There was a new shop in town. Run by a stranger. Needful Things, the sign said. The oddest name. A name that caused some gossip and speculation among the good folks of Castle Rock, Maine, while they waited for opening day. Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk was the first customer and he got just what he wanted, a very rare 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card. Signed. Cyndi Rose Martin was next. A Lalique vase. A perfect match for her living room decor. Something for everyone. Something you really had to have. And always at a price you could just about afford. The cash price that is. Because there was another price. There always is when your heart's most secret, true desire is for sale.

Listening Length

25 hours and 10 minutes
Author

Stephen King
Narrator

Stephen King
Audible release date

30 August 2012
Language

English
Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton
ASIN

B00QTG1TMC
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	25 hours and 10 minutes
Author	Stephen King
Narrator	Stephen King
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	30 August 2012
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00QTG1TMC
Best Sellers Rank	7,722 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1,057 in Thrillers & Suspense (Audible Books & Originals) 1,320 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Action Fiction (Books) 4,117 in Thrillers & Suspense (Books)

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		18%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Kt Harvey

Needful Things: getting what you want may not really be a good idea

Reviewed in Australia on 9 November 2020

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I loved this book. Have read it three times and loved it each time. Typical Stephen King. Twist and turns all along. A good holiday read.
It tells the story of the chaos that deceit can bring when used, knowing others weaknesses and how easy it is to lose sight of reality.

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Paula Johnson

Another winner from King

Reviewed in Australia on 19 May 2016

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From the moment we walk into Needful Things on opening day, we are drawn in- hook, line and sinker.. Another gripping, enthralling and fantastically executed King masterpiece.
I love how old characters from past stories are re-introduced, good and bad. You feel like you know them, love them or hate them. I am a huge King fan, and devour his books, some have been hit-or-miss, disappointing- but this one isn't. Buckle your seatbelt, lock the doors and enjoy the ride!

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snoopy

you won't be able to put this down

Reviewed in Australia on 30 October 2020

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I'm a massive Stephen King fan and this is one of his best books by far, it really is a "once you start you can't put it down till you finish" read, do yourself a favour and get this book.

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G. Lee

Same old stuff

Reviewed in Australia on 17 January 2019

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He sure can write and keep the reader interested but the theme of good versus evil is getting very repetitious

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Barry Paton

Another great read

Reviewed in Australia on 2 June 2016

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Brilliant as usual. Mr King can do no wrong

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Amazon Customer

A great book

Reviewed in Australia on 18 April 2016

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I've read this book a couple of times now. Thoroughly enjoyed it

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zeehanrose

brilliant

Reviewed in Australia on 16 October 2014

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Riveting book. Loved it from start to end. The build up was brilliantly delivered. As always I was thrilled with Stephen king

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cwissy

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 24 September 2014

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as always a great read from King. enjoyed every page

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Adnan Soysal

The Need

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 July 2020

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Another hundreds of pages of Stephen King novel (935 pages) with loads of characters.
I found quiet some repetitive narratives of inflated set of characters.
So, why read it all then?
This is the paradox, in my view, reader is suffering here.
On the one hand, a thick book with inflated set of characters, and repetitive narrative, on the other hand, a very very interesting, great plot.
I think no one can dare to degrade Stephen King's God given like talent of narrating dialogues of middle class, ordinary Americans.
But when you start coming across more and more of these dialogues in repetitive fashion without adding anything new to plot, reading becomes boring, tiring. And then you slide into disengagement.
Stephen King amazes me with his largeness, energy, comfort while generating new characters, and making them talk.
One needs a catalogue of them under his hand through out the book to check who is who.
This great plot could have been far more sharper, and impacting with less characters.

So, what is the plot here?
In general I saw the subject pretty psychological, and philosophical. And I loved it.
To me it touches at the motivations of modern man resulting in the drive of economy.
And it touches at the things modern man can dare to do for a few dollars for their silly obsessions where they fail to foresee possible horrible, sad results of their actions.
And Stephen King fantastically catches all this. And I loved the way he configured, and labelled the elements and the characters of these affairs.
I am very impressed Stephen King's observation of all these mind-boggling socio-cultural-economical-psychological relations, and plotting them in a compact, simple way.
A novelist should be a good social, cultural, psychological observer. And this novel is a proof that Stephen King is a great one.
It is also magnificent that such a in-depth subject is covered with such an ordinary way.

A business man comes to a small town called Castle Rock in Maine, and launches a shop on the main street of the town.
Name of the shop is NEEDFUL THINGS. I just love this name. Message is clear; One needs this thing, and It is sold here.
In fact, it sounds like having contrary message also; No one needs these objects, but there is no shortage of people still obsessed with them, and will buy them.
Throughout the book author invites us to think why people, that is we, need these objects, and buy them.
The shop is a gloomy hall where all kinds of antique like objects displayed.
An ordinary man of modern pop life would find them very unique, rare, interesting, and valuable.
Objects have no price tag on them. And shop's opening-closing hours seems to be pretty flexible, or is arranged on customer's convenience on spot.
At one point it mentions that toilet in the shop is scarcely dirty.

Owner of the shop, Mr. Leland Gaunt, has a unique way of selling.
Before selling something, he first gets quiet close, sometimes intimate talk with customer understanding his obsessions.
And Mr. Leland Gaunt never forgets praising object's uniqueness.
All these scenes remind reader how much we like our obsessions are glorified by sellers.
In fact, in a magical way, Mr. Leland Gaunt already knows his customer.
But he still talks to them first, leading them to their object. And when the customer sees the object, it is always love at first sight moment.
Sometimes these objects in a mysterious way are displayed on window of the shop while customer is walking by. And when customer notices it then his/her feet take them into the shop.
And in a scary way, Mr. Leland Gaunt is always readily waiting for them.

Price bargaining and closing deal is done in a unique way. Mr. Leland Gaunt asks how much customer would pay for the object.
Because he knows how crazy is the customer for the object, so he transfers the price setting task to customer.
He also knows customer will try to set a lower price within his financial constraints. Even customer himself does not believe in the price he/she offers.
So Mr Leland Gaunt already makes his customer feel guilty of setting a lower price upfront.
And this is the moment Mr. Leland Gaunt strikes back.
He accepts it with one condition. Customer should do a joke, a prank, a task to another person in town.
Since customer is already in a happy mood with his silly obsession for symbolic price, he is in psychological trap already.
Customer is no longer in a position to judge the consequence of this joke / prank / task Mr. Leland Gaunt is asking from him.
After all it all sounds like a small fooling thing. At least customer enjoys fooling himself with believing like that.
This moment is perfectly described by one of the customers later confessing "Mr. Leland Gaunt buys our SICKNESS in return"
Indeed aren't human beings ready to get blind for their small greed, and for their silly obsessions?

And here is some examples of these customers, objects they are sort hypnotised for , the prank they will do it

- A student boy buys baseball card for mudding a woman's clean sheets drying, and breaking her house's window by throwing stones
- Student boy's mother buys King's (Elvis Presley) sunglasses not for a particular prank. But when she founds them broken, she has someone in her mind to revenge.
- A widow woman who also owns a small shop, buys necklace which heals pains in her hands. She has to bury a fake letter to mislead a treasure hunter.
- An alcoholic buys a foxtail for killing a woman's dog.
- Board member of the local government buys Horse Race Toy for placing dynamites in and around town.

Eventually these jokes, pranks, tasks results in blood shed, suicide, even town's Catholics and Baptist communities go against each other fatally.
This book is a not only story of Castle Rock, it is story of the World where how people are ready to unleash their already built up resentment, grudge with a small excuse.
And excuses are planted by Mr. Leland Gaunt, The Devil.

7 people found this helpful

WLangcake

... book arrived before the expected delivery date and in excellent condition. not always the case with used books ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 May 2018

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First the book arrived before the expected delivery date and in excellent condition .not always the case with used books so that's a big bonus .Now for the story itself .Like many other Stephen King novels this is a long read ,over 900 pages ,so be prepared for a fairly involved plot that does wander a bit .Another of Mr King's trade marks is the sheer number of characters you need to get to know and keep track of ,this one is comparable with Under the Dome ,IT and The Stand in that aspect .Fortunately most of the people are either engaging or so perfectly awful they become fascinating ,either way you want to know what happens to them . The idea of an odd little shop full of curios is hardly a new one ,in fact it's a bit of a classic in stories of the supernatural .However ,this time it's the shopkeeper not the objects themselves who embodies the malign force and one feels early on that he truly is malign .I think it's safe to say that if you enjoy King you will enjoy this ,some of the characters do have a bit of a "General stock" feel about them but that's probably unavoidable when you have invented as many people as Stephen King has .

8 people found this helpful

x0/AB\x0

Rich character driven novel set in Castle Rock.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 April 2022

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Kindle version is 929 pages long.
Rich character driven novel set in Castle Rock.
King brings the town and characters to life brilliantly.
Many of the characters will be known to Constant Readers familiar with Kings novels set in Castle Rock e.g. Dead Zone, Cujo etc.
The book reminded me of 'salem's Lot with similarities in the rich character driven plot set around a town.
Fans of King with love the novel, references to earlier novels, and the return of 'favourite' characters.
Readers new to King will probably wonder what the fuss is about and feel the novel is over long.

Gauge

Depressingly Dull

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2020

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I so wanted to enjoy Needful Things as I loved the premise. I managed to read the first 300 pages and that was enough. Just when you think the plot is about to move forward, King throws in another lengthy and detailed character back-story. It's one step forwards, two steps back.

As for the characters themselves, the only one of interest is the antagonist, Leland Gaunt. The rest, without exception, are depressing ... and I mean DEPRESSING! Whatever the opposite of a 'feelgood' story is, King has nailed it with this effort.

Also, the 300 pages I read were littered with grammatical and formatting issues - when was the last time the publisher checked the Kindle version?

Marie Lornie

You’ve been here before

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2020

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Recently I have been rereading Stephen King as it has been over 25 years since I started Pet Semetary and was hooked. I still have my original copy of Needful Things, which I loved at age 19. As an 40 year old adult I have dropped my 5 star rating down to a 4/4.5. The reason for this being that, whilst I love Stephen Kings writing style, I found that Needful Things was just a little too long. By the end of the book, I was praying for it to finish. That being said, when we did finally get to the conclusion it felt very rushed and was all over in about 2 pages. It still stands as one of Kings more underrated books, and I thoroughly enjoyed it

4 people found this helpful

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