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Needful Things

Needful Things by Stephen King
Published by Gallery Books on March 20, 2018
Genres: Fiction, Horror, Supernatural
Pages: 816

Stephen King’s underrated Needful Things is a darkly satirical novel set in his fictional town Castle Rock, Maine. I appreciated Needful Things more on my second read. The thick 700+ volume features dark humor, multiple character perspectives, critiques on capitalism and religion, and characters from earlier King books. This work is also notable because it is one of the first novels King published after becoming sober (it contrasts strongly to the chaotic Tommyknockers).

Castle Rock, Maine is also featured in King’s: Cujo, The Dead Zone, and The Dark Half. Needful Things was described as the last Castle Rock story at the time of its publication (but King has since featured Castle Rock in short stories and novellas). Leland Gaunt, a mysterious man, moved into town and opens a shop called Needful Things. The store sells a mishmash of items including antiques, baseball cards and art. Gaunt’s store is unique because there are no set prices for his wares. Instead, every sale is a negotiation between him and the customer. In addition to a monetary cost, he asks his customers to play a small prank on one of their neighbors. These pranks set the people of Castle rock at odds with each other. Gaunt especially fuels the fire between the Baptists and Catholics of Castle Rock. The story is told from the perspective of many of the Castle Rock residents. The main protagonist is Alan Pangborn, the town sheriff and magic trick enthusiast. He is coping with the death of his wife and son who died in a tragic car accident. Alan is currently dating Polly Chambers a seamstress who suffers from the most extreme case of arthritis in literature. There is also the town’s head selectmen Danforth Keeton, who has a gambling addiction and is convinced that “persecutors” are out to get him. And Ace Merrill, the bully from King’s beloved short story Stand by Me, returns to Castle Rock. Ace is struggling to find money to pay off a debt to organized criminals making him a prime target for Gaunt to manipulate.

My favorite part of Needful Things is the dark humor and satire. The squabbles between the residents of Castle Rock quickly escalate to extremes. The Castle Rock women committing murder because of petty pranks feel like over exaggerated scenes from the Real Housewives. Leland Gaunt is a unique villain in the early parts of the book. I believe he embodies the evils of American capitalism and commerce. I love any King story that has multiple perspectives, my favorites being Salem’s Lot or The Stand. Maybe some people are put off by King’s tendency to drop references and characters from his previous works into his books, but I love all the Easter Eggs. Brian Rusk a schoolboy is Gaunt’s first customer and one of my favorite characters. King has mastered writing child characters, probably why I’m currently loving his latest release, Fairy Tale.

I found the pattern of customers purchasing from Gaunt and then playing a prank on someone to be repetitive after a while. And it does become difficult to keep track of who played a prank on who. Gaunt is an interesting villain at the start of the story, but I thought he devolved into a more one-dimensional villain by the book’s conclusion.

Needful Things is essential reading for any King fan. That being said, this is not among his best books and not something I’d recommend to a reader looking to try Stephen King for the first time.

The Changeling

The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Published by Random House Publishing Group on 2018
Genres: African American & Black, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Supernatural, Suspense
Pages: 431

The Changeling, especially the first half, is literary tension at its best. Victor Lavalle’s novel is part urban fantasy, part contemporary fairy tale with a splash of horror. He manages to weave in themes of parenthood while featuring the city of New York. I LOVED the first half of this book. I was at the edge of my seat and glued to the words on the page, despite being on a warm sunny beach while on my honeymoon. Unfortunately, Lavalle did not stick the landing. The second half of the book was meh, it wasn’t bad, but compared to the perfection of the beginning I was disappointed.

Because the joy of this novel is its suspense, I am going to give a limited description of the plot. The protagonist, Apollo Kagwa, is an avid reader (we would be great friends). Apollo’s father left him and his mother when Apollo was young. He sometimes has creepy dreams of his dad. Apollo eventually starts a book dealing business. He meets Emma, a librarian and they eventually get married. Emma and Apollo have a baby, named Brian, after Apollo’s father. Emma and Apollo are determined to be perfect parents, but Emma begins to act out of character leading to her committing a shocking act. This event leads Apollo on a magical journey.

I loved Lavalle’s prose. He is an excellent storyteller, and his writing is a pleasure to read. I love when a protagonist has a book related occupation. Reading about Apollo’s reading interests and how they flourished into a career of procuring and selling used books was great. The tension that builds in the first half of the story is off the charts. Based off the limited plot summary I read on the book’s back cover, I knew Emma was going to do something shocking. The slow burn leading up to those events ratchets up the tension. And the description of the scene when IT happens is very intense and scary. I also really appreciated Lavalle’s inclusion of themes of post partem depression, black fatherhood and experiences living as a black man in NYC into the story.

Explaining my critiques of the second half of the novel, without spoiling the plot, will be a challenge. The second half of the book features most of the magic and supernatural elements in the novel. Lavalle had too many great ideas. I believe editing the story down and using just a few of these elements would have created a tighter story. For me the plot at the end of the novel became muddled and character motivations did not make sense. I also found interest in the novel declining towards the end of the novel. This was a shame after start of the book when I was losing sleep because I was so captivated by the story.

Despite the weak ending, The Changeling is worth the read. Lavalle is a talented writer and storyteller. I found themes of parenthood especially relevant because my husband and I recently adopted a puppy. The scene of THE incident has become one of the most tense and memorable scenes I’ve ever read.

20th Century Ghosts

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
Published by Harper Collins on February 3, 2009
Genres: Fiction, Ghost, Horror, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Supernatural, Thrillers
Pages: 316

20th Century Ghosts has been sitting unread on my bookshelf for over a year and I wish I had read it sooner! How could I neglect such a varied and well written short story collection? Joe Hill’s anthology is the perfect read for the spooky, Halloween season. The book contains 15 short stories, primarily in the horror and science fiction genres. In this collection you’ll find a haunted movie theatre, a deadbeat alcoholic with superpowers, a kid that transforms into a giant locust, and my favorite, an inflatable boy. There were plenty traditional scary stories, but also some that were just plain weird, which I loved.

One theme that is present across the collection is family, particularly father-son relationships. I find this especially interesting to track because Hill’s father is the master of horror, Stephen King. In Abraham’s Boys, two young brothers are intrigued by the mysterious past of their father, Abraham Van Helsing (yes from Dracula). Abraham’s office holds his secrets and is off limits to the boys. It is later revealed that their father is a vampire hunter. I see parallels between this fictional family and the Kings. I can picture Joe Hill and his brother Owen growing up with their dad, Stephen King, who would go to his office to create and battle monsters through his writing. I explore the meaning of the story’s twist ending and analyze other fathers present in Joe Hill’s writing in this week’s musing: “What is it Like Having Stephen King as a Father?”

In Pop Art (I love a title that doubles as a pun) the narrator is friends with an inflatable boy, named Arthur. This story is just as absurd as it sounds, but it features one of my favorite fictional friendships. The narrator constantly worries for the safety of his fragile friend, who is susceptible to popping or deflating while around sharp objects. The story also features the contrast between the narrator’s unstable home and Arthur’s caring and supportive parents.

Another favorite of mine is The Cape. As someone who is burnt out from the superhero genre, I was pleasantly surprised by this story. Eric, a young boy, discovers he can fly when he wears an old towel. But the towel is lost, and he doesn’t come across it until years later when he is an unemployed alcoholic living in his mom’s basement. What made this story compelling was the complex relationship between Eric and his brother.

There are too many great stories to dig into in this review, so here are brief snippets about other standouts in the collection:

Best New Horror: This story had one of my favorite literary tropes, a writer protagonist. This one gave me Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes

You Will Hear the Locust Sing: A boy transforms into a locust one day while in his bedroom after eating too many bugs. Another awesomely weird and absurd story

Better than Home: Another father-son story, this one more heartwarming. This focuses on baseball, which is Stephen King’s favorite sport.

My Father’s Mask: This one was creepy and unsettling, can’t say I completely understood what was happening. Please let me know if you have any theories!

The Black Phone: There is a film adaptation in the works for The Black Phone, by Blumhouse Productions. I wonder why they chose to adapt this story, I found it to be one of the least interesting in the anthology.

20th Century Ghosts will be the first thing I recommend to anyone looking for a spooky book to read this Halloween. The collection has the perfect balance of scares and absurdity. I hope you enjoy!

Link to What is it Like Having Stephen King as a Father?

My Best Friend’s Exorcism

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Published by Quirk Books on May 17, 2016
Genres: Coming of Age, Fiction, Horror, Supernatural, Thrillers
Pages: 336

Full of ‘80s nostalgia and supernatural hijinks, Grady Hendrix’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism is an excellent, spooky read. The story focuses on the friendship of high school sophomores Abby and Gretchen. After Gretchen spends a night lost in the woods at a sleepover, her personality and behavior drastically change. Abby investigates, with the help of a bodybuilder exorcist, to determine whether her friend has become demonically possessed.

Normally I don’t comment on a book’s cover in my reviews, but this book looks awesome. My edition is designed to look like a VHS box, with a classic ‘80s horror movie poster on the front. The ‘80s references are non-stop in this book. Every chapter is titled with the name of a classic ‘80s song. I found Spotify playlists that compile all the songs mentioned in the book, which made for a fun reading soundtrack. My favorite horror element in the novel was the well written body horror. My favorite scene, involving the character of Margaret plus oodles of worms, was outstandingly disgusting. There is a group of bodybuilding brothers that speak and perform at high schools to spread Christianity (one of the quirkier additions to the story). One of the brothers also happens to be an amateur exorcist that helps Gretchen later in the novel. The heart of the story is the friendship of Gretchen and Abby. Their love for each other is a powerful force in the book and comes into play at the novel’s conclusion. Like many of these high school, supernatural stories, I wish the parents were less absent and clueless. I also wish that Hendrix had broken more of the typical demonic possession tropes in this book, but what he has created is well done.

There are many instances of characters saying problematic, homophobic, or racist things in this book. Memorably, for spirit week the high school has a slave day where “slave” students must serve their “masters” for the school day (WTF). I went to google and was horrified to learn that this was a legitimate thing that used to happen in some US schools. I believe that Hendrix included these problematic moments intentionally, to critique the past. While the book celebrates the ‘80s, Hendrix does not shy from showing some of the era’s flaws.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a Halloween read that isn’t too intense. Fans of Stranger Things, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or ‘80s movies and music will find a lot to enjoy. I’m looking forward to reading more of Hendrix’s horror novels in the future.