Already readers should be on alert - this is a scenario reminiscent of 'Salem's Lot.

The novel concerns a new shop in Castle Rock named Needful Things, and its charming elderly owner, Leland Gaunt. Aside from being an ingenious way to concretely include Needful Things as part of a specific sequence of tales, King also takes this opportunity to introduce most of the major players in this novel, delineating the complex relationships and allowing readers to observe the myriad characters before meeting them. Just as the concrete finality of It led to King's new internal directions with Misery and The Dark Half, so does the wholesale destruction of Needful Things (and, in effect, the motif of a 'town under siege' King had been exploring since 'Salem's Lot) point the way toward the more intimate character studies of Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, and Rose Madder.Īn unnamed narrator opens Needful Things with a folksy, down-home patois that King will later use to great effect in The Colorado Kid and Blockade Billy 'You've been here before,' he says, directly addressing the reader and assuming he or she has a knowledge of King's other Castle Rock stories. Similarly to the way King chose to end his recurrent 'children and monsters' motif with It, his intention with Needful Things is a final statement on a significant portion of his career. Stephen King s first original novel of the 1990s came billed as 'The Last Castle Rock Story.' After having spent the bulk of his career mapping and populating his famous town, King draws on events from The Dead Zone, Cujo, 'The Body,' The Dark Half, and 'The Sun Dog' to put paid to the fictional microcosm he created.

Stephen kings needful things