Needful Things is a story about desires, needs and deep dark secrets that have a strange way of making strong people weak.Its about a certain Mr.Gaunt who sets up shop in Castle Rock, Maine, selling all manner of things.Who he is, where he came from , nobody seems to know. The name of this shop is Needful Things, and its a place where you can buy your heart’s desire, at a price.
Everyone, but everyone in Castle Rock sees something he/she desires in the window of this shop, from fishing rods to books to vases- but the mode of payment is macabre.Throughout the story you will feel the weakness of humanity and how vulnerable we really are when it comes to things and people we love.The story leads at a perfect pace to a climax that can only be described as King-esque.It is what can be termed as a fairy tale for adults, and the exit of Gaunt is what makes King king.The relationship between the sheriff and his arthiritic lover is touching and achingly real.
The shopkeeper Gaunt has a way of finding the chink in people’s armour and using it to his advantage in a devilish way, the things he makes people do would be comic if they were’nt so horrible and evil.Castle Rock comes alive once again in King’s hands, and he makes you believe where others would fail.There are moments you will smile, like the thread of the Elvis obsessed woman, who is in competition with her best friend for the other King of rock, or so she believes.Mostly, we are made to think and wonder if these desires are really worth the trouble, weather in others lives or our own.