It is the first novel king wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. Needful things a wonderful new store has opened in the little town of castle rock, maine. Leland gaunt, a charming man, comes to town and opens a store called needful things. His recent work includes the institute, elevation, the outsider, sleeping beauties cowritten with his son owen king, and the bill hodges trilogy. In my opinion, all his best works were written ba before his accident and needful things thankfully is among them.
The hearts desire for any resident of castle rock can easily be found among the curiositiesin exchange for a little money andat the specific request of leland gaunta whole lot of menace against their fellow neighbors. The proprietor, leland gaunt, would tell you that needful things is a store that sells exactly what its customers desire. May 27, 2019 needful things takes place in castle rock, maine, which is the setting for several of kings stories. A mysterious man comes to the town of castle rock, maine in an old, sinister car. Needful things pdf download full pdf read book page. The latch clicked back and the door of needful things swung open. Much more pronounced in the book than the movie, though.
All things considered, like the tommyknockers, needful things is an enjoyable book if you can choose to ignore its flaws, which abound, and which occur to some degree in a lot of kings stuff from this time period. Aug 26, 2018 my personal experience with needful things. Yet she will, depending on how you interpret certain things, end up being the only character in the novel to overcome gaunts influence without. Needful things also have been made into a movie but the screenwriter changed the ending due to budget problems, i believe. If the book is great and exciting, movie makers invest tons of money on it. Needful things by stephen king witty and sarcastic bookclub. Leland gaunt opens a new shop in castle rock called needful things. The ending was just a variation of riding off into the sunset but with the identical language that every other book movie uses. Needful things by stephen king goodreads share book. Moreover, theres nothing to be done with the source material except.
The story is set in the small fictional town of castle rock, maine, where a new shop named needful things opens, to the curiosity of the townspeople. King has stated that needful things is all of the greedy, negative parts of the decade distilled down into one store a father to his men. Needful things is yet another one of those films based on a stephen king story that inspires you to wonder why his stories dont make better films. This novel shows how socities and relationships can fall apart at a micro level when a malovelent force is pulling the strings.
The ending gets a little silly, though you can see how the whole book was building towards it. Store includes many things including, hard rock cafe items, harley davidson items, disney items, collectible stamps, collectible coins, presidential campaign pins, hummels, and much, much more. Review needful things by stephen king book bastion. In terms of least favorite stephen king book, not a huge cujo fan. He prepared to mount his bike, then leaned the handlebars against his belly while he reached in his pants pockets. This book is pretty much sheer chaos from beginning to end and i was living for it. That is why while i agree with those who regard needful things as a fairly run of the mill king novel, that doesnt stop it being a pretty wonderful run through a magnificently malevolent mill, and thus a trip definitely worth taking. Needful things by stephen king 1991, hardcover for sale. Castle rock is a quaint little town that has experienced it share of weird.
Jan 01, 2016 listen to needful things audiobook by stephen king. Needful things available for download and read online in other formats. Stephen kings approach to horror is much less about the supernatural than i think his reputation suggests. Whats the difference between needful things the book and needful things the movie. I decided to read needful things because i loved the show. Kings final castle rock novel, needful things, into a twohour movie. In the end he always sells weapons, which everyone eagerly buys so they. Needful things was stephen kings attempt to write the last castle rock story and bring his invented town, which served as the setting for several of his books, to an end. As a devoted stephen king reader, i have read almost every book he has written.
Needful things, in addition to sounding like a farewell to an epoch in kings career, also seems to foreshadow things to come. Stephen king is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. This is the first book that i bought right when it was published, in hardback form. He writes books that pull you in from the first words and they dont let go until the last phrase. For every one that does carrie, the dead zone, misery, there are three that dont. The bestseller, the help, is on big screen, isnt it. And even though every item has a nerveshattering price, the owner is always ready to make a bargain.
At the end of the book, things take a turn into the land of the serious cliche. Merrill, john ace childhood boyfriend of myra evans. Yeah needful things was the 4th king novel i read and has the only ending ive genuinely disliked. What exactly does a store with such a strange name sell. Gaunt would have ceased to seem so strange and different by the end of the month, heck, maybe even by the end of the week, but right. He was past his addictions when he wrote this it was the first book he. In this case, the problem is that the characters are unattractive and the plot, once it reveals itself. This book took me longer than any other sk novel has. May 03, 2016 i still have my original copy of needful things, which i loved at age 19. Danforth buster keeton in the books is an unpleasant person throughandthrough, even before he goes crazy. Needful things 1992 read online free book by stephen. Differences between needful things book vs movie page 2. Needful things is such a clever idea for a book, the line between order and anarchy and empathy and revenge has always been micro fine in society, nudge something slightly and watch the repercussions.
I found that towards the end of the book, it was hard to keep up with the characters, although i really loved polly and alan. This was a very immersive narative experience as the author narrates his own book and you as the listener get a priceless insight into how he sees his work. Before approaching his work back in high school, i was vaguely aware of books like cujo, pet sematary, christine and it mostly due to their movie incarnations, and based on these, i assumed that king was all about the thrills and chills of the. The only things i know about maine come from stephen king novels and the more stephen king novels i read, the more i want to go there. Stephen king needful things audiobook stephen king. Needful things his first book written after conquering his own addictions, this is a compelling story of how far people will go to satisfy their appetites james. It seemed to brian that he had been in needful things for hours, but the clock outside the bank said it was only ten of four. To be honest, my opinions on the books i had previously read ranged from indifference to dislike, so i was a bit uncertain on how id feel about this one. I currently own two copies of stephen kings needful things. As usual the king is not afraid to write down everything from his mind of insanity and this book is not exception, he is undoubtely the greatest. Mar 06, 2018 all things considered, like the tommyknockers, needful things is an enjoyable book if you can choose to ignore its flaws, which abound, and which occur to some degree in a lot of kings stuff from this time period.
Only one person stays unaffected and understands if the gaunt is behind all the mess that has turned the whole town crazy and unacceptably irritating to each other. His shoulderjoint creaked alarmingly and then rotated enough in its socket to allow him to wriggle under his own arm and sco. The story is about a shopkeeper who runs his business by exchanging goods for money and mysterious deeds performed by the customer. It was that the book was extremely repetitive with no payoff. Needful things is a 1991 horror novel by american author stephen king. Leland gaunt, a gentlemanly stranger who opens the needful things curiosity shop.
In addition to a token payment, gaunt requests that each person perform a little deed, usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else. Needful things revisited, part 2 the truth inside the lie. Needful things has just the one your collection is missing. He calls himself leland gaunt and claims he comes from akron, ohio. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. The book was published by viking in october of 1991. Needful things is a 1993 american horror film based on stephen kings 1991 novel of the same name. Browse through the store and im sure you will find a needful thing just for you. Needful things was the first stephen king hardback i bought myself. Whatever your hearts secret desiresexual pleasure, wealth, power, or even more precious things its for sale. It is a novel with a message, a novel with at least the glimmerings. Needful things 1992 read online free book by stephen king. Stephen king states that needful things will be the last castle rock story. The story is set in the small fictional town of castle rock, maine, where a new shop named needful things opens.
Its the setting of the dead zone, cujo, and the dark half, all of which took place prior to this book. Supernatural events dominate the story and while the town folks act realistically, they are motivated by an underlining evil need for greed. Logo, stationery and signage for needful things delicatessen, opening end of february in my home town of sedgefield, county durham. Still, the fascination of the story lies in the detail and that had to be trimmed down for a 2 hoursmovie version there is another cut of the movie thats one hour longer, by the way. Even though needful things might not have captured the attention of hollywoods remake and reboot machine just yet anyway it is directly connected to the hulu show castle rock, which is an anthology series of untold stories conceptualized by stephen king over the. I still have my original copy of needful things, which i loved at age 19. Everyone in town seems willing to make a deal at needful things, but the devil is in the details. Vladi, i hope you liked this video, and everyone else i hope it was helpful. Mar 21, 2010 1993 horrordrama based on a book by stephen king. May 12, 2011 i still have my original copy of needful things, which i loved at age 19.
Leland gaunt opens a new shop in castle rock called needful thing. Needful things feels very much like an expansion of salems lot with leland gaunts shop resembling the antiques store opened by that sound publications vampiric duo, straker and barlow. At least, it would be if it hadnt been the site of some seriously bizarre violent happenings over the years. But as with all small towns, theyve done their best to sweep the weird under the proverbial rug and pretend that it never happened. The reason for this being that, whilst i love stephen kings writing style, i found that needful things was just a little too long.
The drawn out book itself isnt among kings best work. Needful things is a 1993 horror movie and an adaptation of the 1991 novel of the same name. The book open in castle rock, no surprise there, but as it says on the cover it is the last castle rock based story. Needful things is my least favourite king novel if you like reading a 700page book about pranks then it may be for you. King has stated that needful things is all of the greedy, negative parts of the decade distilled down into one store. Needful things was a big book, which made sense when you considered the enormous amount of plot not story crammed into it. Needful things is a jawdropping tale of evil in a maine town. In this bit, which marks the end of the prologue, our role is made clear. This was a very immersive narative experience as the author narrates his own book and you as the listener get a. And no one takes heed of the little sign handing on the wall. The first half of the book is relatively slow, however, climax at the end is immensely rewarding if you take the time to finish it. Im sorry i havent read any other stephen king books this is the first stephen king novel ive ever read, not counting on writing. Needful things book by stephen king official publisher.
Needful things is not kings very best, but it lives in the same neighborhood. Taking a cue from it, sheriff pangborn uses novelty items imbued with. Its a firstedition copy of kings book, still in its original plastic wrap, and the first in an ongoing series of. Finally, i could experience the grownup joy of watching something and thinking, huh. I finished reading needful things last week and i really enjoyed it and totally agree with you that mr.
Differences between needful things book vs movie page 1. Needful things is the name of the towns newest establishment. Needful things is both the very best and the very worst of stephen. Back then, i adored needful things, largely because it was the first time there was a new stephen king movie based on a book id already read. I cant remember ever reading the book a second time. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires. Would love to hear what you guys thought of either the book or movie in the. Needful things is a horror book that deals with supernatural elements.
Needful things is another great story from the amazing stephen king. The story starts out in first person with the narrator. Needful things is a typical mediocre stephen king adaptation. The fictitious maine town has been the setting for a number of kings horror classics, including the dead zone. By the end of the book, i was praying for it to finish. As an 40 year old adult i have dropped my 5 star rating down to a 44. Ive read a few stephen king books in the past, but not too many. Of grand proportion, the novel ranks with kings best, in. Needful things is the 30th book published by stephen king.