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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I still have a lot of King's books I haven't read but yet I came back to this...
Needful things is one of my favorites. It showcases Stephen King as more than an author. He is a storyteller.
Every line of this book was gripping, so much so I didn't notice as the pages went by.
Welcome to Castle Rock. A small town full of normal people with normal problems and beefs. Insert a new store and its owner. Watch the town go nuts!
Spoiler alert: This book gets violent. I totally forgot.
Needful things is one of my favorites. It showcases Stephen King as more than an author. He is a storyteller.
Every line of this book was gripping, so much so I didn't notice as the pages went by.
Welcome to Castle Rock. A small town full of normal people with normal problems and beefs. Insert a new store and its owner. Watch the town go nuts!
Spoiler alert: This book gets violent. I totally forgot.
dark
funny
mysterious
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:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of King's best, and some of his most darkly funny and most entertaining writing, with some tragic emotional notes. His Maine version of La Comédie Humaine veers here to satire and all too human horror, wrapped in a an old classic devilish folktale. This one has aged very, very well and is well worth revisiting.
For most of the first half of this book, I was enthralled and convinced it was going to be a five-star read. Though this came earlier, in many ways it reminded me strongly of Under the Dome, which I read several years ago and LOVED. Stephen King likes to put small towns through absolute hell, and I'm here for it.
Ultimately, though, this had issues I couldn't ignore.
While I don't mind a large cast of characters in general, this one felt too big, the subplots surrounding them too repetitive. At first I was intrigued by the mini-portraits of these flawed people, any one of whom could have been the focus of a much more developed character study, some of whom could even be the protagonist of their own novel. But others were less interesting, and eventually the pattern of "goes to the shop, gets hypnotized, makes a deal with the devil" simply got old, especially when we had a parade of truly minor characters doing it in addition to the main ensemble. Did we need to see so many people wander into Gaunt's lair and hear the specifics of their agreements? Could we not have glossed over any of them to pick up the pace?
Also, I found the end incomplete and less than ideal. In the final act, after being a non-issue for most of the book, the Casino Nite Catholic/Baptist rivalry escalated into an all-out brawl, and I simply wasn't invested in it enough to enjoy the amount of space it took up, because none of the primary cast (even as large as it was) were involved. It was filler-disaster, to add to the body count, but it wasn't gripping compared to how much I wanted to know what was happening to Alan and Polly. (I did read The Dark Half prior to this, by chance, not knowing Sheriff Alan Pangborn was going to have a starring role in a later book. It was nice to see him again, and I like him better now. TDH was only an "okay" book for me.) The very end itself was not to my taste, making a near deus ex machina out of Alan's idle habit of magic tricks, and cutting off without any insight into what will happen to the town in the wake of dozens of its citizens dying in a single day. The denouement I was hoping would explain even a little bit, show even the tiniest hint of the rebuilding process beginning, simply wasn't there--hard cut to a brief epilogue that mirrors the opening and implies Gaunt has moved on to victimize another town. I don't object to that aspect of it--of course he did--but the complete absence of any resolution, any aftermath to the destruction he left behind, was unsatisfying to me.
Did I mostly enjoy it? Yes. Am I glad I read it? Also yes. Did it stick the landing? Not really. Maybe I'll like it better down the road when I get around to rereading it--I often do with King novels.
Ultimately, though, this had issues I couldn't ignore.
While I don't mind a large cast of characters in general, this one felt too big, the subplots surrounding them too repetitive. At first I was intrigued by the mini-portraits of these flawed people, any one of whom could have been the focus of a much more developed character study, some of whom could even be the protagonist of their own novel. But others were less interesting, and eventually the pattern of "goes to the shop, gets hypnotized, makes a deal with the devil" simply got old, especially when we had a parade of truly minor characters doing it in addition to the main ensemble. Did we need to see so many people wander into Gaunt's lair and hear the specifics of their agreements? Could we not have glossed over any of them to pick up the pace?
Also, I found the end incomplete and less than ideal. In the final act, after being a non-issue for most of the book, the Casino Nite Catholic/Baptist rivalry escalated into an all-out brawl, and I simply wasn't invested in it enough to enjoy the amount of space it took up, because none of the primary cast (even as large as it was) were involved. It was filler-disaster, to add to the body count, but it wasn't gripping compared to how much I wanted to know what was happening to Alan and Polly. (I did read The Dark Half prior to this, by chance, not knowing Sheriff Alan Pangborn was going to have a starring role in a later book. It was nice to see him again, and I like him better now. TDH was only an "okay" book for me.) The very end itself was not to my taste, making a near deus ex machina out of Alan's idle habit of magic tricks, and cutting off without any insight into what will happen to the town in the wake of dozens of its citizens dying in a single day. The denouement I was hoping would explain even a little bit, show even the tiniest hint of the rebuilding process beginning, simply wasn't there--hard cut to a brief epilogue that mirrors the opening and implies Gaunt has moved on to victimize another town. I don't object to that aspect of it--of course he did--but the complete absence of any resolution, any aftermath to the destruction he left behind, was unsatisfying to me.
Did I mostly enjoy it? Yes. Am I glad I read it? Also yes. Did it stick the landing? Not really. Maybe I'll like it better down the road when I get around to rereading it--I often do with King novels.
When I first opened the book, I felt like it would be too long for the plot. Like with any other King book, I was wrong and I wanted to know more about just about every character. Needful Things was all about desire, secrets, and what we would do sate our own desire and keep our secrets. It was also about the weight of those secrets, what it does to us. I loved the adventure and how it all unfolded. I was intrigued by everyone in the town and the horrific Leland Gaunt.
Wow! This was one of my favorite of King's novels so far! I could not put this book down! I just kept reading chapter after chapter. So many fascinating characters that kept getting deeper and darker with every page turn. The evil character, Leland Gaunt, is the perfect villian, hiding the disgusting truth with the perfect curtain of charm and charisma.
The book shows the dangers of pride, temptation, and seeing your sin with rose colored glasses. We all see life how we want to at times instead of what it truly is. Gaunt reels in customers to his nifty shop of "expensive" wares called Needful Things which attracts the gossip of all the spectators of Castle Rock. One by one, he finds the deep desires of his customers and has them each play a seemingly meaningless tricks on others in town. Fueling the flames of kindling disputes, the town begins to spiral out of control fast.
Such a wonderful way to see that our own desires blind us to the reality and relationships which surround us, building up to cause us to do terrible, terrible things we never thought possible of any human being.
The book shows the dangers of pride, temptation, and seeing your sin with rose colored glasses. We all see life how we want to at times instead of what it truly is. Gaunt reels in customers to his nifty shop of "expensive" wares called Needful Things which attracts the gossip of all the spectators of Castle Rock. One by one, he finds the deep desires of his customers and has them each play a seemingly meaningless tricks on others in town. Fueling the flames of kindling disputes, the town begins to spiral out of control fast.
Such a wonderful way to see that our own desires blind us to the reality and relationships which surround us, building up to cause us to do terrible, terrible things we never thought possible of any human being.
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
