Needful Things

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Stephen King

Master storyteller Stephen King presents the classic #1 New York Times bestseller about a mysterious store than can sell you whatever you desire—but not without exacting a terrible price in return.

The town of Castle Rock, Maine has seen its fair share of oddities over the years, but nothing is as peculiar as the little curio shop that’s just opened for business here. 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…

One of King's best!

If you, like me, read a lot, after a while you can tell what kind of plot it will be, what each character will do, and what limits on action the story will allow. all this is not the case here! King masterfully weaves a horror story whose villain is an embodiment of our very selves, descriptive and soul moving, stirring most every emotion you have.

This is my third time through this novel, read at all different ages of my life, and it still reads fresh. Characters are used from several other of his famous novels, something here for fans and King newcomers.

meh

I love Stephen King, but didn't find this to be his best work. The Narration is terrific though!

Beware of the corny music throughout.

I enjoyed the story very much but could do without the added sound effects throughout.

Interesting Characters But Distracting Music

This was my first time listening to a Stephen King novel. It was long and slow at parts. Almost too many characters at time and you could kind of sense where things were going about 1/3 of the way through. The ending was pretty decent, however. The most annoying part was the awful awful synthesized music at chapter / story line breaks. I know the book was published in the 1990s but the music definitely reminded you throughout! Overall, I found myself interested in the plot and eager to get to the end at the same time.

great read!

I've been wanting to read this for a while but was skeptical of King reading it. He doesn't have the most pleasing voice. But loved it!

Great story and given it's history King is the perfect narrator. Fantastic book!

On to the next King adventure!