Words are his power (Needful Things - Stephen King)

Name: zpyder

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Product:	Needful Things - Stephen King
Date:	27/01/01 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a classic run down of events to a climatic ending

Disadvantages: some people find it a little boring, with a un-inspiring ending.

If you like Steven King books you need to read Needful Things (pun intended).

Needful things is classic king from start to finish. A friend of mine (well, actually a school teacher) said that he didn’t like Steven King because each book followed the same kind of path. This was:

1st 1/3rd of the book= Description of a nice little community, nothing’s ever gone wrong here, has it?
2nd 1/3rd of the book=But look, something is wrong, not all’s what it seems!
Last 1/3 of the book=All hell breaks loose.


This in my eyes described a large portion of Kings books very well. Needful Things follows this path to ruin as well. There are a few exceptions to this rule though, among these there’s:

The short story books (Skeleton Crew, Night Shift, Nightmares and Dreamscapes.)
Hearts in Atlantis
The girl who loved Tom Gordon


Below is a small plot synopsis if you hadn’t already guessed what happens in the book by the above:

The books about a small sleepy village, called castle rock. The main character in my eyes is the sheriff, Alan Pangborn. You may remember him from ‘the dark half’. This book takes place after that, and you find out that fate hasn’t been too kind to Alan.
A new shop opens, and news and rumours spread quickly in the small town. It seems to be a junk shop, with a mixture of items. These items aren’t really useful, but are just what someone’s always wanted. The first customer, a small kid called Brian Rusk, gets a Rare signed baseball card for less that a dollar. You see, all the things in the shop have 2 different prices. Each has a price slightly too expensive to buy, but another which is cheap. Brian Rusk pays the price of less than a dollar, and then he does a small favour for the shopkeeper, Mr. Lelaund Gaunt.
Mr. Gaunt does this to everyone in the town, each favour being a seemingly harmless prank on a fellow town per
son, but to each person a pranks played on it’s a final straw in a long chain of events. In the end people are set off against each other. The main action at the end is when Mr. Gaunt manages to get the Catholics and Methodists fighting against each other.


The stories a typical fight against good and evil, following the theme of a clock slowly ticking down to 0, and then BOOM, action.
Some people find this book a little bit boring, or not up to SK’s standards, but others find it a good read. I’m one of the latter.

I suggest that if you’re interested in the book after reading the above plot synopsis, you have a read, but if not, you leave this book to one of the last (if you’re reading through all SK’s books), as it’s obviously either good or bad in different peoples eyes.

Summary: