Plot Summary: About the Author: What I Liked: What I Disliked: Bottom Line:
Book Review:
Cell
by Stephen King
Stephen King sure has a way of taking something ordinary and making it terrifying. In Cell, our ever-present and ever-necessary cell phones become the catalysts for...well, basically, for the end of the world as we know it. Cell centers around Clayton Ridell, the estranged husband, father, graphic artist and all-around regular Joe who watches the world go insane one October afternoon.
The people responsible for The Pulse are as mysterious as the reasons behind it; as King says, "what mattered was the effect". Clayton and other non-cell phone users watched while everyone else went beserk. Slobbering, fighting, mumbling, biting-the-ear-off-a-dog beserk. Murderous, violent, vicious beserk.
Um, hello? It's Stephen FREAKIN' King. What more is there to say?
I thought the concept was absolutely brilliant and I enjoyed how the first few days after The Pulse unfolded. How terrifying it would be to be separated from loved ones, unable to communicate with them (um, the whole cell phones are evil thing), all the while fighting for your very survival in a world of confusion. Then, once some of the confusion clears, it's even more frightening.
I don't often enjoy Stephen King's books thoroughly, from start to finish. Dear heavens, can I even say that in public? It's true, though. Oftentimes I love the first half of a King novel (or short story), but then am brutally disappointed once the mystery is explained. That happened for me with It, The Langoliers and The Stand.
King took a different tactic with Cell by not offering any explanations at all. Yet I still felt disappointed. It felt like half of the book was missing. (Not as bad as that one book in the Dark Tower series that practically ended in the middle of a sentence, but close.)
Maybe King was just trying an old Vaudeville trick...always leave 'em wanting more.
Author Wendy Boucher summed up Cell this way: It possesses an interesting, scary premise followed by tons of gore, very little suspense and very little plot.
Yeah, what she said.
Rating: C+
"FANGRRL" is ©2009 by Lisa Scherer Ciurro. All graphics, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.