Another King classic (Needful Things - Stephen King)

Name: helrush

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Product:	Needful Things - Stephen King
Date:	22/02/01 (21 review reads)
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This book is one of the most perfect examples of the pure art of story telling imaginable. Not just content with developing a handful of characters, King presents a weird and wonderful array of actors in this novel. Sheriff Pangborn, Polly, Nettie, Wilma, Keeton, Hugh Priest, Ace Merrill, Brian Rusk, Myra Evans, and of course, the villain - Leland Gaunt. The story line centres around Gaunt's new store on Main Street, Castle Rock - a shop called 'Needful Things'. By seemingly coincidence, the shop always stocks the one true desire of each and every customer who enters under the green awning. And it is always affordable - in many instances, the price is just the loose change in your hip pocket.

The reason for this is that Gaunt is not interested in monetary assets - it is souls he is after. Each purchase made comes with a small prank to be played on an unsuspecting member of the small town. As pranks get more serious, and more and more people realise their heart's desire lies within the new store, the town descends into chaos.

King's ability to develop so many characters, and the fact that they are ALL so different, and so interesting, made this book my needful thing. I found it more entertaining than horrific - only one scene disgusted me, when Polly found out what was really inside her arthritic-curing charm.
The final one hundred pages were told beautifully, and in my mind it was easy to imagine the chaos descending, as explosions and murders happen almost every minute.

Overall this was an brilliant, excellent example of story telling. This was one of my first King novels - and it definitely will not be my last.

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