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Needful Things

Needful Things AuthorStephen KingIllustratorBill RussellLanguageEnglishGenreHorrorPublisherVikingOctober 1991Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)Pages736ISBN978-0-670-83953-7
Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine, the setting of many King stories. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death. A protagonist of the book is Alan Pangborn, previously seen in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.

According to the cover, this novel is "The Last Castle Rock Story." However, the town later serves as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You" (published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes which, according to King, serves as an epilogue to Needful Things) as well as King's 2018 novella Elevation.

Plot
A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman purportedly from Akron, Ohio who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door. The prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise � such as a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card, a carnival glass lampshade, and a fragment of petrified wood stated to be from Noah's Ark � but he expects each customer to also play a little prank on someone else in town. Each customer enters a trance and becomes highly agreeable when making a deal with Gaunt, afterwards forgetting anything abnormal about the encounter. Gaunt has complete knowledge of the long-standing private histories and conflicts between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate.

Shortly after Gaunt opens his shop, he marks local Sheriff Alan Pangborn and Polly Chalmers, Alan's lover and proprietor of a local sewing shop, as "tough customers" who are likely to question and interfere with him. Gaunt avoids Alan and offers Polly a supposed ancient charm that relieves the terrible arthritic pain in her hands, as well as giving Gaunt control over her. Tensions in Castle Rock rapidly grow after Nettie Cobb, Polly's housekeeper, and her enemy Wilma Jerzyck kill each other with knives in a confrontation sparked by local boy Brian Rusk vandalizing Wilma's home and alcoholic Hugh Priest killing Nettie's dog. Many other rivalries begin to fester, spurred by the personal motives and secrets of the people involved. Gaunt eventually hires petty criminal John "Ace" Merrill as his assistant, providing him with high-quality cocaine and hinting at buried treasure that could relieve the debt he owes to a pair of drug dealers. Ace's first assignment is to retrieve crates of pistols, ammunition, and blasting caps from a garage in Boston; Gaunt soon begins to sell the pistols to his customers so they can protect their purchases.

The truth is eventually revealed: For centuries, Gaunt has tricked unsuspecting people into buying worthless junk that magically appears to be whatever they treasure or desire most. They then become so paranoid about keeping their items safe that they eagerly buy up the weapons that he inevitably offers and trade away their souls, until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence. Ace begins to suspect the supernatural background of his new employer, but Gaunt keeps him in line through intimidation and promises of revenge against Alan and the town. Soon, several cases of violence happen simultaneously: gym coach Lester Pratt attacks Deputy John LaPointe (his fianc�e's ex-boyfriend) and is killed in self-defense; Hugh Priest and bar owner Henry Beaufort kill each other in a shootout; Brian commits suicide out of guilt for his role in Wilma and Nettie's deaths; and town selectman Danforth �Buster

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