Needful Things by Stephen King

Needful Things by Stephen King
736 pages
Finished 2/16/08













Needful Things is subtitled The Last Castle Rock Story. It's set in Castle Rock (clearly), the same town where a number of other Stephen King books have taken place - The Dead Zone, Cujo, The Tommyknockers, and The Dark Half. You don't absolutely have to read those books before reading this one, but Needful Things does give away the endings to a couple of those books (although you might not realize it at the time).

Needful Things is the name of a new store in Castle Rock that everyone checks out - and almost everyone purchases something. The store has something for everyone - baseball cards, vases, sunglasses. And the prices are pretty cheap - the proprietor will sell the items for a dollar amount that you can afford, plus he will require you to play a "prank" on someone else in town. However, these pranks aren't as innocent as they seem, and they set off a huge chain reaction in the town.

There isn't much that I can't say about this book that I don't say about King's other work - it's consistent, it's reliable, and it's so familiar it is comforting to read (at least for me).

Three stars.