Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --   $7.99 --
School & Library Binding $19.65   $19.65 $19.64
Paperback $8.99   $4.50 $0.01
Mass Market Paperback --   -- $276.48
Audio, CD, Audiobook, Unabridged $43.76   $31.77 $31.77
Unknown Binding --   -- $7.43
Audible Audio Edition, Unabridged $31.48 or $7.49 with new Audible.com membership

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books, Single Copy Magazines, and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
  • Over a hundred thousand items are eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. How do I find more eligible items?

Frequently Bought Together

Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story + Desperation + Insomnia
Price For All Three: $24.97

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together

  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Desperation by Stephen King Mass Market Paperback$7.99

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Insomnia by Stephen King Paperback$7.99

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Desperation

Desperation

by Stephen King
4.1 out of 5 stars (617)  $7.99
Insomnia

Insomnia

by Stephen King
3.6 out of 5 stars (424)  $7.99
The Dead Zone (Signet)

The Dead Zone (Signet)

by Stephen King
4.4 out of 5 stars (207)  $7.99
The Dark Half

The Dark Half

by Stephen King
4.2 out of 5 stars (145)  $7.99
Misery

Misery

by Stephen King
4.6 out of 5 stars (337)  $7.99
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the "Last Castle Rock Story" King bids a magnificent farewell to the fictional Maine town where much of his previous work has been set. Of grand proportion, the novel ranks with King's best, in both plot and characterization. A new store, Needful Things, opens in town, and its proprietor, Leland Gaunt, offers seemingly unbeatable (read: Faustian) bargains to Castle Rock's troubled citizens. Among them are Polly Chalmers, lonely seamstress whose arthritis is only one of the physical and psychic pains she must bear; Brian Rusk, the 11-year-old boy whose mother is not precisely attentive; and Alan Pangborn, the new sheriff whose wife and son have recently died. These are only three of the half-dozen or so brilliantly drawn people met in the novel's one-month time span. As the dreams of each strikingly memorable character, major and minor, inexorably turn to nightmare, individuals and soon the community are overwhelmed, while the precise nature of Gaunt's evil thrillingly stays just out of focus. King, like Leland Gaunt, knows just what his customers want. 1.5 million first printing; BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The old horrormaster in top form, this time with a demonic dealer in magic and spells selling his wares to the folks of Castle Rock, scene of several King novels including The Dead Zone, Cujo--and how many others? King locates his hokey Our Town in Maine, but as ever it's really Consumerville, USA, with everyone's life festooned with brand names. The cast is huge and largely grotesque, since King--wearing a tremendous cat's-smile--means to close the book on Castle Rock and blow it off the map in one of his best climaxes since Salem's Lot. Editing here is supreme. King braids perhaps a dozen storylines--with hardly a drop of blood spilled for the first 250 or so pages--into ever briefer takes that climax in a hurtling, storm-ripped holocaust whose symphonic energies fill the novel's last third. Perhaps only five characters stand out: Leland Gaunt, a gentlemanly stranger who opens the Needful Things curiosity shop; his first customer, Brian Rusk, 11, who sells his soul for a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card; practical Polly Chalmers, who runs the You Sew `n' Sew shop, welcomes Gaunt with a devil's-food cake, and buys an amulet to relieve her arthritis; her lover, Sheriff Alan Pangborn, who buys nothing but is haunted by the driving deaths of his wife and son; and Ace Merrill, coke dealer in a bind, who becomes Gaunt's handydevil and gets to drive Gaunt's Tucker, a car that's faster than radar and uses no gas. As he has for hundreds of years, Gaunt sells citizens whatever pricks and satisfies their inmost desires. But the price dehumanizes them, and soon all the townsfolk vent their barest aggressions on each other with cleaver, knife, and gun: Gaunt even opens a sideline of automatic weapons. By novel's end, the whole town is on a hysterical, psychotic mass rampage that floods morgue and hospital with the delimbed and obliterated. Then comes the big bang. Mmmmmmmmmmmm! Leland King's glee, or Steven Gaunt's, or rather--well, the author's--as he rubs his palms over his let's-blow-'em-away superclimax is wonderfully catching. (Book-of-the-Month Main Selection for Fall) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 731 pages
  • Publisher: Signet Book; later printing edition (July 8, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0451172817
  • ISBN-13: 978-0451172815
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (205 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #42,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Stephen King
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Stephen King Page
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
In a small town, the opening of a new store is big news. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
carnival glass lampshade, needful things, cake container, thermal gloves, pump jockey
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Castle Rock, Leland Gaunt, Main Street, Brian Rusk, Aunt Evvie, Nettie Cobb, Hugh Priest, Wilma Jerzyck, Municipal Building, Sandy Koufax, Ace Merrill, Father Brigham, Polly Chalmers, Norris Ridgewick, State Police, Alan Pangborn, Van Allen, Sheriff's Office, Casino Nite, Henry Payton, Sheriff Pangborn, Danforth Keeton, Henry Beaufort, Lester Pratt, Frank Jewett
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 17 books:
See all 17 books this book cites
 
84 books cite this book:
See all 84 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story
80% buy the item featured on this page:
Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story by Stephen King Paperback 4.3 out of 5 stars (205)
$8.99
Desperation
6% buy
Desperation by Stephen King Mass Market Paperback 4.1 out of 5 stars (617)
$7.99
The Dead Zone (Signet)
4% buy
The Dead Zone (Signet) by Stephen King Mass Market Paperback 4.4 out of 5 stars (207)
$7.99
Insomnia
4% buy
Insomnia by Stephen King Paperback 3.6 out of 5 stars (424)
$7.99
› Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(52)
(34)
(17)
(10)
(8)
(4)
(4)
(4)
(2)
(2)
Agree with these tags?
See all 24 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

205 Reviews
5 star:
 (116)
4 star:
 (49)
3 star:
 (23)
2 star:
 (11)
1 star:
 (6)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (205 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Hypnotic Joyride, February 27, 2000
This review is from: Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story (Paperback)
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!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A Bright Spot among SK's Later Novels, January 27, 2004
This review is from: Needful Things (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)
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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not amazing but still underrated, January 31, 2006
This review is from: Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story (Paperback)
Not enough is said about some of Kings's books (Needful Things, Rose Madder) and people tend to cling on to his most commercial books (The Shining, It, Pet Semetary). I think that people tend to overlook some of his novels. Needful Things is a book that I enjoyed very much but I never find any else who feels the same way. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, there are other books I feel that are far more deserving of that title, but it is still a good read.

Pros: The story takes place in King's imfamous Castlerock.
King masterfully writes multiple characters and plot lines.
Mr. Gaunt is creepy, creepy, creepy.
It's easy to get lost in King's longer novels, so I always feel more involved/attached to what's going on

Cons: The ending is a little anticlimatic.
I wanted more from the "last Castlerock novel."
While compelling it might be a little unlikely that all the characters in the town would be so easily manipulated and secretive about their deeds.

But in the long run I did find Needful Things to be a book worth reading. It's not the best, it's not the worst, it's the middle of the road. But somehow King's mediocore or bad books tend to be better then some author's best.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Needful Things
Stephen King has done it again! "I loved this book kept me involved page by page." Each of the towns people have their own hangups as well as dark desires. Read more
Published 6 days ago by Garry

5.0 out of 5 stars Another King hit.
Another King hit. I know I'm late to the show with this book, seeing how it was published in 1991, and there that has been a movie made of it but I promised my wife I would read... Read more
Published 17 days ago by William H. Folk II

4.0 out of 5 stars Didd not think that this book would be as good as it was
When I started reading this book went started out a little slow but you wanted to find find out what was going to happen, which can be very hard to find in a book that may start... Read more
Published 3 months ago by N. Fuerst

5.0 out of 5 stars Good deal
Book came exactly as described. Arrived in good condition, and arrived quickly, always good to have a new book to read through. All told, a good purchase
Published 3 months ago by Taylor Briggs

3.0 out of 5 stars Terrible typos!!
Good story in the early Stephen King style but the typos, bad punctuation and bad spelling were hard to forgive. Kindle, PLEASE proofread the books better!!
Published 7 months ago by C. VAUGHAN

5.0 out of 5 stars Used AudioCassette Book Purchase
Used Audiocassette 3-tape book was well-priced, delivered in good time and condition,and I would buy from the seller again. Completely satisfied! Read more
Published 7 months ago by LP

3.0 out of 5 stars Too many spelling errors
The plot is very good. I love Stephen King. The kindle version has a lot of spelling errors that were very distracting.
Published 8 months ago

2.0 out of 5 stars Good except for the worst ending in all of Stephen King
That was the worst ending I've ever read from Stephen King. And I've read CELL.

We have a story full of lots of characters -- too many to keep straight -- and the... Read more
Published 8 months ago by smalltalkingchicken

5.0 out of 5 stars In my top 5 best king novels ever! Castle Rock goes out swingin!
When i finished needful things i was in awe......Wow i say to myself as i reflect on the many characters, all written and developed excellently and situations, all nailbiting and... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Doug Birtell

5.0 out of 5 stars Another one of my Favorite from King
This has to be one of the best written books by Stephen King. I loved all the Characters and was totally in love with the story! Read more
Published 11 months ago by Nicholas Love

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   


Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:











i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.