Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Needful Things

HOLY FUCK.

That, I think, sums up my feelings on this book perfectly, but let me talk more about it.

This book takes place in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. Castle Rock is a small but tight knit community- at least it appears so on the surface. Underneath the surface there is interpersonal turmoil between the townspeople. This turmoil is exacerbated and weaponized by a proprietor of a newly opened shop- Leland Gaunt and Needful Things .

This book's plot does indeed seem pretty straightforward on the surface. King does what he does best and that is create characters that have such an immense depth to them to the point where he can essentially use them as pieces in this giant chess game.
Needful Things is a store owned and operated by the highfalutin Leland Gaunt- a businessman who always seems to have the perfect item for the person who comes in at that very moment. Things start off innocuously enough where a young boy- Brian Rusk- comes in and buys a Sonny Koufax baseball card. What's more, he buys the card for literal pocket change... and, for a favor for Gaunt.
The favor is to play a trick on another one of the townspeople- throwing mud at someone's hanging clothing. I didn't quite understand what was going on until it became obvious that there were smalltown issues that were present between many people. Gaunt knew this, and, for reasons known only to Gaunt, they opt to use their items to start pseudo-proxy wars amongst the townsfolk.
Each item that Gaunt sells, as I mentioned, is a perfect item for that townsperson. Not only that, but they also seem to have a wholly addicting quality to them wherein the person is pathologically tied to the items- constantly holding them or using them for sexual purposes. This book is the first one that King wrote after he worked through his drug addiction, and it would not shock me if he wrote this book with the themes of addiction to express his feelings and struggles with his personal addiction.

I think that King does a fantastic job of capturing that feeling of smalltown-slice-of life. Many of the grievances that the townspeople have with one another are so specifically smalltown that it is almost like the people are desperately searching for something to be mad about. But it is this seemingly unimportant anger catalyst that is weaponized by Gaunt by means of framing people for committing further infractions upon their fellow people. These infractions build up up up up until finally there is a full-blown altercation. these altercataions usually end up with normal people committing heinous acts of violence and killing their fellow people over some stupid ass reason. And that, I think, is what is so fucking scary about this book. It shows how truly close some people are to going over the edge and killing someone for a reason that many of us couldn't understand. As someone who has dealt with mental and emotional abuse including gaslighting and manipulation, I can say that Gaunt's character, from my perspective, is fucking outstandingly vile. While other King villains like Annie Wilkes or Flagg are more outwardly terrible, Gaunt is latently evil- until he is annoyed.

Gaunt, I think, easily reaches the upper echelon of King villains for me. I thought that his character was written with so much restraint on Kings part that it was truly astounding. There were small breaks in the facade which Gaunt put forward, but, as a whole, we don't really see what he is doing, and I loved that. King gives just enough of Gaunt's worldview to show us that this guy is bad news, but why he is doing it largely sits in the background. It becomes clear that he is doing it for... no reason at all. He is doing this all for his own enjoyment- and that is the scariest thing of all.

The other townspeople- Sheriff Alan Pangborn, Polly Chalmers, Norris Ridgewick, Danforth "Buster" Keaton, Ace Merril- they are all we formed and clearly individual people. None of them are perfect, and some of them are outright despicable- Keaton specifically- but I liked most of them. I liked the cool, collected persona of Pangborn who just wants to do right by his town. I liked the way that Polly has internal strife with her past, and it coming to light.
Each character has so much depth to them that they feel like real, breathing individuals, and I thought that this was a triumph.

The pacing of this book is immaculate and I do not say that lightly. I felt that this book reached a climax with the double homicide of Nettie and Wilma, but, good goddamn was I wrong. After that huge event King not only continues to raise the stakes higher and higher, but, he maintains the pacing in fantastic fashion. To me, I felt like there was the obvious decline in intensity after these aforementioned deaths, but, nope, King gradually ramps it up more and more. King did a wonderful job of explaining who these characters were before Gaunt, and so, when they gradually change, we are aware of the change and why their behavior is so fucked. This book is like one large frog being boiled to the point where regular townspeople start openly gunning each other down. I thought that the character of Leland Gaunt was wickedly manipulative to a very scary degree.
I like the way that the town itself is shown to change as the townspeople are used as pieces in Gaunt's game. The town felt like a living and breathing place as well, and to see the turmoil caused by this one being was sad to see, but, goddamn was it exciting to read.

The last 200 (yep) pages of this book were some of the most intense reading that I have done this year, full stop. I thought that King's pacing was truly outstanding and I am so fucking glad to have finally read this book. There is so much to love in this book from the plot, to the characters, to the changes within the character's personalities that it is absolutely amazing. I also adored the intersectional references to King's other works- despite the fact that I have yet to read them, it was still exciting to see references to Cujo or to The Body.
This is a true contender for top five King books for me, and one that I would love to re-read at some point.

Content Warnings

bookhouseboi's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Imagine a store opening inside the heart of your local hometown, selling every thing every feeling, every deep desire that you ever had. However, as they usually do, all good things come with a price, some financially, some morally, that you often can’t afford. Or wouldn’t want to.

The premise of “Needful Things” is intriguing. As the grand finale to King’s Castle Rock novel series, it portrays yet again the small rural town as its protagonist. The inhabitants of “The Rock” as they call it, slowly getting obsessed with a new shop and its charming owner Leland Gaunt, who somehow always manages to sell them just the thing they want most in the world for an affordable price, serve as a fascinating scenery. Small feuds between characters are introduced quickly and developed with structure and passion so that you, in an enormous net of different characters, never lose track of all the rivalries and affairs going on. Mr. Leland Gaunt himself is one of the most charming and scary antagonists I’ve ever seen in King’s bibliography. His eyes always changing in colour, his tone switching between ultra-polite, strict and straight up demonic is fascinating and he’s definitely one of the most iconic characters King has ever created. Sherriff Alan Pangborn and his girlfriend Polly Chalmers who serve as the lead protagonist couple having to deal with their personal issues and secrets while the town itself slowly falls apart are an interesting counterpart to Gaunt, even if they will never reach his level of great character development. The rest of the smalltown-ensemble is, although much less complex and a bit on the cliché side of things, still very fun to watch.

The plot itself becomes more of an issue and my biggest problem with the novel. While I really enjoyed the slow beginning and building of tension and the rapidly paced all over the place finale, the plot reaches a certain point in its second part that I just consider as very lazy writing. Up to that point, the little pranks that Gaunt’s customers have to play on each other as part of their payment set the mood for a town descending into madness and violence. Then he starts to sell different items what somehow seems off-character to me. It breaks the scary concept of a town so messed up that they go after each other with nothing but their bare hands and the intensity of the plot that has been building up the entire time kind of breaks apart. Yet it luckily returns for the last 40 pages.

Also, what is it with Stephen King and boobs? Honestly, it’s just gets really annoying at some point that he has to vividly describe every woman’s chest, even if the character only appears in one single paragraph having to do nothing but to answer a call. While some of the more sexual scenes at least make sense within Gaunt’s abuse of people’s needs and desires, the way a necklace moves between the breasts of a female character walking is really nothing worth talking about and threw me out of an otherwise captivating story. But well, at least he’s not describing children… (looking at you, It sewer orgy scene)

To sum up, “Needful Things” was exactly the kind of horror story I needed after a monthlong period of reading nothing else besides academic texts and novels for my literature classes. If you like King’s writing it will certainly feel comfortable and intriguing returning to “The Rock” for one last time.

Content Warnings

cyanide_latte's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don't think I can give a fully comprehensive review of this book at this time, just know that I absolutely loved and adored the story for everything that it was.
Word of caution, as I don't have the energy right now to be able to list <i>all</i> the content and trigger warnings this book contains, I do NOT recommend this as someone's first Stephen King novel. This is extremely heavy and dark, and arguably too much to start with if you want to get into his works. If you've already read a few of his other books, especially any of the others set in the town of Castle Rock, then you should be okay.

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