Editing Needful Things (section)

{{short description|Novel by Stephen King}}
{{About|the Stephen King novel|the film based on this story|Needful Things (film)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox book <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Needful Things
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| author       = [[Stephen King]]
| illustrator = Bill Russell
| cover_artist = Rob Wood
| image         = NeedfulThingsBookCover.JPG
| language      = English
| series        =
| genre         = [[Horror fiction|Horror]]
| publisher     = [[Viking Press|Viking]]
| release_date  = October 1991
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover]] and [[Paperback]])
| pages         = 690
| isbn          = 978-0-670-83953-7
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}
'''''Needful Things''''' is a 1991 [[horror fiction|horror]] novel by American author [[Stephen King]]. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from [[drug addiction|drug]] and [[alcoholism|alcohol addiction]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Stephen King, The Art of Fiction No. 189 |year=2006 |volume=Fall 2006 |issue=178 |magazine=[[The Paris Review]]|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5653/the-art-of-fiction-no-189-stephen-king}}</ref> It was made into [[Needful Things (film)|a film of the same name]] in 1993 which was directed by [[Fraser C. Heston]]. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of [[Castle Rock (Stephen King)|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]]''.

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, according to King, serves as an epilogue to ''Needful Things)'', as well as King's 2017 novella ''[[Gwendy's Button Box]]'' (cowritten with [[Richard Chizmar]]) and his 2018 novella ''[[Elevation (novella)|Elevation]]''.