Needful Things

by Stephen King

Mass Market Paperback, 943 pages

English language

Published May 7, 2016 by Pocket Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-5011-4378-6
OCLC Number:: 951229378

(21 reviews)

“There are two prices for this. Half…and half. One half is cash. The other is a deed. Do you understand?”

The town of Castle Rock, Maine has seen its fair share of oddities over the years, but nothing is a peculiar as the little curio shop that’s just opened for business. Its mysterious proprietor, Leland Gaunt, seems to have something for everyone out on display at Needful Things…interesting items that run the gamut from worthless to priceless. Nothing has a price tag in this place, but everything is certainly for sale. The heart’s desire for any resident of Castle Rock can easily be found among the curiosities…in exchange for a little money and—at the specific request of Leland Gaunt—a whole lot of menace against their fellow neighbors. Everyone in town seems willing to make a deal at Needful Things, but the devil is in the details. And no one takes …

“There are two prices for this. Half…and half. One half is cash. The other is a deed. Do you understand?”

41 editions

LemmiSchmoeker reviewed Needful Things by Stephen King

Review of 'Needful Things' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

I used to like this book, having read it shortly after it came out. But now, after a reread, I was getting impatient very early on. There is no real story (except for a very basic and literal "evil comes to town"), and practically the only thing that happens is that everybody is getting progressively more crazy. 450 of the novel's 600 pages are listless descriptions of people getting mad at each other for petty reasons. This gets old pretty soon, and the endless repetition of certain details to make sure every reader will get them doesn't help build up anticipation.