The music ruins it massively.

Overall, Needful Things is a fantastic book. Hell, it’s SK, what more can we expect? However, the one thing that lets this audiobook down is the excessive use of music during the opening scenes.
There have been times when I’ve actually been unable to hear the story because for some reason, there is ‘atmospheric’ music playing in the background. If the music played for 10/15 seconds at the most, it’d be bearable. But no, you’re talking about 5 minutes of music playing OVER the narration.

Why? Please someone, why?

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21 people found this helpful

Not Great

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I felt this story dragged and I was forcing myself to listen to it as I didn't want to waste my money.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen King again?

I have previously really enjoyed Stephen King so I wont let this book put me off.

Do you think Needful Things needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

no it dragged on too long as it is!

Any additional comments?

I felt this book just took far to long to get the end event. after a few chapters you worked out what was happening, it just takes forever to get there! disappointed!

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3 people found this helpful

Unravelling of the psyche in small town America

Needful Things is such a clever idea for a book, the line between order and anarchy and empathy and revenge has always been micro fine in society, nudge something slightly and watch the repercussions. This novel shows how societies and relationships can fall apart at a micro level when a malevolent force is pulling the strings.

The building of tension in Needful things is brilliantly accomplished - another of Kings great skills. The townspeople and their foibles, weaknesses and desires can be applied to any country, race or religion and so the characters are believable.

I loved reading this novel and this audiobook is very enjoyable. The only aspects letting it down are the music, which is just dreadful - a school child could have done better and it wouldn't up the production costs dramatically - and the narration. Stephen King reading the novel doesn't really work, I never think an author reading their own books works. A gifted actor could have made this a perfect listen.

If you fancy something unsettling then this novel is great. It is not remotely scary however. It's just a study on the worst aspects of the human psychology.

Piers

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3 people found this helpful

Overall a great story with an average performance

Reading the comments I expected this to be a really bad performance by king but after 2 or 3 chapters I started to get into it.
Sometimes it is hard to tell the switch between characters as king does not do many accents, however if you identify the main characters early on this makes it easier.

Overall I really enjoyed the story. It had a feeling of The Stand mixed with IT. So a pretty solid king book.

Hopefully the audiobook will be re-released and then I can see this book getting much higher ratings on audable.

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Bizzare!!!

Wow, if you're after something crazy to listen to, this is it. I was warned about the music on previous reviews and at first it was the strangest thing but as the story develops it makes more sense, a little like Peter and the Wolf. It does seem to go on a bit and more and more characters spring up just as you think you've worked it out. Over all however, I really enjoyed it and I think Stephen Kings performance was spot on.

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Brilliant story well worth the money or credit

Very good story,Stephen king narration and story telling is not perfect but still well worth a spot in your audiable library

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Hilarious, shocking, dark and clever

I've always been a Stephen King fan. 'It' has always been one of my favourite books. And I can say the same about 'The Shining'. However, I had not even heard of Needful Things until a friend in work briefly described the premise of the story (a mysterious salesman sells people their dream items in exchange for a prank). I thought I'd give it a go and Needful Things is now my new favourite book.

The familiar setting of Castle Rock, the obvious love King has for his characters and most importantly, the incredible and incredibly horrid villain Leland Gaunt make this a perfect read.

I won't find a book this good for a long time.

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Excellent Story and Narration

Very intruiging story with interesting characters. Brilliantly read by Stephen King, I loved his narration.

The only off putting thing was the background music that came on from time to time , it made it hard to hear the narrator at times

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Author reading makes it authentic sounding, awful keyboard interludes

Loved the story, such three dimensional characters as is always the case with Stephen King. Wonderful to hear he was reading it, which gave the accents much more of authentic sound.
The absolutely AWFUL keyboard interludes between the chapters and scattered in the story really made me cringe however. The story could definitely do without it.
Overall, wonderful story and highly recommended but maybe not this particular version!

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Please stop putting music in the audio books

Not a bad story. As with a lot of audio productions, it's a Shame about the silly music. If I wanted to listen to music I wouldn't buy an audio book. Poor recording quality in places also let this audio book down.

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