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Needful Things
Needful Things
Author: Stephen King
Mr. Leland Gaunt arrives in Castle Rock and opens a shop where residents can find whatever their heart desires. But in the hands of this sinister shopkeeper, even the most innocuous request has dire consequences. Needful Things is the last of King's novels based in the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock.
ISBN-13: 9780140839531
ISBN-10: 0140839534
Publication Date: 1991
Edition: First
Rating:
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 3

4.3 stars, based on 3 ratings
Publisher: Viking
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 2
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Needful Things on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
page turner!
reviewed Needful Things on + 80 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
One of King's greatest stories. I loved it!
Lindy
jdocop avatar reviewed Needful Things on + 66 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
What can I say? It\'s Stephen King.....scary.....far out....
Chlorene avatar reviewed Needful Things on + 34 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A very good book.
reviewed Needful Things on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
In tradition of 'Salem's Lot, Stephen King writes Needful Things through the view of many characters, not just one main character, and keeps the reader guessing throughout the entire novel what will happen to which character. It works so well in Needful Things that I found myself reading madly and gaping my mouth many times. Truly a gruesome and horrifying experience, in Needful Things, King creates great characters, Alan Pangborn, Norris Ridgewick, Polly Chalmers, Nettie Cobb, Hugh Priest, Ace Merrill, John LaPointe, and maybe the best villian he has ever created in Leland Gaunt. The way he makes Gaunt so low key and friendly, and evil at the same time is wonderful. He also ties in all his other novels which have taken place in Castle Rock such as Cujo, The Dead Zone, and the novella The Body, very well. Sure, you'll be flipping back to see what character did what to whom when the novel takes its turning points, but that's the fun of it. How King can write so many things in 700 pages and keep the reader hooked and interested. And of course, the ending in which evil does not fully lose. God I love that! Needful Things, one of Stephen King's most entertaining books. A must read!
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reviewed Needful Things on
Oh, very good! Looks right inside you, finds out what your weakness is, and destroys you (and everyone around you) through it. As usual, King's "horror" stories have a much deeper side if you can look through the scare to find it. The message is there!
reviewed Needful Things on + 8 more book reviews
Another great book from Stephen King.
Mac1973 avatar reviewed Needful Things on + 14 more book reviews
Good Series
reviewed Needful Things on + 32 more book reviews
Makes me glad I'm not materialistic! Great read King does it again!
reviewed Needful Things on + 4 more book reviews
I am a rabid reader of SK books.This was one I really enjoyed.
suspenseprincess avatar reviewed Needful Things on + 51 more book reviews
This is one of my favorite authors.
reviewed Needful Things on + 131 more book reviews
Truly one of my most favorite King novels.
reviewed Needful Things on + 29 more book reviews
With the "Last Castle Rock Story" King bids a magnificent farewell to the fictional Maine town where much of his previous work has been set. Of grand proportion, the novel ranks with King's best, in both plot and characterization. A new store, Needful Things, opens in town, and its proprietor, Leland Gaunt, offers seemingly unbeatable (read: Faustian) bargains to Castle Rock's troubled citizens. Among them are Polly Chalmers, lonely seamstress whose arthritis is only one of the physical and psychic pains she must bear; Brian Rusk, the 11-year-old boy whose mother is not precisely attentive; and Alan Pangborn, the new sheriff whose wife and son have recently died. These are only three of the half-dozen or so brilliantly drawn people met in the novel's one-month time span. As the dreams of each strikingly memorable character, major and minor, inexorably turn to nightmare, individuals and soon the community are overwhelmed, while the precise nature of Gaunt's evil thrillingly stays just out of focus. King, like Leland Gaunt, knows just what his customers want.
romeo avatar reviewed Needful Things on + 334 more book reviews
Leland Gaunt is a stranger-and he calls his shop Needful Things. 11 year old Brian Rusk is his first customer, and Brian finds just what he wants most in the world:a '56 Sandy Koufax baseball card. By the end of the week, Mr. Gaunt's business is fairly booming, and why not? At Needful Things, there's something for everyone. And, of course, there is always a price. For Leland Gaunt, the pleasure of doing business lies chiefly in seeing how much people will pay for their most secret dreams and desires. And as Leland always points out, at Needful Things, the prices are high indeed. Does that stop people from buying? Has it ever? For Allen and Polly, this one weekl in autumn will be an awful test-a test of will, desire, and pain. Above all, it will be a test of their ability to grasp the true nature of their enemy. They may have a chance...But maybe not, because, as Mr. Gaunt knows, almost everything is for sale:love, hope, even the human soul.
preachermanlt avatar reviewed Needful Things on
In my opinion, this is the best book by Stephen King... so involved and the depth is amazing

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