Needful Things

by Stephen King

Mass Market Paperback, 790 pages

English language

Published Aug. 7, 1992 by New English Library / Hodder and Stoughton.

ISBN:: 978-0-450-57458-0
OCLC Number:: 796052217

(28 reviews)

There was a new shop in town. Run by a stranger. Needful Things, the sign said. The oddest name. A name that caused some gossip and speculation among the good folks of Castle Rock, Maine, while they waited for opening day.

Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk was the first customer and he got just what he wanted, a very rare 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card. Signed.

Cyndi Rose Martin was next. A lalique vase. A perfect match for her living room decor.

Something for everyone. "Something you really had to have. And always at a price you could just about afford. The cash price that is.

Because there was another price. There always is when your heart's most secret, true desire is for sale. --back cover

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.