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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2.5 stars in actuality.
So we've done it. We're here. I've reached the point in my Year of King where I had to struggle through a book. Cell plays like a tense zombie horror novel until about the 50% mark, where (in my opinion) it veers off and becomes interesting in theory, but not in practice. This has to be one of the weakest King books I've ever read.
So we've done it. We're here. I've reached the point in my Year of King where I had to struggle through a book. Cell plays like a tense zombie horror novel until about the 50% mark, where (in my opinion) it veers off and becomes interesting in theory, but not in practice. This has to be one of the weakest King books I've ever read.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
One of my biggest questions for The Walking Dead was how no one ever quipped, “isn’t it wild all those zombie movies came true?” I’m not a huge zombie fan so maybe this happens in other movies. I notice the same thing as I’ve been watching The Handmaid’s Tale - how come no one ever asks, “It’s wild all those dystopian future stories turned out to be true!” People just seem so surprised. Maybe they live in a universe without zombies or Christian Fascists.
Anyway, all that to say, I was happy when a character in Cell commented on zombie movies.
Cell is Stephen King’s zombie story. It was released in 2006, right around the same time as other popular zombie movies (28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead) and shows (The Walking Dead…or maybe that wasn’t a show yet). King’s take is that a virus is beamed through cell phones so everyone who uses a cell phone becomes a zombie.
The first chunk of the book is then both kind of predictable, if you’ve seen a zombie movie, and kind of exciting. It’s also, only 15 years later, already dated. Back in 2006 people walked around talking on cell phones. Now we do almost anything BUT talk on our smart phones.
As this is King’s take, it does take a bit of an unexpected turn as the zombies flock together, use telepathy and have a hive mind. They seem to be evolving in some way. It’s interesting, even engaging, but never as gripping as his best books.
But it’s far from his worst and thus a good read.
Also, as is sort of usual in King’s books, the ending is open-ended and, I imagine, unsatisfying to many. But by now we should expect this - From a Buick 8, The Colorado Kid, The Dark Tower, etc. King often leaves us with endings that give us more questions than answers. I personally like it.
Anyway, all that to say, I was happy when a character in Cell commented on zombie movies.
Cell is Stephen King’s zombie story. It was released in 2006, right around the same time as other popular zombie movies (28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead) and shows (The Walking Dead…or maybe that wasn’t a show yet). King’s take is that a virus is beamed through cell phones so everyone who uses a cell phone becomes a zombie.
The first chunk of the book is then both kind of predictable, if you’ve seen a zombie movie, and kind of exciting. It’s also, only 15 years later, already dated. Back in 2006 people walked around talking on cell phones. Now we do almost anything BUT talk on our smart phones.
As this is King’s take, it does take a bit of an unexpected turn as the zombies flock together, use telepathy and have a hive mind. They seem to be evolving in some way. It’s interesting, even engaging, but never as gripping as his best books.
But it’s far from his worst and thus a good read.
Also, as is sort of usual in King’s books, the ending is open-ended and, I imagine, unsatisfying to many. But by now we should expect this - From a Buick 8, The Colorado Kid, The Dark Tower, etc. King often leaves us with endings that give us more questions than answers. I personally like it.
A delightfully gruesome tale of the evils of cell phones.
I was aware that King left this book open-ended so I enjoyed the choose your own resolution. I know that many King fans absolutely despised that he didn't tell us exactly what happened.
I was aware that King left this book open-ended so I enjoyed the choose your own resolution. I know that many King fans absolutely despised that he didn't tell us exactly what happened.
Spoiler
I didn't want Clay to die and if King had given us a resolution it probably would have ended up with Clay's head on a spike so...
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"Cell" was written in 2006, a time in which conceivably, not everyone would have had a cell phone. So it is entirely believable that some kind of insane apocalypse might take place via a virus coming through your cell phone. And wasn't that a fear for so long? Radiation waves causing cancer is you used your phone too much, etc. Nowadays everyone has a phone, and our fears are based mostly on people crashing their cars while texting and teenagers growing up with humps on their backs from staring down at their phones while walking.
But "Cell" isn't just about a virus downloaded into our brain from our phone, it's also got King's crazy little twist with a villian from another place and time, The Raggedy Man. if you are a fan of King's novels I think you will have a better understanding of where he might come from... if you aren't, you might just be confused.
In the end we are left in a world where we must start over and the good guys have won. That's great. But can you imagine if something like this were to happen today? A real kind of apocalypse to occur all through our cell phones... we'd be toast.
But "Cell" isn't just about a virus downloaded into our brain from our phone, it's also got King's crazy little twist with a villian from another place and time, The Raggedy Man. if you are a fan of King's novels I think you will have a better understanding of where he might come from... if you aren't, you might just be confused.
In the end we are left in a world where we must start over and the good guys have won. That's great. But can you imagine if something like this were to happen today? A real kind of apocalypse to occur all through our cell phones... we'd be toast.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No