Bracket #6: Needful Things (1991)

[mae]

Needful Things, 1991

Please vote for Needful Things using the following scale:

5: I loved it
4: It was good
3: Average
2: Only so-so
1: I didn't like it

If you haven't read this book yet, please vote Never Read. Feel free to discuss your votes in this thread.

[Jean]

4

[Kronz]

I absolutely loved Needful Things. It was so addictive that after accidentally leaving my copy in my friend's car and having to wait for two days to get it back, I just went up to the library and checked out another copy so I could keep reading. This is a very fun book. Under the Dome reminded me a lot of Needful Things (which is a good thing).

[Sam]

This is one of King's best works outside the DT books and is a real tour de force. 5.

[Daghain]

Five. I LOVE this book.

[IWasSentWest]

5....did a good job on the movie also IMO

[divemaster]

I give it a 3.

[Merlin1958]

I gave it a 5. I think its one of the under-rated King works. Classic SK IMO. Great BHook and Great Movie too!!!

I liked it, is that wrong? LOL

[Kronz]

I remember Needful Things was so popular when it was released, I even saw TV ads for it. To that end, I think it's OK to like it, it's been considered a classic since it came out.

[mikeC]

This book to me has one of SK's best written sequences involving the 2 woman fighting.
But it also has one of the biggest let down endings of his career, boy oh boy did I hate that ending. HATE.
I listened to it recently and found it quite meandering. I consider this the beginning of nu-King.

[Kronz]

I consider it the end of Old-King. Most Nu-King is alright by me too though. If we are gonna complain about his endings, it's easier to name books with satisfying endings than bad endings. The list is much shorter!

[pathoftheturtle]

I dunno... I think that that criticism does have some validity. King was intentionally trying to close a chapter for himself, but it didn't seem to work out so great, back then. I found the whole phase he was in comparatively dismal. Not until the late '90s did he really have another great run, in my opinion.

So, I may not so much like what this book represents in that sense, but, having said all of that, I did enjoy the story, and really loved its intrinsic themes.

[Kronz]

I will get around to re-reading this in the next few months to see if I feel differently, I guess. At the time I read it, I found Needful Things very exciting and don't remember disliking the ending, though I remember it was a little odd. It's just not really fair in my mind to compare this to say Gerald's Game, Insomnia or any of those other novels he tried in the early/mid 90s. This has that rich small town character study feeling I got from Salem's Lot, It and the earlier Castle Rock stories. Maybe he noticed he was recycling himself a lot by 1990 and forced himself to veer off the beaten path?

[pathoftheturtle]

Maybe... and after several more tries, I think he did get creative again... for awhile.

I'm not sure if a re-read will really give you the full picture of SK's contrivance; maybe if you could go back to 1991. I agree about it being fundamentally a good book, tho, as I said above; I wasn't really trying to compare it to those. Just saying that it's kind of a shame that Old-King ended.

...Under the Dome reminded me a lot of Needful Things (which is a good thing).

Really? Yeah, that does sound positive, to me. Waiting to read UtD, myself, and I've been rather apprehensive about it. Thanks for cheering me up.

[mikeC]

I consider it the end of Old-King. Most Nu-King is alright by me too though. If we are gonna complain about his endings, it's easier to name books with satisfying endings than bad endings. The list is much shorter!

I was expecting more, I really thought that Gaunt was Flagg, he seemed to be alluding to that the whole story and he ended up being what he was at the end which was just really really really lame to me.

From here until Bag of Bones, to me, is his worst period of writing.

[pathoftheturtle]

...From here until Bag of Bones, to me, is his worst period of writing.

I think that's pretty accurate, (excepting Desperation) though there still were a few decent gems: Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

I gave it a 4. If not for the ending it would have got a 5. I liked the build up between the religious groups and I enjoyed the ending from that perspective, but what happened with Gaunt in the end ruined the whole thing for me. I hated it. I really liked the book up until that point, but this is the worst ending of any SK novel in my opinion.

[Jean]

I gave it a 4. If not for the ending it would have got a 5. I liked the build up between the religious groups and I enjoyed the ending from that perspective, but what happened with Gaunt in the end ruined the whole thing for me. I hated it. I really liked the book up until that point, but this is the worst ending of any SK novel in my opinion.

bears' thoughts exactly!

[mae]

The poll has closed. Needful Things has earned a FAS (final average score) of 4.095238095 or 81.90%, placing 2nd (runner-up) in this bracket. It will be moving on to Round 2. In 2009, Needful Things placed 1st (winner) with a FAS of 4.031250000, so it gained 0.063988095 (+1.59%) this time.