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A review by tcgarback
Needful Things by Stephen King
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
3.5
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫
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, and Racism