Needful Things, by Stephen King

Needful Things is another book by Stephen King. The book is set in Castle Rock, Maine, just like a few of his other books. The book follows the opening of a small shop in the town called “Needful Things”, owned by a man named Leland Gaunt.

The shop itself holds magical properties in that it has items that characters in the story want the most. For example, in Myra Evans case, she wants most a framed picture of Elvis Presley. Leland is actually tricking the people into believing these items exist, when in reality they are nothing more than junk. Many of his items are actually aging and tattered and do not hold true to the ideas of those who pursue them. Closer to the end of the book, it is revealed to the reader that Leland has been going from town to town for hundreds of years and is some kind of supernatural entity.


Leland does not let each character in the book simply buy the item. To obtain the items the characters must perform pranks and practical jokes on other people in the town. This quickly gets out of hand, and plunges the town into dissonance. Alan Pangborn, the towns sheriff, eventually finds out that these jokes are tied to Leland and drives him out of the town, but not before many of the townspeople are dead.

The book is very sinister in that it plays on an innocent shopkeeper for such nefarious deeds. Leland’s evil is apparent and early on in the book the reader realizes there is something wrong.

Like The Cycle of the Werewolf, King’s work really shows through in his detail and wild imagination. Even though he has many, many publications, each one is an adventure that King has worked painstakingly on to create vivid details and terrific storylines. I really enjoy his books, as I am a fan of horror and science fiction. King's detail in his stories comes through because of his imagination, which really appeals to me.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a thrilling tale, which brings Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson back for another detective mystery novel. After I read this book I felt that I should read other Doyle, because Holmes keen sense of logic appeals to me.

The story begins with Holmes and Watson trying to find out who left a cane in their office. Holmes easily deduces that it is James Mortimer. Mortimer reads the legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles, and how it relates to Hugo Baskerville’s death. A supernatural hound killed him at his estate in Devonshire. Holmes refuses to go to Devonshire with Watson to help him solve the case as he has other matters to attend to in London. Holmes tells Watson to report back with his findings, but later the reader finds out that Holmes secretly travels to Devonshire to try to solve the mystery without the suspects knowing that he is there.

Jack Stapleton is the heir to the Baskerville fortune, who Holmes then labels as the prime suspect. The reader is led on in that the escaped con, who is related to the caretakers at the Baskerville Mansion, is the killer, a veritable red herring. It turns out that Stapleton is painting a large, starving, dog with special glow in the dark cream in order to make it look demonic or ghostly. Charles Baskerville had a heart attack upon seeing it (which we find out about earlier in the novel). Holmes figures out the mystery and uses Henry Baskerville, or the Baskerville next on Stapleton’s list, in order to lure out the dog. The dog is shot and the case is finished.

I especially like these kinds of novels because you really never know “whodunit” until the end of the book. Doyle paints Sherlock Holmes and Watson like real characters in the latter part of the 1800’s, also giving the book a vivid feel. Doyle’s writing style can be confusing at times due to old English here and there, but the book really does it for me because of Holmes’ mystery solving skills.

The Deep End Of The Ocean, by Jacquelyn Mitchard

The Deep End Of The Ocean is a novel about a child vanishing from his family. It’s an emotional thriller, and what the family goes through when the little boy disappears is completely gripping to read. The mother’s name is Beth. She is busy like most working moms, rushing between her home and family and her other work.

Beth goes to Chicago to a school reunion leaves her older son, Vincent, in charge of his very young brother, Ben. When she comes back to get the kids, Ben seems to have wandered off. They call him and look for him, but they can’t find any trace of him. Jacquelyn Mitchard writes of the growing panic of the mom when she can’t find the boy, and then the disbelief and shock when the police have to be called in and the family has to face the fact that something serious has happened to the little boy.

Several years pass, and they all continue to try to cope with what has happened. The older son, Vincent, always feels it’s his fault. Then, nine years later, after they have moved to Chicago, Beth believes she has found her son again. Now aged 12, the boy is called Sam and he lives nearby. Beth and her family slowly learn the truth about Ben’s life in the past few years and the mentally ill woman who took him in the first place. Finding the son, however, does not make everything okay for Beth and her family. Ben has been adopted, and the man who has raised him loves him and doesn’t want to give him back to Beth. Ben himself feels as if he belongs with the father who has brought him up since he was very small. Now he feels caught between two families. The book doesn’t resolve everything, but when the two brothers, Ben and Vincent, begin to form a relationship again, it is obvious things will move toward a happy conclusion.
I enjoyed Mitchard’s writing in that the way she conveys a parent’s loss as well as the pain of losing a child is very realistic and evokes sympathy for Beth.

Cycle of the Werewolf, by Stephen King

Cycle of the Werewolf is a story about a werewolf terrorizing the small town of Tarker's Mills. Every full moon more and more people are killed, and the book follows the tribulations of Marty Coslaw, a young boy paralyzed from the waste down, confined to a wheelchair.

The book goes between Marty’s life in the town and the werewolf killings. Marty is deeply affected by the killings and must also deal with living as a crippled boy at such a young age. A turning point in the novel is when Tarker’s Mills fireworks show for Independence Day is cancelled. Marty’s Uncle Red gets him his own fireworks because Marty has been looking forward to the show for a long time. While Marty is setting off his fireworks and having a great time, the werewolf attacks him. It’s looking bleak but at the last second Marty manages to blind the werewolf in one eye.

The police report is laughed at, the police are not looking for a werewolf, they are obviously searching for a human murderer. The atrocities committed by the werewolf continue through the summer as the full moon cycles continue.

Halloween comes around, and while Marty is trick or treating he comes across Reverend Lowe with an eye patch over the same eye that Marty blasted earlier. Marty puts two and two together and realizes who the werewolf truly is. Marty begins to write anonymous letters to the reverend asking him to kill himself and stop the madness. Marty signs the last letter he sends, and also convinces his uncle to craft 2 silver bullets. When the wolf tries to kill Marty, Marty shoots him with the silver bullets and kills him.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel; King’s writing style captures the terror of Marty and the town very well. I also found it interesting that the protagonist is a crippled boy, as the book is really about how although different, Marty must overcome his disability and combat the werewolf that is hurting his town.

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is a novel written by Upton Sinclair that focuses on a Lithuanian family who deal with the hardships of Chicago in the early 20th century. The main character is a man named Jurgis Rudkus. His wife’s name is Ona, and throughout the novel their group of characters (family and siblings, Ona's stepmother Teta and her children, cousin Marija, etc.) face challenges together.

The novel begins with a lavish wedding ceremony for Jurgis and Ona, which is enjoyed by all. However, a question arises: will they be able to afford everything? Typical of those seeking a better life, Jurgis and his family travel to America, in this case, Chicago. Upon arriving, the family is faced with con men and also finds difficulty obtaining a home.

Jurgis and part of his family are forced to find work in the meat packing industry or the stockyards of Chicago, an oppressive environment full of danger and terrible conditions. Jurgis becomes miserable and his hopes of providing the good life for his family begin to slip. Tragically his wife Ona dies of childbirth because the family could not afford a proper doctor to deliver the baby. Jurgis is demoralized beyond recognition and he leaves the city, depressed and searching for an answer.

Jurgis tries to find farm work but realizes that once the harvest is finished farmers will no longer have need for him. He returns to Chicago and again tries to find work, this time away from the meat packing plants. Jurgis is still searching for meaning when he comes across the socialist party, and learns about labor unions. These things symbolize a remedy for his problems and Sinclair at the end of the book focuses on the socialist campaign.

I found The Jungle to be a harrowing read because of the descriptions of the meat packing industries disgusting conditions. Stories about immigrant workers being ground up after falling into machines and what Jurgis Rudkus and his family go through made me realize what life was like for immigrant workers at the beginning of the 20th century-not so good. The book led to the Food and Drug Administration’s creation after the public’s reaction to this book, which really goes to show how much of an impact it has had.

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is a novel by Alice Sebold chronicling the death of Susie Salmon, who dies very early on in the novel. She is raped and murdered, which in some way was probably inspired by Alice Sebold's real life rape.

Susie Salmon narrates the story from heaven, telling the reader about her family, her school friends, and her killer, Mr. Harvey. When she dies, there is an investigation and her father, Jack Salmon, feels guilty that he could not protect his daughter.

We see that from this heaven Susie can see the thoughts of people on earth, and can manifest herself through concentration. She possesses the body of a former classmate, Ruth, and kisses her old crush, Ray Singh.

Susie sees that her family begins to crumble; her mother Abigail Salmon begins an affair. We also see that Susie realizes Mr. Harvey is a serial killer, having many other women victims. Susie's father gets sick and Susie feels confused, because she wants him to be with her but also realizes that his death will bring sadness to many people. I thought this was an interesting concept, because the narrative from heaven standpoint in a novel is very rare.

The novel concludes with Susie reaching a higher level of heaven, and she sees Mr. Harvey getting off of a bus. The reader is left to interpret Mr. Harvey's death by an icicle hanging as Susie's doing, which I believe to be the case.
The novel is very interesting because Alice Sebold's rape influences the style of writing when discussing Susie's death and how she realizes that life without her is different in the world. The writing is light in some places, and I think that more detail could have been used in certain parts of the book, such as when Susie's father gets sick. Also, Susie sometimes goes back and forth between certain periods of time, making the novel confusing at points. The book still was a decent read, however.

And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None is a murder mystery story by Agatha Christie. The novel centers around 10 main characters that are invited to "Indian Island", on false pretences of meeting old friends. Vera Claythorne, Dr. Armstrong, Justice Wargrave, Phillip Lombard, Tony Marston, William Blore, Emily Brent, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are the main characters in this story. Although Mr./Mrs. Rogers are the butler and butler’s wife respectively, they still play a role in the tail.

The story has many strange word games; a poem called Ten Little Indians describes each of the characters deaths throughout the novel, while 10 statues are on a table in the mansion where the characters stay. After each character dies, one statue is removed.

Christie let’s us look into the minds of most of the characters early on, letting us think that each of them could be the killer because of their shady pasts. Marston is the first to die, a supposed suicide. Each character is responsible for a murder in some way, for example Dr. Armstrong felt guilty about drinking heavily on the job, possibly causing a death.

In a sway from conventional detective stories, Christie decides to confuse the reader instead of letting us try to solve the case. Each character is murdered in accordance with the Ten Little Indians poem, the last person, Vera, left to kill herself by a suggestive noose placement. The novel ends leaving the reader with no idea to who the real killer is.

In the epilogue we learn that Justice Wargrave faked his own death and orchestrated all of the killings from a piece of paper in a bottle found by a fisherman. He explains that he had an urge to kill and went into law because he could channel it being a judge. He wanted to find a way to punish those who had killed but not been convicted or tried. It also says that Wargrave will commit suicide on the island, but make it look like he was shot to confuse the police.

I enjoyed this novel because Christie has a superb description of each of the characters, and I identified with each one throughout the book and was very surprised at the final cliffhanger. Christie does not explain who has killed the people until the epilogue, and Justice Wargrave's character portrait is very sinister. Christie has written an excellent mystery novel, connecting the plot lines seamlessly, for a fluid read.

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, by H.P Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories is a collection of short stories written by the masterful H.P Lovecraft, some say the pioneer of American horror throughout the 1920’s. I recently finished this collective work of his and I would like to focus on two stories that I found interesting: Firstly, The Picture in the House is a short narrative about a young man who comes across a dilapidated home while biking in dreadful weather. “Confronted with no refuge save the antique and repellent wooden building which blinked with bleared windows from between two huge leafless elms near the foot of a rocky hill”. The traveler goes into the house and begins to peruse the bottom floor, coming across a book with an account of the Congo region, with strange illustrations. The book seems to almost fall open to a picture depicting the butcher of a cannibal tribe, with ghastly body parts and blood everywhere. A haggardly old man comes from upstairs and the traveler begins to talk with him. It becomes apparent that the old man frequents this page and he explains that he looked at it before he killed various animals. The man expresses his “hunger for victuals”, and a drop of blood hits the page. The traveler looks up to see a crimson pool forming on the floor of the room above him, and the story ends. Lovecraft’s descriptions of the old man and his home are vivid in detail and he creates a very creepy mood. The majority of his stories focus on cosmic horrors, although some have to do with the norm of murderers and ghost stories of the time period.

The second story is the Call of Cthulhu itself, which is much longer, and more complicated. Lovecraft’s writing style has many citations dating back to old places, people, or historical objects from his time period, making his stories sometimes convoluted. The Call of Cthulhu first deals with the nephew of George Angell, a professor of Semitic languages. The nephew collects his uncle’s papers but finds one locked box among his possessions. After unlocking it with his uncle’s personal ring, he uncovers a great mystery. Inside are the accounts of a man named Wilcox, who had horrid visions of a creature and delirium on a certain date. Wilcox fashioned a clay sculpture of what he saw in his visions. The nephew reads on to find that another professor and a police officer named Legrasse both tell stories of a cult. The other professor explains that he came across Eskimo people worshipping an object that bears likeness to Wilcox’s figure, and the police officer tells of Louisiana voodoo practices that also have to do with worshipping this figure. The nephew goes on to explore the mystery further, finding a newspaper article talking about a ship lost at sea, returning with one passenger alive and one deceased. The nephew retrieves captain Johansen’s account of what happened and goes on to read about a group of cultists ordering his boat to turn back, and when he didn’t they attacked him. He had to kill them and commandeer their vessel, but he continued. Eventually Johansen came across the lost city of R’lyeh and the great Old One Cthulhu(The figure) himself.

The story is much more complicated, dealing in greater detail with the Cthulhu Cult. The cults main belief is that the Old Ones came from the stars and ruled earth aeons ago, and will return from their slumber beneath the depths to rule gain. It ends with the nephew concluding Cthulhu and his city must have sunk again, because the world is not in chaos.

Lovecraft’s story about the Cthulhu Cult and the great monster itself interested me greatly because most writers in his time period focused on supernatural ghost stories of the like while he chose to explore the vastness of space. This is one of the hardest stories for me to explain, but I enjoyed it. Its complexity, vivid descriptions of cultists, monsters, and excellent style of narrative and writing made me love it.

Echo Park, by Michael Connelly

Echo Park is a fantastic crime novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. LAPD Detective Harry Bosch works for the Open Unsolved Unit, troubled by a case he couldn't close years ago. The Marie Gesto disappearance of 1993 haunts him. A man named Raynard Waits, a convicted murderer, has been coaxed into confessing to a string of murder cases in order to lessen his sentence. The Gesto case supposedly is one of them and Bosch is interested. Waits eventually leads Bosch, Waits' lawyer, Bosch's partner, and some others into the woods to find Marie's body, but he escapes and seriously injures Bosch's partner Kiz Rider. The story circles around Bosch and his eagerness to solve the Gesto murder. He has help from an FBI agent named Rachel Walling. Bosch discovers that the mans name is not Raynard Waits but really Robert Saxon, and he has had different names over the years, using them as aliases. Bosch finally confronts Saxon/Waits in his "foxhole", which is a place where he took his victims to die, and kills him. It doesn't end there though. Bosch finds out that his original suspect, Garland, was behind the killing in the end and that his father set up Waits as a cover up. The story is very captivating and is a great page-turner. The writing style shows that Connelly is adept and creating an unsettling and creepy atmosphere in the novel. At some points you could almost feel the characters emotions. I loved the read and plan on reading more Connelly in the future.

Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney

This weekend I read one of the strangest novels I have ever read. Bright Lights, Big City tells the tale of a man caught up in drugs, sex, and a high-class magazine editors job. The book is told in an odd tense: "You excuse your way up to the bar and order vodka" as if the reader is the person being described. The book follows this man as he is eventually fired from his job because of a bad editing job on a French piece, to the ending where he reminisces about his mother with his brother Michael. The anti hero protagonist of this story seems to live life to its fullest wherever he goes, guided by his friend Tad Allagash. Jay McInerney paints a vivid picture with sensory detail when describing people and places. I found the book depressing of sorts, because I felt for the main character through his trials and tribulations. All and all a good read, the writing style captivated me and has lead me to perhaps read some of this authors other works.