2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Needful Things by Stephen King


Pages: 790 pages


Length: 1 Month (October)


Participants: Chantal, Marleen.


Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I read the first 200 pages of this book many years ago and for some reason didn’t continue, but I remember that I really liked it. I will start afresh next month and this time actually finish this chunky book!

Great!

For context, this is the first novel that King wrote completely sober.

Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "For context, this is the first novel that King wrote completely sober."

Oh boy 😂

I’ll be starting this one on Monday.

First few chapters in, and already loving it. I really like that introduction/prologue, it sets the scene so well. Reading the names and descriptions of some of the town folk immediately brought back some memories of events in the bit of the book that I’ve read before, even though it’s been many years. I’ll be sure not to spoil anything I remember though!

I’m up to the start of chapter 11.
(view spoiler)[I really like how we get so many different POVs, and insight in all the different people in the town. The short segments in the chapters also make for a very quick read, which is helpful for such a chunky book… I really like Polly and Alan and hope they will both be okay in the end. Which they might not be, since people have now started dying…. That bloody confrontation between Nettie and Wilma 😱 Poor poor Nettie. And lots more will escalate soon I think. Who is this creepy Leland Gaunt, and what is his ultimate goal?
I think it’s interesting that most people who bought something special from him, get really paranoid about losing it and hide it away instead of openly enjoy their item. (hide spoiler)]

I finished yesterday and it was a 5 star read for me. It reminded me how much I love King’s writing. Despite it being so chunky, it read very fast for me, I think also because of the little subsections within the book, and how action-packed it gets in the second half.

(view spoiler)[There were quite a few references to other King stories that take place in Castle Rock. I recognized at least The Dark Half (which I loved and now want to reread), and The Body (haven’t read the story but I’ve watch Stand By Me that’s based on it) and the dog bits where probably a reference to Cujo but I haven’t read that one. And there was probably much more than that.

In chapter 17 part 5, there was a little sentence that upped my heart rate: “…at twenty minutes to four on the last real day of Castle Rock’s existence.” Reading that with over 200 pages to go was a clear sign that things were about to escalate big time…and they did. Those last chapters where explosive, literally and figuratively. The death count… I wonder how many people died.

I feel like Gaunt didn’t even need to do that much for all these people’s fear, anger or paranoia to explode into violence. It was all brewing under the surface already.

The very end with Alan’s magic tricks and shadow animals taking on a life of their own was a little bit far-fetched maybe, but I just went with it. And that epilogue did not come as a surprise, you just know that Gaunt will do this over and over… (hide spoiler)]