Needful Things by Stephen King

Uncle Stevie has just the thing for you

By a quick count, I figure I've read more than thirty of Stephen King's books at this point, which is about half of his output so far. I just now got around to reading 1991's Needful Things, and I'm sorry to say it's not going on my favorites list.

Review

The premise is simple and quite promising: A stranger comes to the small town of Castle Rock and opens a store, a kind of a curiosity shop to outward appearances. The owner (Leland Gaunt) always has in stock (or will soon) the one item that each individual who comes into the shop desires more than anything else. Of course, the real price of that item will be far greater than money.

The premise is simple and very promising: A stranger comes to the small town of Castle Rock and opens a store -- kind of a curiosity shop to outward appearances. The owner (Leland Gaunt) always has in stock (or will soon) the one item that each individual who comes into the shop desires more than anything else. Of course, the real price of that item will be far greater than money.

Introducing a supernatural or alien element into a small town and watching its inhabitants spin out of control is a plot device that King employs often and well. King excels at creating a large cast of characters, each with their own compelling back story, and playing them off against one another. A great deal of the novel consists of Gaunt snaring the locals with irresistible bait and thereby enlisting them in his scheme. When he trips the final switch on that scheme, the town erupts into an orgy of madness and violence that has you turning the pages as fast as you can.

The problem is that the scheme is so elaborate it takes a painfully long time to set up and entails a lot of repetition of the same elements. It's obvious from the beginning what kind of creature Gaunt is (there are no twists at the end). When reading a story about the supernatural you have to suspend disbelief to some level, but the final battle between Gaunt and the sheriff involves some less-than-believable elements that just seem silly.

King says he intended Needful Things to be not so much a horror story as a satire on 80s greed and consumerism. Clearly, the "needful things" are also a metaphor for addiction, and King is said to have just gone clean from all of his (except cigarettes) when he wrote this novel. Whatever the author's intentions, Needful Things ultimately doesn't come together as a fully satisfying work. 

Originally posted to Amazon Apr 5, 2021