Stephen King

Leland Gaunt probes the limits of people's desires when he moves to Castle Rock, Maine--opens his shop, Needful Things--and sets a high price on love, hope, and the human soul

Needful Things

Rose

Everyone loves a bargain. Everyone loves something for nothing…even if it costs everything. 

Love might make the world go round, but she was convinced it was the cries of the badly wounded and deeply afflicted which spun the universe on the great glass pole of its axis. 

The world is full of needy people who don’t understand that everything, 

, is for sale… if you’re willing to pay the price. 

In einer kleinen Stadt

Justin Staack

8 Punkte
Der Anfang und die ersten zwei drittel sind großartig. Umso seltsamer, wieso dann gerade am ende so viele neue Charaktere etabliert werden, die mich keinesfalls mehr interessieren, da ich sie nicht wirklich kennenlerne und sie den eigentlichen Charakteren des ersten drittels nur die Seiten stehlen und damit das Buch strecken.

Patrick Book

The final jaunt to Castle Rock is very enjoyable. It’s not terribly scary, but it’s a fine dark comedy. I think it could’ve been pared down somewhat - a more tightly edited version would probably rank among King’s best. Still, a lot of fun.

Christian von Schack

roro

“There are two prices for this. Half…and half. One half is cash. The other is a deed. Do you understand?”

The town of Castle Rock, Maine has seen its fair share of oddities over the years, but nothing is a peculiar as the little curio shop that’s just opened for business. Its mysterious proprietor, Leland Gaunt, seems to have something for everyone out on display at Needful Things…interesting items that run the gamut from worthless to priceless. Nothing has a price tag in this place, but everything is certainly for sale. The heart’s desire for any resident of Castle Rock can easily be found among the curiosities…in exchange for a little money and—at the specific request of Leland Gaunt—a whole lot of menace against their fellow neighbors. Everyone in town seems willing to make a deal at Needful Things, but the devil is in the details. And no one takes heed of the little sign hanging on the wall: Caveat emptor. In other words, let the buyer beware…
--back cover

Lara Engle

Needful Things is considered a Stephen King classic. Knowing it's his first book written after he kicked his drug habit, a reader can definitely see that jonesing was on his mind. And he's right that everyone has their one true heart's desire, whether it's that rare baseball card, an end to pain, or knowledge after tragedy. But "caveat emptor" has never been more true. I really knew where this was all going the moment Leland Gaunt made his first deal in Castle Rock. I had no idea how extreme, heartbreaking, and gruesome it would all be. Beware, constant readers, when you buy into this one.

Woah, think I’ve found my favourite book of all time. I loved the amount of detail there was on every character, I felt as if I was living in Castle Rock with them. So so amazing.

The Last Castle Rock Story

Celeste Richardson

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, attention, please! 
Come in close where everyone can see! 
I got a tale to tell, it isn’t gonna cost a dime! 
(And if you believe that, 
we’re gonna get along just fine.)”

Are you a seasonal reader? I sure am. Winter is for classics and childhood favorites and romances. Spring is for fiction that builds my faith and fantasies that build intricate worlds in my mind. Summer is for rereads when I’m feeling lazy and new-to-me realms of fantasy when I’m not. But autumn is without a doubt the season that dictates my reading the most. For the past few years, October has been for horror in general and Stephen King in particular. This year, I kicked my King-a-Thon off a little early. And I’m happy to report that I started it off with a bang.

Though I’ve visited through film and the novella Gwendy’s Button Box, Needful Things marks my first novel-length journey into Castle Rock. It was quite the introduction, let me tell you. Originally billed as the last Castle Rock novel, you know going in that things probably aren’t going to end well. King is a master of the slow burn, of stories that so gradually develop their tone of impending doom that you find yourself suddenly frightened with no way to pinpoint what it is exactly that is scaring you. Needful Things was no exception.

Castle Rock is a quaint little town that has experienced it share of weird. It’s the setting of The Dead Zone, Cujo, and The Dark Half, all of which took place prior to this book. But as with all small towns, they’ve done their best to sweep the weird under the proverbial rug and pretend that it never happened. Whether that willful ignorance has any impact on the events of this book is for the reader to decide. 

“Love, the simplest, strongest, and most unforgiving of all emotions.”

The story opens with townspeople whispering excitedly over the opening of a new shop. In a town this size, change is rare and is made much of, though the citizenry is sure to feign disinterest; no one wants to seem too excited, as that would reveal a lack of restraint and refinement to others in town. Regardless, nearly everyone in town ends up paying Mr. Leeland Gaunt a visit at his curiosity shop, Needful Things. And every single visitor finds within the shop the fulfillment of their deepest and most treasured wish in the form of an object on the shelves of the new shop. Every customer is desperate to secure said object, but certain it’s something they could never afford. 

“Because in America, you could have anything you wanted, just as long as you could pay for it. If you couldn't pay, or refused to pay, you would remain needful for ever.”

Imagine their absolute delight when Mr. Gaunt quotes them a rock-bottom price on the item that physically embodies their wildest dream. They get a steal of a deal, as long as they’re also willing to perform a tiny favor for the proprietor in the form of a harmless prank played on another Castle Rock citizen. What’s the harm, right?

These purchases begin to change the people of the town, bringing out the darkness inside them. Greed and selfishness, suspicion and mistrust begin to bleed onto the streets and into the hearts of those who walk out the doors of Needful Things. Even though each customer has just made the purchase of a lifetime, there is no rushing to show off these remarkable finds to family or bragging of them to friends. Each treasure is jealously guarded, and each owner lives in terror of someone stealing this prized possession from them. Because they never share their treasures with each other, no one sees said treasure for what it really is: a lie.

“Everyone loves something for nothing...even if it costs everything.”

Each of Mr. Gaunt’s customers becomes so obsessed with their purchase that they fail to see the malice festering all over town. Those “harmless” pranks? When you have enough of them built up, they’re not so harmless. Neighbor is pitted against neighbor, lover against love, friend against friend and church against church as parties are framed for stunts they never pulled. When all of this mischief finally comes to a head, the whole town is likely to explode.

“Men and women who can't get over their past . . . That's what ghosts are.”

Mr. Gaunt is a fascinating character who is undoubtedly a supernatural being, though what exactly he is never comes to light. He is the most masterful manipulator of people I have ever come across. But he’s not what made this story so scary. What frightened me was King’s portrayal of human nature. While Gaunt is the orchestrator of the madness that takes hold of the town, its people are willing participants. Each is out for their own gain, and are quick to accept that whoever Gaunt framed is to blame for their misery without every asking said person if they really did these hurtful things. We see an entire town of diverse individuals become replicas of Tolkien’s Gollum, focused single-mindedly on guarding their precious object and mistrusting of everyone around them, convinced that a potential thief lives in the shadowed hearts of their family and friends and neighbors. Man’s readiness to see the worst in his fellow man with no effort to investigate for himself is mind boggling to me, even though I’ve seen it countless times in both fiction and reality. The scariest monsters to leave King’s mind for a home on a page are not the killer clown or rabid dog or reanimated cats, but the men and women who find themselves twisted and do nothing to fight the change, choosing instead to embrace their inner darkness. His take on humanity is terrifying in its probability.

“Some tears have to be cried no matter what the hour- until they are, they simply rave and burn inside.” 

What keeps me coming back to King isn’t the fear factor, but the hope that finds a way to shine through the utter bleakness of his stories. While he shows humanity at its worst, he also shows it at its best. There is always someone who rises up to fight the darkness, even when they fight alone. But the tiniest ray of light can banish the darkest shadows, and King is wonderful at showing the power of that light. Evil might not be forever defeated, but it has been vanquished for a time to lick its wounds. Good triumphs in the battle, even if the war wages on.

“That was what I wanted, but I don't need it to be gone. I can love you and I can love life and bear the pain all at the same time. I think the pain might even make the rest better, the way a good setting can make a diamond look better.”

King is kind of known for not being able to stick the landing when it comes to ending a story. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve come to expect so little from his endings or because it was legitimately better than most, but I was super happy with the way this book wrapped up. Everything built up to this epic battle, and I wasn’t disappointed with either the battle itself or the outcome. I didn’t feel like cheated in anyway by the final pages, which I have in the past. Whatever the case, I’m so glad I kicked off my King-a-Thon with this book. Time to backtrack and dig into the rest of Castle Rock’s history!

From the Flap:

With a demonic blend of malice and affection, Stephen King says goodbye to the town he put on the map -- Castle Rock, Maine . . . where Polly Chalmers runs You Sew and Sew and Sheriff Alan Pangborn is in charge of keeping the peace. It's a small town, and Stephen King fans might think they know its secrets pretty well; they've been here before.

Leland Gaunt is a stranger -- and he calls his shop Needful Things. Eleven-year-old Brain Rusk is his first customer, and Brian finds just what he wants most in all the world; a '56 Sandy Koufax baseball card. By the end of the week, Mr. Gaunt's business is fairly booming, and why not? At Needful Things, there's something for everyone.

And, of course, there is always a price. For Leland Gaunt, the pleasure of doing business lies chiefly in seeing how much people will pay for their most secret dreams and desires. And as Leland Gaunt always points out, at Needful Things, the prices are high indeed. Does that stop people from buying? Has it ever?

For Alan and Polly, this one week in autumn will be an awful test -- a test of will, desire, and pain. Above all, it will be a test of their ability to grasp the true nature of their enemy. They may have a chance . . . But maybe not, because, as Mr. Gaunt knows, almost everything is for sale: love, hope, even the human soul.

With the potent storytelling authority that millions of readers have come to prize, Stephen King delivers an Out Town with a vengeance, an inimitable farewell to a place his fiction has often and long called home.

Amy Maddess

Where to even start...this definitely tops my list of favourite Stephen King novels. It is so subtle in metaphor and foreshadowing that it is perfect. Leland Gaunt is the devil, but he wants deeds instead of souls, and he is willing to sell you a hallucinatory projection of your most desired thing in life in order to ensure that you will be committed to doing what it is that he asks. He also is super sexy so ❤️

La tienda

Karla 

Quite enjoyable, very twisted and gory. The story is classic King, and in general I think this book is underrated as his books go. Might give it a reread and decide to bump it up to 5 stars, since it's been a couple years.

Ángel Soto Vázquez

Joe Herrington

Stephen King’s #1 national bestseller about a store where Leland Gaunt can sell you whatever your heart desires—sexual pleasure, wealth, power, or even more precious things—but not without exacting some price in return. “A read in the tradition of The Stand” (Booklist).

Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little “deed,” usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself. Only Sheriff Alan Pangborn suspects that Gaunt is behind the population’s increasingly violent behavior.
Source: http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Needful-Things/Stephen-King/9781508217176

Needful Things

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