Never has King taken more satisfaction in watching normal people unravel with just a few gentle nudges. The one word that best describes King as an author is ‘rot,’ where characters backed into corners by guilt and fear are the last to recognize the poison inside them. Perhaps most important, though, is King’s clear preference for men over monsters. His desire to set each of his novels in a shared literary universe his expansive cast of both sympathetic and unlikable characters the underpinnings of faith and religion that quietly comprise some of his best works. I’m just happy to own a first printing of my favorite book by my favorite author.Įverything you need to know about Stephen King as an author is present in Needful Things.

Not the most expensive of King’s first-edition novels – my wife was not asked to pull a ‘harmless prank’ as part of her online checkout process – but that doesn’t matter to me. It’s a first-edition copy of King’s book, still in its original plastic wrap, and the first in an ongoing series of first-edition King novels given to me by my wife as birthday gifts. One, a paperback edition of King’s 1991 novel, holds no special meaning for me given my proclivity for leaving copies of King’s books in airplane pouches and hotel rooms around the world, this is probably the third or fourth copy of Needful Things I’ve purchased in my lifetime.

I currently own two copies of Stephen King’s Needful Things. With ‘The Dark Tower’ hitting theaters this weekend, we look at another Stephen King adaptation to see what does (and doesn’t) work in his movie adaptations.

Stephen kings needful things