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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Needful Things is one of the few King books I hadn't read, and it's a favorite among fans. I had a hard time keeping my momentum with it, and spend a lot of that time seeing how similar it is to other books he's written. At the same time, Needful Things does some things especially well - and represents an important turning point for the author.
Needful Things is a clear attempt to match some of the magic that makes The Stand and It popular novels. In many ways, it is a mix of the two - but there are elements relatively unique to this story.
I think that the most important bit of context, aside from it being a King version of "Our Town" via "Lake Woebegone" - is that this is his first book written clean.
You and I know that 75% of King's stories reference writers and their struggles with addiction. Needful Things is the first book published after King himself managed to come out on top and get clean - so the "things needed" take on a very strong role as we recognize them as wanted things that actually ruin one's life. Cursed things that are hellish to break from once you've allowed them to be a defining crutch in one's life.
The first 550 pages are a setting-up of a dominoes line and the reader recognizes this early on - but the tedium of setting up the dominoes (from pages 250-550ish) takes on a laborious feeling a lot of the time. There aren't many surprises in there, or payoffs, or particularly enriching character studies. The cast is large - not attended to in a way that makes you feel for more than 4 or 5 of the 35ish characters in play, and yet the scope calls for more characters (to truly populate a town) - in much the same way as The Stand called for 4 or 5 times as many characters than it had at hand. I don't know the solution for this - other than to point out that it's ambitious. Casual readers embracing Game of Thrones character appendices was pretty miraculous and not something I expect King readers would be up for.
Seeing that everyone has their diverse desires that provoke myriad shames, that serve to drag them down, is really valuable. Nobody is alone in this. Not the person who eats a bag of chips once a week or the Heroin addict. The coffee addict or the alcoholic. The comic book addict, the sugar and fat addict, all living as neighbors to pornography and power addicts. It would have been pretty sweet to see how cell phone addiction figured into the dynamic, or political affiliations (handled pretty well here with the two primary churches in the community).
Seeing a devil playing citizens against one another by poking at their various presuppositions and emphasizing their differences is very topical, as the US wonders whether or not it will survive this election cycle and remain a representative democracy. Chasing off our Gaunts, and taking away their bags of tricks, is maybe more important right now than ever before. The theme will sadly endure.
Needful Things is a clear attempt to match some of the magic that makes The Stand and It popular novels. In many ways, it is a mix of the two - but there are elements relatively unique to this story.
I think that the most important bit of context, aside from it being a King version of "Our Town" via "Lake Woebegone" - is that this is his first book written clean.
You and I know that 75% of King's stories reference writers and their struggles with addiction. Needful Things is the first book published after King himself managed to come out on top and get clean - so the "things needed" take on a very strong role as we recognize them as wanted things that actually ruin one's life. Cursed things that are hellish to break from once you've allowed them to be a defining crutch in one's life.
The first 550 pages are a setting-up of a dominoes line and the reader recognizes this early on - but the tedium of setting up the dominoes (from pages 250-550ish) takes on a laborious feeling a lot of the time. There aren't many surprises in there, or payoffs, or particularly enriching character studies. The cast is large - not attended to in a way that makes you feel for more than 4 or 5 of the 35ish characters in play, and yet the scope calls for more characters (to truly populate a town) - in much the same way as The Stand called for 4 or 5 times as many characters than it had at hand. I don't know the solution for this - other than to point out that it's ambitious. Casual readers embracing Game of Thrones character appendices was pretty miraculous and not something I expect King readers would be up for.
Seeing that everyone has their diverse desires that provoke myriad shames, that serve to drag them down, is really valuable. Nobody is alone in this. Not the person who eats a bag of chips once a week or the Heroin addict. The coffee addict or the alcoholic. The comic book addict, the sugar and fat addict, all living as neighbors to pornography and power addicts. It would have been pretty sweet to see how cell phone addiction figured into the dynamic, or political affiliations (handled pretty well here with the two primary churches in the community).
Seeing a devil playing citizens against one another by poking at their various presuppositions and emphasizing their differences is very topical, as the US wonders whether or not it will survive this election cycle and remain a representative democracy. Chasing off our Gaunts, and taking away their bags of tricks, is maybe more important right now than ever before. The theme will sadly endure.
First read: I read this was when I borrowed a hardback edition from the library, shortly after moving into my own place in 2007.
Re-read 1: 2017 (almost 10 years to the day) with the paperback I bought in Manchester, while working as a supply teacher.
Re-read 2: is courtesy of the audiobook narrated by King himself. The audiobook adds so much to the story, the bell even jingles whenever someone walks into Needful Things 🤗
I'm not entirely sure why this is my favourite King. Perhaps it's because it was the first adult fiction book I read. Maybe it's because I started reading it on the first night in my own place. Either way, I'm sure the reason is entirely sentimental. That said, it's probably because it's the first big King book I read that made sense after just one read 😂
Re-read 1: 2017 (almost 10 years to the day) with the paperback I bought in Manchester, while working as a supply teacher.
Re-read 2: is courtesy of the audiobook narrated by King himself. The audiobook adds so much to the story, the bell even jingles whenever someone walks into Needful Things 🤗
I'm not entirely sure why this is my favourite King. Perhaps it's because it was the first adult fiction book I read. Maybe it's because I started reading it on the first night in my own place. Either way, I'm sure the reason is entirely sentimental. That said, it's probably because it's the first big King book I read that made sense after just one read 😂
Stephen King has a way of creating characters that are so easy to hate that you find yourself not wanting any of them to get out of the story alive. That’s not to say that he doesn’t also create characters that are just as easily likable because he does that very well too, but this story had more of the former than the latter. My biggest complaint about not just this particular book, but a lot of the King titles I’ve read is that with as many tools he has in his character toolbox he usually makes the ones you’re supposed to dislike racist, homophobic animal killers. Those are highly disgusting things and yes those characteristics WILL make me hate a character, but come on Stephen….you can come up with other ways. And the fat shaming gets a little excessive as well.
Having said that, this book was quite a bonkers ride. The ending fell flat for me, but that’s not unusual with King. I enjoyed the town of Castle Rock and the small town feel. None of these characters were likable and I took pleasure in their exits when and if they happened.
Trigger warning for animal death(s)
Having said that, this book was quite a bonkers ride. The ending fell flat for me, but that’s not unusual with King. I enjoyed the town of Castle Rock and the small town feel. None of these characters were likable and I took pleasure in their exits when and if they happened.
Trigger warning for animal death(s)
“Everyone loves something for nothing … even if it costs everything.”I suppose for every single one of us there is something material or immaterial that we would do anything it takes to have. Anything. Anything at all. Whatever it takes. No matter the cost — but with double enthusiasm if it conveniently also seems like a bargain.
“What’s the one thing in all the world, the one useless thing, that you want so badly that you get it mixed up with needing it?”
Once again King brings his best — small-town horror. We are in Castle Rock, one of his early creations, a tiny rural town where everyone knows everyone, where no secrets can stay secret for long because everyone is in everyone’s business, where familiarity can breed distrust and resentments are refined over the years. Smallmindedness, pettiness and tribalism have found fertile soil here, and it doesn’t take that much of a spark to start a fire where before there used to be ominous simmering.
“It’s just small-town life, though—call it Peyton Place or Grover’s Corners or Castle Rock, it’s just folks eatin pie and drinkin coffee and talkin about each other behind their hands.”
————
“Brian had uncovered one of the great truths of small towns: many secrets—in fact, all the really important secrets—cannot be shared. Because word has a way of getting around, and getting around fast.”
This spark of evil comes in the form on one Leland Gaunt, a salesman opening a new store, the titular Needful Things, a curiosity shop where everyone, it seems, is able to find something that they don’t just want but simply and overwhelmingly *need*, the things with special meaning, the things they are willing to do anything to obtain — and Leland Gaunt can sell them to you for a bargain price - and a prank on one of your neighbors. It sounds harmless, doesn’t it?
“Perhaps all the really special things I sell aren’t what they appear to be. Perhaps they are actually gray things with only one remarkable property—the ability to take the shapes of those things which haunt the dreams of men and women.” He paused, then added thoughtfully: “Perhaps they are dreams themselves.”
But every choice has consequences. Free cheese is only in a mousetrap and there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, right?
“Because every choice had consequences. Because in America, you could have anything you wanted, just as long as you could pay for it. If you couldn’t pay, or refused to pay, you would remain needful forever.”
—————
King is certainly having some fun in this supposedly “last Castle Rock story”. The fireworks fly and you can just imagine Uncle Stevie gleefully rubbing his hands in that signature supervillain fashion, looking at all the cinematic destruction his imagination has wrought. Usually it’s his smaller scale evil that tends to get to me, but what he does here is also fun — for a very specific definition of “fun”, granted. Let’s just say that Castle Rock real estate will hit truly bargain prices after this book conclusion.
“It was funny stuff, sanity. When it was taken away, you didn’t know it. You didn’t feel its departure. You only really knew it when it was restored, like some rare wild bird which lived and sang within you not by decree but by choice.”
Since King has pretty much created a metaverse by 1991, so we meet or at least hear about quite a few of his earlier characters and plots - Cujo, The Dead Zone, The Dark Half, The Sun Dog, The Body. Sheriff Alan Pangborn from The Dark Half is our protagonist (I’m quite sure Roland Deschain would have recognized a fellow gunslinger soul in him), and Ace Merrill of The Body gets involved as well. You don’t need to be familiar with those books to appreciate this one — but if you are, it makes for a cozy feeling — that is, until the fireworks start to fly.
“In men like Ace Merrill, the only urge stronger than the urge to dominate is the need to roll over and humbly expose the undefended neck when the real leader of the pack puts in an appearance.”
As always with King, we get a pretty in-depth exploration of regular Joes populating the doomed small town — the good, the bad, the connections tying them together into the webs of resentment and the support networks. It’s the ordinary and the mundane that, as always, is creepier and scarier than any monster’s doing, and King excels at showing us exactly how small evils can lead to bigger ones. We don’t need much encouragement to be cruel to others, apparently. Human nature is the biggest horror of it all, but that way also lies hope.
“Trouble and aggravation’s mostly made up of ordinary things, did you ever notice that? Undramatic things.”
It is one of his now-customary doorstoppers (or as I read others refer to them, kitten-squishers) — and yet there’s little that should have been trimmed here since it all serves the purpose of really showing us Castle Rock and those unfortunate souls that did not realize it would have been better to move elsewhere (as long as it’s not Derry, I suppose).
My teenage self loathed this book a couple of decades ago. Now, with an admonishing look at that young me I upgrade it to solid 4 stars.
(Yes, Dennis, you were right — it’s pretty great).
“We bump up against each other every now and then, but mostly things go along all right. Or always have, until now. But I have to tell you a real secret, my friend; it’s mostly why I called you over once I saw you were back in town. I think trouble—real trouble—is on its way. I smell it, just over the horizon, like an out-of-season storm full of lightning.”
——————
Recommended by: Dennis
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The devil sets up shop in a certain small town in Maine, and people come to have a look. Let the games begin.
Whenever someone would ask me what my favorite Stephen King novel was, I always said Needful Things, even though I gave [b: It|830502|It|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334416842l/830502._SY75_.jpg|150259] a higher rating. Somehow this became one of those books that I retrospectively liked better than at the time of reading. After 4 ½ years I thought it was time to verify my feelings about this particular novel.
Well, I love it.
Castle Rock is like no other small town. But then again, maybe it is like all the other small towns. A place where everyone knows everyone, and you can’t escape anybody. Neither the good people, nor the bad ones. And then there are also those people that look at you with their smiling-masks on, and then go on talking about you behind your back. The fake ones. Those are the worst, right?
All those fake smiles and passive-aggressiveness are turned into evil deeds and all-out war. It’s so much fun. But what about the openly bad and the truly good people? Well, everyone has their little secrets. Their secret needs. The devil has something in store for all of them. In return for those (needful) things he just wants to have a little bit of fun.
This book is maybe most memorable for two ladies (one quarrelsome and one a little jittery) going Mortal Kombat at each other on the streets. But that's only the first climax, before in the second act everything descends into delightfully evil and truly hilarious chaos.
What a book!
It does not get the same love from me on an emotional level that It does. But on the hellishly fun scale this scores full marks. It's a different kind of love. But it's a strong love too. I was having a blast.
This leapfrogs several books on my favorites shelf and enters the top 20 after this second read. So, in a way I was right. I had given it too low a rating the first time around. But I was also wrong. It lands a couple of spots behind It. But there is not much between them. I'd say they share the distinction of being my favorite Stephen King novel. They are just two very different kinds of treasures, that get two different kinds of love from me.
Buddy read with I Think I Saw Trish Passing By and Future Brad.
2021 addendum:
And this third read-through concludes my Castle Rock reading project. Now, knowing the preceding works and noticing all the little easter eggs in here, it was even more fun. Besides, Needful Things just remains a great work of dark humor and small-town horror.
My ratings/reviews for all the stories (note: there are different recommended reading orders for this):
It Grows on You ★★★☆☆
The Dead Zone ★★★★☆
Cujo ★★★☆☆
The Body ★★★★★
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ★★★★★ (This has been on my list of Castle Rock stories, but at the time of reading I didn’t quite see why. In retrospect it probably makes sense, because Shawshank (the prison) comes up in the other works from time to time. It might not be strictly necessary to read this, but then again, it is a great story.)
Uncle Otto’s Truck ★★★☆☆
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut ★★★★☆
The Dark Half ★★★★☆
The Sun Dog ★★☆☆☆
Needful Things ★★★★★
All in all, it was fun.
Recommended by Tobias
Whenever someone would ask me what my favorite Stephen King novel was, I always said Needful Things, even though I gave [b: It|830502|It|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334416842l/830502._SY75_.jpg|150259] a higher rating. Somehow this became one of those books that I retrospectively liked better than at the time of reading. After 4 ½ years I thought it was time to verify my feelings about this particular novel.
Well, I love it.
In a small town like Castle Rock, all the fuse-boxes were lined up neatly side by side. What you had to do was open the boxes … and then start cross-wiring.
Castle Rock is like no other small town. But then again, maybe it is like all the other small towns. A place where everyone knows everyone, and you can’t escape anybody. Neither the good people, nor the bad ones. And then there are also those people that look at you with their smiling-masks on, and then go on talking about you behind your back. The fake ones. Those are the worst, right?
…mostly you just laid low until everything was done … and then you turned on the juice.
All the juice.
All those fake smiles and passive-aggressiveness are turned into evil deeds and all-out war. It’s so much fun. But what about the openly bad and the truly good people? Well, everyone has their little secrets. Their secret needs. The devil has something in store for all of them. In return for those (needful) things he just wants to have a little bit of fun.
This book is maybe most memorable for two ladies (one quarrelsome and one a little jittery) going Mortal Kombat at each other on the streets. But that's only the first climax, before in the second act everything descends into delightfully evil and truly hilarious chaos.
What a book!
It does not get the same love from me on an emotional level that It does. But on the hellishly fun scale this scores full marks. It's a different kind of love. But it's a strong love too. I was having a blast.
This leapfrogs several books on my favorites shelf and enters the top 20 after this second read. So, in a way I was right. I had given it too low a rating the first time around. But I was also wrong. It lands a couple of spots behind It. But there is not much between them. I'd say they share the distinction of being my favorite Stephen King novel. They are just two very different kinds of treasures, that get two different kinds of love from me.
Buddy read with I Think I Saw Trish Passing By and Future Brad.
2021 addendum:
And this third read-through concludes my Castle Rock reading project. Now, knowing the preceding works and noticing all the little easter eggs in here, it was even more fun. Besides, Needful Things just remains a great work of dark humor and small-town horror.
My ratings/reviews for all the stories (note: there are different recommended reading orders for this):
It Grows on You ★★★☆☆
The Dead Zone ★★★★☆
Cujo ★★★☆☆
The Body ★★★★★
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ★★★★★ (This has been on my list of Castle Rock stories, but at the time of reading I didn’t quite see why. In retrospect it probably makes sense, because Shawshank (the prison) comes up in the other works from time to time. It might not be strictly necessary to read this, but then again, it is a great story.)
Uncle Otto’s Truck ★★★☆☆
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut ★★★★☆
The Dark Half ★★★★☆
The Sun Dog ★★☆☆☆
Needful Things ★★★★★
All in all, it was fun.
Recommended by Tobias