure how he comes up with these stories, let alone not have any repeat. I love how some characters from other books pop up or are just mentioned in each of his books.

Very nice paperback edition. I’m a librarian and this puppy will hold up for many years. I’m easy on my things and you would barely be able to tell I read it all.Book Review: One of Mr. King’s best books. If you like horror or supernatural story lines, please read this book! (Or any of his others.) In a nut shell this book asks what would you sell your soul for? What is your Needful Thing?

Another hundreds of pages of Stephen King novel (935 pages) with loads of characters.I found quiet some repetitive narratives of inflated set of characters.So, why read it all then?This is the paradox, in my view, reader is suffering here.On the one hand, a thick book with inflated set of characters, and repetitive narrative, on the other hand, a very very interesting, great plot.I think no one can dare to degrade Stephen King's God given like talent of narrating dialogues of middle class, ordinary Americans.But when you start coming across more and more of these dialogues in repetitive fashion without adding anything new to plot, reading becomes boring, tiring. And then you slide into disengagement.Stephen King amazes me with his largeness, energy, comfort while generating new characters, and making them talk.One needs a catalogue of them under his hand through out the book to check who is who.This great plot could have been far more sharper, and impacting with less characters.So, what is the plot here?In general I saw the subject pretty psychological, and philosophical. And I loved it.To me it touches at the motivations of modern man resulting in the drive of economy.And it touches at the things modern man can dare to do for a few dollars for their silly obsessions where they fail to foresee possible horrible, sad results of their actions.And Stephen King fantastically catches all this. And I loved the way he configured, and labelled the elements and the characters of these affairs.I am very impressed Stephen King's observation of all these mind-boggling socio-cultural-economical-psychological relations, and plotting them in a compact, simple way.A novelist should be a good social, cultural, psychological observer. And this novel is a proof that Stephen King is a great one.It is also magnificent that such a in-depth subject is covered with such an ordinary way.A business man comes to a small town called Castle Rock in Maine, and launches a shop on the main street of the town.Name of the shop is NEEDFUL THINGS. I just love this name. Message is clear; One needs this thing, and It is sold here.In fact, it sounds like having contrary message also; No one needs these objects, but there is no shortage of people still obsessed with them, and will buy them.Throughout the book author invites us to think why people, that is we, need these objects, and buy them.The shop is a gloomy hall where all kinds of antique like objects displayed.An ordinary man of modern pop life would find them very unique, rare, interesting, and valuable.Objects have no price tag on them. And shop's opening-closing hours seems to be pretty flexible, or is arranged on customer's convenience on spot.At one point it mentions that toilet in the shop is scarcely dirty.Owner of the shop, Mr. Leland Gaunt, has a unique way of selling.Before selling something, he first gets quiet close, sometimes intimate talk with customer understanding his obsessions.And Mr. Leland Gaunt never forgets praising object's uniqueness.All these scenes remind reader how much we like our obsessions are glorified by sellers.In fact, in a magical way, Mr. Leland Gaunt already knows his customer.But he still talks to them first, leading them to their object. And when the customer sees the object, it is always love at first sight moment.Sometimes these objects in a mysterious way are displayed on window of the shop while customer is walking by. And when customer notices it then his/her feet take them into the shop.And in a scary way, Mr. Leland Gaunt is always readily waiting for them.Price bargaining and closing deal is done in a unique way. Mr. Leland Gaunt asks how much customer would pay for the object.Because he knows how crazy is the customer for the object, so he transfers the price setting task to customer.He also knows customer will try to set a lower price within his financial constraints. Even customer himself does not believe in the price he/she offers.So Mr Leland Gaunt already makes his customer feel guilty of setting a lower price upfront.And this is the moment Mr. Leland Gaunt strikes back.He accepts it with one condition. Customer should do a joke, a prank, a task to another person in town.Since customer is already in a happy mood with his silly obsession for symbolic price, he is in psychological trap already.Customer is no longer in a position to judge the consequence of this joke / prank / task Mr. Leland Gaunt is asking from him.After all it all sounds like a small fooling thing. At least customer enjoys fooling himself with believing like that.This moment is perfectly described by one of the customers later confessing "Mr. Leland Gaunt buys our SICKNESS in return"Indeed aren't human beings ready to get blind for their small greed, and for their silly obsessions?And here is some examples of these customers, objects they are sort hypnotised for , the prank they will do it- A student boy buys baseball card for mudding a woman's clean sheets drying, and breaking her house's window by throwing stones- Student boy's mother buys King's (Elvis Presley) sunglasses not for a particular prank. But when she founds them broken, she has someone in her mind to revenge.- A widow woman who also owns a small shop, buys necklace which heals pains in her hands. She has to bury a fake letter to mislead a treasure hunter.- An alcoholic buys a foxtail for killing a woman's dog.- Board member of the local government buys Horse Race Toy for placing dynamites in and around town.Eventually these jokes, pranks, tasks results in blood shed, suicide, even town's Catholics and Baptist communities go against each other fatally.This book is a not only story of Castle Rock, it is story of the World where how people are ready to unleash their already built up resentment, grudge with a small excuse.And excuses are planted by Mr. Leland Gaunt, The Devil.

First the book arrived before the expected delivery date and in excellent condition .not always the case with used books so that's a big bonus .Now for the story itself .Like many other Stephen King novels this is a long read ,over 900 pages ,so be prepared for a fairly involved plot that does wander a bit .Another of Mr King's trade marks is the sheer number of characters you need to get to know and keep track of ,this one is comparable with Under the Dome ,IT and The Stand in that aspect .Fortunately most of the people are either engaging or so perfectly awful they become fascinating ,either way you want to know what happens to them . The idea of an odd little shop full of curios is hardly a new one ,in fact it's a bit of a classic in stories of the supernatural .However ,this time it's the shopkeeper not the objects themselves who embodies the malign force and one feels early on that he truly is malign .I think it's safe to say that if you enjoy King you will enjoy this ,some of the characters do have a bit of a "General stock" feel about them but that's probably unavoidable when you have invented as many people as Stephen King has .

I so wanted to enjoy Needful Things as I loved the premise. I managed to read the first 300 pages and that was enough. Just when you think the plot is about to move forward, King throws in another lengthy and detailed character back-story. It's one step forwards, two steps back.As for the characters themselves, the only one of interest is the antagonist, Leland Gaunt. The rest, without exception, are depressing ... and I mean DEPRESSING! Whatever the opposite of a 'feelgood' story is, King has nailed it with this effort.Also, the 300 pages I read were littered with grammatical and formatting issues - when was the last time the publisher checked the Kindle version?

Recently I have been rereading Stephen King as it has been over 25 years since I started Pet Semetary and was hooked. I still have my original copy of Needful Things, which I loved at age 19. As an 40 year old adult I have dropped my 5 star rating down to a 4/4.5. The reason for this being that, whilst I love Stephen Kings writing style, I found that Needful Things was just a little too long. By the end of the book, I was praying for it to finish. That being said, when we did finally get to the conclusion it felt very rushed and was all over in about 2 pages. It still stands as one of Kings more underrated books, and I thoroughly enjoyed it

I love the capacity of Mr King of building a town to life, really great!I loved the callbacks to other Castle Rock books and the ending, if you know the idea of white magic in King's work is really good!