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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
Needful Things felt like a (sort of) light-hearted The Stand. There are a bazillion characters to follow in Needful Things and King does an excellent job at letting us completely immerse ourselves in the town of Castle Rock, Maine.
One really great thing about this story was the build-up of tension. Stephen King climbs that mountain slowly but NOT tediously. I was never bored; I never said, "okay okay, now for the explodey, please." King takes his time setting up each character in this story but, personally, I didn't mind because I enjoyed getting to know them all. When things DO begin to explode, it's a wild ride for sure.
Overall, I absolutely loved this book. It even has a moral!
One really great thing about this story was the build-up of tension. Stephen King climbs that mountain slowly but NOT tediously. I was never bored; I never said, "okay okay, now for the explodey, please." King takes his time setting up each character in this story but, personally, I didn't mind because I enjoyed getting to know them all. When things DO begin to explode, it's a wild ride for sure.
Overall, I absolutely loved this book. It even has a moral!
dark
funny
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:
Complicated
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫
Critical Score: B
Personal Score: B+
Reading Experience: 📘📘📘📘(4/5)
This was refreshingly classic King, and that’s just what the doctor ordered. I loved the huge cast, small town vibes, and gradually increasing dread.
At times the satire is in full command, and other times it feels like the joke is more on King than anyone else. There’s some implausibility with the general function of the book.You can’t think too much about the magical powers of the antagonist, or else a lot of plot holes come up, mostly around the general question, if he has the magical powers to do XYZ, why does he have to go to these lengths to get XYZ accomplished? The typical confusion you might have reading a realist book involving magic. There’s also a dullness that comes with an antagonist who can see the future and is generally omnipresent, but then makes dumb mistakes and is eventually brought down pretty easily—especially given the ridiculous resolution of the climax. Why solve the main conflict with an out-of-place plot twist only Dark Tower fans would understand, let alone appreciate, and give literally no explanation as to what’s going on?? And then the book ends three pages later…huh? Except for this failure to stick the landing, act three is solid.
So anyway, if you get over the silly stuff like that (and I found this relatively easy to do) this is deviously fun and cozily nostalgic.
But of course, because this is classic King, there is some problematic stuff to shift through: fatphobia, casual racism, and homophobia are the most obvious ones here. I also hate that the protagonist is a cop.
This one also lacks scariness, but honestly, there are very few King books that scare me.
I loved the unexpected twist on the meaning of the title at the start of Part Three. I loved the colorful assortment of merchandise and their respective human flaws (addiction, chronic pain, grief, materialism, loneliness, lust, etc).
To wrap things up, I loved that this was a nice and long deep dive into another small town falling apart, complete with a balanced ensemble cast and an increasingly complex web of subplots.
Not in my Stephen King God-tier, but not far below it either.
Critical Score: B
Personal Score: B+
Reading Experience: 📘📘📘📘(4/5)
This was refreshingly classic King, and that’s just what the doctor ordered. I loved the huge cast, small town vibes, and gradually increasing dread.
At times the satire is in full command, and other times it feels like the joke is more on King than anyone else. There’s some implausibility with the general function of the book.
So anyway, if you get over the silly stuff like that (and I found this relatively easy to do) this is deviously fun and cozily nostalgic.
But of course, because this is classic King, there is some problematic stuff to shift through: fatphobia, casual racism, and homophobia are the most obvious ones here. I also hate that the protagonist is a cop.
This one also lacks scariness, but honestly, there are very few King books that scare me.
I loved the unexpected twist on the meaning of the title at the start of Part Three. I loved the colorful assortment of merchandise and their respective human flaws (addiction, chronic pain, grief, materialism, loneliness, lust, etc).
To wrap things up, I loved that this was a nice and long deep dive into another small town falling apart, complete with a balanced ensemble cast and an increasingly complex web of subplots.
Not in my Stephen King God-tier, but not far below it either.
Content Warnings
Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The story covers a bunch of people so the first half of the book is kind of slow. But man once the plot picks up it goes full speed
A repetitive, uncomfortable exploration of small town life and other familiar King themes.
As with characters we meet in Cujo, the altruistic characters of Needful Things are difficult to like and the villains are difficult to believe. The narrative follows the first-half/second-half structure that many of King's biggest disappointments follow, with most of the story in the initial 300 pages, then a 300 page exercise in suspension of disbelief, and then the conclusion. That being said, King manages a very satisfying ending (for a change) in this otherwise messy story.
There are some similarities to the classic King wrote just a few years earlier, It, with one character who stutters, an evil spider creature, and. The Castle Rock story sets up multiple parallels that in Derry might have become illustrative, meaningful juxtapositions (Pangborn's two significant others both dealing with chronic pain, Nellie and Wilma's opposite but parallel withdrawals from society), but they never pay off here. There are also scenes (like Nellie and Wilma's confrontation) that are confusing because of the description of the action. The author's trademark wisdom and insight are seen only in flashes, and Constant Readers won't find themselves reliving these scenes the way they do those in other books, but if you make it to the end, you'll be glad you did. The Master of Horror uses a little sleight of hand in this massive work to round out a very decent Castle Rock story. Tuck your trick coin into your wristband and shuffle your magic cards, take a look at the stock inside Needful Things.
As with characters we meet in Cujo, the altruistic characters of Needful Things are difficult to like and the villains are difficult to believe. The narrative follows the first-half/second-half structure that many of King's biggest disappointments follow, with most of the story in the initial 300 pages, then a 300 page exercise in suspension of disbelief, and then the conclusion. That being said, King manages a very satisfying ending (for a change) in this otherwise messy story.
There are some similarities to the classic King wrote just a few years earlier, It, with one character who stutters, an evil spider creature, and