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elenajohansen 's review for:
Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story
by Stephen King
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.