Cell by Stephen King
Paperback, 480 Pages
2006, Pocket Star
ISBN: 9781416524519
Synopsis
Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest, most animalistic destruction.
And the apocalypse began with the ring of a cell phone....
Review
I love Stephen King with a fiery passion, but Cell was a little blah for me. I truly enjoy a zombie tale with a fully fleshed-out origin story and Cell completely delivers on that end. Unfortunately, its living zombies were so high-concept that they couldn't live up to their potential. It was interesting. It as unique. It completely fizzled out well before the big showdown.
Cell combines zombies and technology, making your cell phone the root of all evil. It's firmly grounded in possibility, since just about everyone and their grandmother has a cell phone and would be zombified if this "pulse" actually struck. Cell's initial horror and the scientific explanation behind it were compelling.
The resulting zombies were much less interesting. These weren't zombies in the true sense. They weren't dead, but living people whose brains were wipes clean and were acting on their baser instincts (at least at first). Think of an entire society of really pissed off drunks who are all simultaneously blacking out. They were bodies on autopilot, until they started evolving.
The "zombies" evolving was what didn't work for me. I can buy into the the technological comparison and theories the book presents, but the "zombies" were just not all that interesting. The survivors in Cell, those without cell phones, were just sympathetic enough to keep me reading, but not really engaging enough to make me worry about their survival. Clay is trying to get back to Maine to his estranged wife and son, and I could see his reasoning but couldn't help but think it was a stupid endeavor. Nonetheless, the entire story hinged on Clay's trek, which ultimately led to disappointment. The book ends before we know what happens to Clay's son Johnny, leaving the reader to make their own conclusions. I concluded that I was disappointed.
Cell really had a lot of things going for it in the beginning. I love zombies and am in no way a purist. I just want them to eat people and be interesting about it. Cell lacked the essential brain munching and left me wishing King had leaned a little more towards horror and a little less towards science fiction when writing this book.
Rating
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