Needful Things: Stephen King





Information -

First copyright date: 1991

Type of book: Novel
Formats: Hardcover/Paperback/Audio/Movie/DVD

Genre: Horror

Special Features: No special features.



Let me start by saying that I have now read quite a few Stephen King novels and his imagination never ceases to amaze me; however his books are no more horrifying than a Harry Potter book.
Kings horror reputation seems to come from his gory detail and mass killings rather than ghosts and the supernatural.
If you can sit through a Quentin Tarantino film you can definitely read a Stephen King book.
King has written Needful Things as a lengthy novel which proposes to his readers his idea of what would happen if we were to stumble upon our hearts deepest desire, and the repercussions of purchasing such an item.

The book begins by describing the scene as a beautiful small country town where nothing really happens. King explains that there is a new store in town named ‘Needful Things’ (what an odd name for a store, I wonder what he sells) he asks the reader rhetorically.
Once the store is opened, the towns people nose curiously around the strange store where you can find anything from a splinter of wood off Noah’s Arc to a pair of glasses once owned by The King himself, Elvis of course.
Everyone seems to find something that they have been searching for all their lives and that even just to touch gives them an almost indescribable experience but is it all too good to be true. The price is only just affordable, or is it?
Mr. Leland Gaunt the store owner seems nice enough, except when he brushes past you or shakes your hand. The sheer touch of him is enough to repulse anybody.
He has two prices for each item, a monetary price and a small deed, a prank if you may, but what are the after effects of such an innocent act of throwing mud at clean sheets and placing a letter into a letter box?

(Don’t worry my dear readers, I shan’t ruin the ending – you shall just have to read for yourself!)

Needful Things is written from the point of view of almost every character King introduces. His 3-dimensional depth into the characters beliefs, mannerisms, feelings and darkest thoughts are nothing short of astounding, by the end of the book you feel as if you have known each character personally and begin to choose favourites or decide whom you would be friends with if you could. This in depth and direct character delineation makes for quite a convincing plot.
Needful Things is written in chronological order which is suitable to the plot – apart from various flash backs for certain characters the book steadies on a nice forward pace and is quite consistent. The entire book takes place in one week.

One criticism I must make about Needful Things is that towards the end it seems to me that King was unsure of what to do with the majority of his characters and so he killed them all in a mass massacre but on a good note this re-enforced the crazy, psychotic feel that the town needed to personify towards the ending.

I know a lot of critics mention that King over writes, I can see how they have come to this conclusion but when I think about Needful Things being shorter I can’t imagine which part could be left out, it all seems so relevant.
I think his over-writing if you may is part of his particular style and if people go on reading then there is no real reason to fix what’s not broken.

I would definitely recommend Needful things to the avid reader as it sucks you in and is impossible to put down. Once you think you have the ending figured out, suddenly everything changes.
For an advanced reader Needful Things is a good 2 or 3 day read.
For a not so advanced reader, King’s writing style is quite simple and easy to read, there’s just a lot of it so go on give it a go!



I give Needful Things…
7/10

Not my favourite book of all time but a good read none the less.

Let me know what you thought of it if you’ve read it and what you thought of my review.

Thank-you to all those still reading!


xxx Hana