Rating: 
Summary: Hillarious
Review: Fantastic. Close to my favourite Stephen King book. Most memorable for me was the servant-lady's discovery of her murdered dog: ("Sweet Jesus merciful and mild. Raider! You ain't dead, are you? You ain't dead? Oh, oh no! Oh my little doggy!")
The characters' attacks on one another were superbly entertaining, the bad guy was interesting, and though the ending was a little disappointing, this was incredibly entertaining. King's got the sniping, gossipy small-town atmosphere down pat.
Rating:
Summary: So what happened???
Review: After reading over 800 pages, King never tells us if the Catholics have their bingo night or not. Sheesh!
Rating:
Summary: The Description of Evil....
Review: From the only man who can describe pure evil. Needful Things is a jawdropping tale of evil in a Maine town. The only things I know about Maine come from Stephen King novels and the more Stephen King novels I read, the more I want to go there. As usual the King is not afraid to write down everything from his mind of insanity and this book is not exception, he is undoubtely the greatest American author and dare say the world!!!!
While this is a great novel, note to the squeamish or to parents: this novel like almost all of Stephen Kings novels is quite graphic, don't be surprised if it talks about a knife going into someones stomach in really graphic detail. The detail will scare the living crap out of you, it will make you afraid to go to sleep, it will make you cry, it will make you angry and if you can't hold in your hormones, it will make you aroused, which brings me to my next point: Parents of kids who are too young to be read Stephen King(5-12), the language is really obscene, there is graphic violence, and there is graphic sexual content including sex, masturbating, male/female sex organs and just stuff your children shouldn't know about. But, that doesn't mean that teenagers can't read Stephen King, they just shouldn't start here. I suggest newcomers into the world of Stephen King should read his early stuff like Salem's Lot, the Gunslinger, or the Dead Zone.
(I know I probably didn't give a good enough review for five stars, but I'm used to doing music reviews, so I'm just now doing book reviews, so just bare with me.)
Rating: 
Summary: A little review by a serious fan
Review: I have been a fan of King for years, and it is simply a given that when one of his novels come out I am in the bookstore that very day, plunking down whatever the asking price for a hardcover copy. There are many horror novel fans (believe it or not) who will tell you that Stephen King is a pulp author whose talents are based solely on the ability to toss off a 900 page book with an interesting sounding plotline every fall or so, but we true fans know that King's writing is much more than that, that he is a master storyteller capable of entertaining, shocking, and frightening at the same time. Needful Things is a prime example of King at his twisted best. The story centers on King's now mythical town of Castle Rock (undoubtedly an unlucky place; it is the site of Cujo and The Body to name a few of King's other works). A small rural town such as Castle Rock cannot help but take interest when a mysterious stranger breezes in and sets up shop (particularly a shop with a name as enticing as 'Needful Things'). The proprietor, one Leland Gaunt, can offer the residents of Needful Things whatever they want... for a price. Literally, the hopes and dreams of every person in town is somewhere on Gaunt's shelves, and as it turns out, most of them are willing to do anything to buy them. Of course, Gaunt doesn't simply take money; he requires a favor of his clients, in the form of a small service (usually a seemingly harmless prank or act of vandalism inflicted on another citizen). The people of Castle Rock are only too happy to comply, and that is where King really begins to spin the yarn. You see, Gaunt is very intelligent and very wicked. He uses the weaknesses and prejudices of the residents of Castle Rock against them, and soon his seemingly random series of pranks begin to connect, and suddenly the good folks of Castle Rock are set against one another, paranoid, vindictive, vengeful people who will do anything to protect their 'needful things'. Eventually, the killing begins. King turns his characters into killers and monsters in a frighteningly believable way, and ties the characters together in ways that will make you sit back and marvel at his storytelling. Obliviously assisting Gaunt is Ace Merril (yes, the same character from The Body, played by Kiefer Sutherland in the film Stand by Me) A criminal all his life, Ace harbors a hatred for Castle Rock that Gaunt cultivates and nurtures. The only thing that stands between Castle Rock and damnation is our hero, sheriff Alan Pangborn, who distrusts Gaunt and attempts to unravel his evil scheme (those of you who read King's The Dark Half will recognize Pangborn; he is one of its central characters as well). I must say after all this that I was less than impressed with the dramatic, climactic ending, which I found to be more than a tad cheesy and unfulfilling. However, the story leading up to the less than agreeable ending is well worth the mild disappointment. I would recommend Needful Things as a very enjoyable and exciting read, right up there with King's best works (the very best of which is the magnificent Eyes of the Dragon, which I will review some time in the future). If you are a King fan, Needful Things is a must, and if not, then I suggest it as an entertaing alternative to whatever your area of interest might be
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Read!
Review: I just finished reading this book by Stephen King and I had to write a review on it immediately! This is an astounding piece of work that Stephen King has written, and of all the books that I have read of his, I would definitely consider `Needful Things' as one of his best!
The story revolves around a shop called `Needful Things', which has just opened in the small town of Castle Rock. At first, everyone is very curious to get a glimpse of exactly what the shop holds. The shop is led by a mysterious man named Leland Gaunt, who seems to have, in stock, everything that each and every citizen in Castle Rock desires. However, in exchange for money, he asks his customers to perform small deeds for him, which seems playful, but ultimately leads to disastrous consequences.
King has a magical way of bringing a whole town together in this book. We get to read about each and every citizen, their relationships with the others, and how drastically their lives change after a short period of time. You feel for many characters in this book, especially Nettie Cobb, Brian Rusk, Polly Chalmers and Myrtle Keeton. From the purchase that Brian Rusk makes at the shop, till the final battle between good and evil, we are taken in with the story. Leland Gaunt, the owner of Castle Rock is one of the best villains King has created. Gaunt will seem like an angel in one scene and will frighten you in the next. The only other villain I found to be as convincing as Gaunt was Flagg (from King's `Eyes of the Dragon').
"Needful Things" was the last Castle Rock story that Stephen King wrote and what an exciting book it was! If you have not read this book yet, make it a priority to pick it up when you take a trip to your bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: A horror for need
Review: I just got finished read a book, and I realized what is SK's horror. Someday I will read every book of SK. Because his story is grotesque and plot is fast and discription is cruel.
The whole situation was weird...and getting weirder all the time. As time went by Needful Thing is a poison place, and Mr. Gaunt is a poison man. Only he's really not a man.-Who is HE? Maybe devil.
Rating:
Summary: Warning! Adult Content! (254)
Review: I think that everyone should read <u>Needful Things</u> by Stephen King. It's a 750 some odd page book, but it is a real page turner. Compared to most King books, <u>Needful Things</u> moves *very* fast. It really taps into the truth of human nature and materialism -- I don't want to buy <em>anything</em> at all <strong>ever again</strong>. As usual there is a heroic male character with an emotional Achille's heel which he has to overcome to "save" the female character. If you've never read a Stephen King book, they are the only two characters that survive usually -- not even the dog. King doesn't seem to like dogs.
The only negative I could give you is just a complaint about King's writing style: One minute you're reading a wholesome horror novel and the next thing you know one of the character's is talking about a woman's "hard erect nipples" or other nonsense like that. I have no objection to "hard erect nipples" in literature, sometimes its appropriate -- but King likes to *randomly* insert pornographic language which adds nothing to the content and really intterupts the flow of the novel [ wrote the blogger who's nipples were hard and erect ] -- SEE! Do you see how that was jarring and interuptted my review?
<u>Needful Things</u> was most definately worth my time and as such I will give it a five out of five. Five what you ask?
Hard Erect Nipples.
(...)
Rating:
Summary: Massive, perceptive and strongly allegorical
Review: Leland Gaunt might be an incarnation of evil, but that doesn't make him a one-note character. The dynamic between Gaunt and Castle Rock's inhabitants is in a constant state of evolution: sometimes Gaunt is the focal point around which the other characters gravitate, a spider capturing more and more victims in its numbing, deadly web; at other moments, he is at the periphery, an active observer of his creation like an inferior demiurge who relishes in pain and mayhem - the prices he commands for the 'needful things' he sells is much more spiritual than material. The most interesting aspects of the novel are related to religion and the sacred. Gaunt takes the guise of Good as he seemingly brings wonder to people who didn't have any, and he appears to give his clients access to the sacred while violently cutting them from the profane world; but this is less a religious experience than a pernicious illusion devised by a dark magician. The book's structure is such that its length poses no problem to the reader - it is quite the opposite. King delays the inevitable Pangborn-Gaunt confrontation as much as he can, and the pace quickens in the novel's second half. 'Needful Things' lends itself to a plethora of allegorical readings, including Gaunt as the guru of a dangerous sect; as a druglord; as an author of macabre fiction (his clients need to 'believe' his stories as much as readers do and they soon become addicted to his 'work'). This is not an easy novel, but one that inquisitive readers should look for.
Rating: 
Summary: A Bright Spot among SK's Later Novels
Review: Many of Stephen King's readers (including some of the author's diehard fans) agree that the author's novels lost some of their pizzazz around 1987 or so. Although King's ability to create believable characters has remained strong throughout his career, he seems to have grown tired of the horror themes that inspired his earlier works.Needful Things is a bright spot among the post-Pet Cemetery novels. Despite the formidable length of the book, King's tale of a curio shop that caters to people's innermost desires is captivating from beginning to end. As another reviewer pointed out, the premise of the story is not exactly original--but this doesn't make Needful Things any less entertaining. The story is set in familiar King territory: the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. SK interweaves a number of complex subplots within the dark underside of small town life. Near the climax of the tale, the story switches rapidly from one subplot to another, practically compelling you to turn the page to discover what happens next. Although I liked Needful Things overall, there were a few points that could have been improved: -SK once stated in an interview that he would go for the gross-out if he couldn't scare the reader outright. (I am loosely paraphrasing a very old interview here.) Many of Stephen King's earlier works contained some genuinely spooky scenes. (Who can forget the woman in the bathtub in The Shining?) However, SK's later works tend to rely increasingly on B-movie gore. Needful Things contains a few too many descriptions of blood and guts, and a couple of scatological references that could have been omitted. I'm an adult and I've read worse, so these passages don't bother me--but this isn't the kind of writing that King enthralled me with in Salem's Lot and Carrie. -One of the key subplots of the story hinges on a conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants living in Castle Rock. At times, the intensity of the enmity between the two groups seems a bit unrealistic. However, this is a minor flaw in an otherwise well-crafted latticework of back-stories and subplots. If you didn't like Insomnia or Dreamcatcher, then you should give Needful Things a try. You may not like this book as much as The Shining, but it stands out among SK's more recent novels.
Rating:
Summary: One of Stephen King's Best
Review: Outside of the Dark Tower series, The Stand, and It, this is my favorite Stephen King book. For me, Leland Gaunt is my third favorite Stephen King villain with Greg Stillson and Randall Flagg in the top two spots. This novel ends the Castle Rock novels, even though Stephen King did mention Castle Rock in some of his future novels, but this is the last one where Castle Rock is the focal point. The Castle Rock series ends with a bang, quite literally.
What I like most about this novel is that Stephen King takes his time in developing the characters before the chaos is put into full swing near the end of the novel. Stephen King has his work cut out for him in that the vast majority of the novel concerns itself with the deeds that Leland Gaunt has his customers play on other members of the townsfolk and thier consequences. Even in the midst of the chaos that is slowly rising up, Stephen King succeeds in giving us characters who are very realistic.
The novel is slow to begin with, but at the last part, it reaches an extremely fast pace. There are parts in the novel that are fast paced, but even the parts that are fast paced are written in detail. Some may find the attention to detail a bit boring, but I found that the detail added to the richness of the novel. In a way, the climax of the novel helped to shape on particular fight sequence in "The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower."
"Needful Things" is an excellent read and the characters are compelling. It is obvious from the start that Leland Gaunt is the villain, but the depth of his villainy is not seen until the final part.
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