Needful Things

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Summary: Take me back to Castle Rock!
Review: This is a really entertaining GREAT read. The characters are really true to life and I found the book HILARIOUS. This book proves everyone has their price....The setting was great, the plot was really rich and interesting, its a must read for King fans, and fans of horror. Watch out for the movie version though, its HORRID.

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Summary: What if your 'needful thing' is a living person?
Review: Fast-paced, with increasing tempo throughout, exceptionally witty sometimes; one of my favorite scene involves Nettie and Wilma's duel. I was both amazed and stunned by the powerful imagination that supplied such a plot. (...)

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Summary: Hypnotic Joyride
Review: In tradition of 'Salem's Lot, Stephen King writes Needful Things through the view of many characters, not just one main character, and keeps the reader guessing throughout the entire novel what will happen to which character. It works so well in Needful Things that I found myself reading madly and gaping my mouth many times. Truly a gruesome and horrifying experience, in Needful Things, King creates great characters, Alan Pangborn, Norris Ridgewick, Polly Chalmers, Nettie Cobb, Hugh Priest, Ace Merrill, John LaPointe, and maybe the best villian he has ever created in Leland Gaunt. The way he makes Gaunt so low key and friendly, and evil at the same time is wonderful. He also ties in all his other novels which have taken place in Castle Rock such as Cujo, The Dead Zone, and the novella The Body, very well. Sure, you'll be flipping back to see what character did what to whom when the novel takes its turning points, but that's the fun of it. How King can write so many things in 700 pages and keep the reader hooked and interested. And of course, the ending in which evil does not fully lose. God I love that! Needful Things, one of Stephen King's most entertaining books. A must read!

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Summary: kept me up all night !
Review: this is my favorite stephen king novel.the story details the characters very good and it gets intresting every chapter.i highly recommend it.

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Summary: Lengthy Yet Entertaining Horror Tale
Review: First of all, if you are new to the world of Stephen King, I suggest you try starting with another book, like Carrie or Salem's Lot. The length of this book (and the lack of editing thereof) was enough to make me have to come up and gasp for breath at times (and I am a King fan). For those of you enraptured with the world of Stephen King and the horror he creates, Needful Things will be like a crisp beer in a raging alcoholic's hand. The citizens of Castle Rock in this book are the kind of characters we know when reading King; well-characterized but steryotypical(sp?). Leland Gaunt, the shopowner of Neeful Things, is an entrancing villain, the best thing about this novel. As with most of King's fiction, there is plenty of violence, both purposeful and outright unnecessary. The action and machinations and interactions between the characters kept me going; the only thing which stopped me from giving this book four or five stars was the editing. The first two hundred pages can be a bit slow and heavy to digest and you may find instances where you ask yourself is this really needed? But then, the book deals with the things we crave and need and how these superficial desires can get out of hand. So, if you are willing to ride through 700+ pages of classic Stephen King storytelling, at the cost of some portions slow as erosion, then perhaps Needful Things is just what you need . . .

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Summary: Fun to read...
Review: ...but the ending left me hanging. If you have a sick sense of humor, you might actually find antics of Mr. Gaunt quite amusing. I just didn't feel the ending did the book any justice.

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Summary: great intro to Stephen King
Review: This was my first Stephen King book. After this, i couldn't stop reading works by this amazing author. Do not be intimidated with this book's length. As soon as you get into the plot, a hundred pages wouldn't seem like much for a single sitting. The plot is intricate, complicated, and very exciting. Each action, each decision, brings up an intricate effect. The plot is based on a shop-owner who has anything anyone ever wanted, at a very reasonable price. But there's a catch to every order. A deed must be done. A simple, seemingly innocent deed done to another person. Soon, deeds build up and people become hateful. All ends upon the hands of a small town cop, who must stop this owner of Needful Things and destroyer of lives. A very good book to get the general idea of what kind of an author Stephen King is. Do Not Pass It Up.

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Summary: Boring
Review: My first and last attempt to read a Stephen King book. It is one of the most boring books I have ever read.

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Summary: Needful Things needs to be shorter
Review: NEEDFUL THINGS has a great premise, and a good storyline. That's about it. There are far too many characters that sound exactly the same and the plot moves at a snail's pace. The characters that are good are well developed and human, but at close to 800 pages, it's too long, and its not until halfway through that the results of sinister Leland Gaunt's machinations start to show themselves. After that, when the people of Castle Rock are pitted against each other, the book gets good. But most readers will have lost interest by then. Persevere, though. Definitely one of Stephen King's weakest and darkest novels.

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Summary: Not much of a sheriff, either.
Review: This one was just a little too weak for me, although the premise was interesting enough. Most of the characters were never developed to the extent that I was able to care about what happened to them. I also found it hard to believe that any town would be able to hold as many homicidal people as Castle Rock, and I found Ace Merrill's car to be more interesting than most of them. The ending was pure "Deus ex machina",with King creating a supernatural band aid to close up all the plot threads. Not one of King's best.