I've challenged myself this year to read a wider variety of books. And so far I'd like to think I've done a pretty good job. There were 10 books between Revival and Mr. Mercedes. And as soon as Mr. Mercedes was over, I felt homesick. I'd been off in fantasy, space opera, graphic novel, YA land, enjoying my trip and not really thinking about what I was missing. But once Mr Mercedes was over, I felt like I'd been away from home for far too long and wasn't ready to leave just yet. So I picked up Needful Things, something I've been wanting to read for a long time, but for some reason or other just never got around to. 
 After cheating on my book challenge just to get my fix, I'll admit, I was a little disappointed. I had been starved of whatever it is I connect with in King's writing and didn't find it in Needful Things. It felt like it should have been epic on the scale of Under the Dome. Small town Maine with a bunch of people who go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, or splinters of holy wood, or rodent tails, or whatever else their silly little hearts desired and didn't realize it until it was sitting in the display window at Needful Things. For starters, while I understand that these stupid and nonsensical purchases serve only to add to the horror of it all, I was expecting Leland Gaunt to be selling things like: Youth, Beauty, Weight Loss, Intelligence, Job Promotions, etc. and for them to more or less pay for it with their souls. A good 200 pages of this book is probably people just buying stupid things. There was no insight as to what their "darkest" desires really were. Or how far they would be willing to go to obtain them. And no- I didn't for one second believe a woman would kill her best friend over a picture of Elvis without Gaunt's influence. 
 What I love about Under the Dome, was that aside from the Dome itself, there was nothing supernatural about it. They were people reacting to a shitty situation. Influenced only by the fact that they were cut off from the outside world. Some people banded together and helped each other out. Some took advantage. Some went bat shit crazy. The sheep followed the leaders. Sure Junior had a brain tumor, but if you asked me, it seems maybe Junior was headed down the road of disturbed murderer anyway. In Needful Things the people are mind fucked by Leland Gaunt. He is the source of all the trouble. Yeah, it was pretty fucked up, and sometimes hysterical, but the people of Castle Rock, unlike the people of Chester's Mill weren't entirely to blame for their actions. 
 Don't get me wrong. Needful Things is by no means a bad book, and I did finish it (unfortunately I can't say that for all King's work). But on the SK scale, I was a little underwhelmed. Side note- I'm pretty sure this is the highest kill count I've seen in any of his books. Or any book. Seriously, the reason this is the last Castle Rock book is because there was no one in Castle Rock left to kill.