Needful Things

Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine, the setting of many King stories. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death. A protagonist of the book is Alan Pangborn, previously seen in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half. It was made into a 1993 film of the same name. According to the cover, this novel is "The Last Castle Rock Story". However, the town later serves as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You" (published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes, which King said serves as an epilogue to Needful Things) as well as King's 2017 novella Gwendy's Button Box and 2018 novella Elevation.