Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Reviews
Book Review 2: Cell by Stephen King
By Richard Karpala Feb 25, 2006, 10:56 GMT
Stephen King\'s return to the genre that made him famous. In a single moment, a pulse sent out through cell phones around the world turns every phone user into a crazed, murderous zombie. ...more
Stephen King returns to his throne with a love letter to the fathers of horror. King dedicates Cell to filmmaker George Romero and novelist Richard Matheson, an affordable debt owed during his tenure as the master of contemporary horror. It would be difficult to imagine what a frightening landscape would look like today if it wasn't filled with the living dead (Romero) or a nuclear post-apocalyptic nightmare (Matheson), two elements which King uses to craft his latest novel set in a world populated by cell phones.
The story follows a group of "normies," a title they give themselves after witnessing a world plummet to chaos when a cell phone signal known as the Pulse converts its listeners to brain-dead lunatics. They struggle to find answers in a world that has become filled with refugees, with only hearsay and rumor to rely on: was it an act of terrorism? An amateur hacker's garage project? Or was it really the final wave of Verizon's quest to dominate its cell phone market?
The story feels just right for a scathing commentary on the ubiquity of cell phones, and more significantly, its users. The topic is ripe for The King of Pop, who uses the last page of his bi-weekly platform on EW to digress on pop culture. More often than not the column feels like the sort of thing King writes to make himself pretend he's still young and in step with the times. This may have more to do with the anxiety King feels to be a recognized pop culture icon--because if you're hip, you're in. But King's dissertations on the latest Blink 182 album or the best kept online secret always feel forced, like the dad that really wants to be cool for his kids. But no matter how cool dad might seem, it's still weird and slightly embarrassing to hear him recommend the new Gwen Stefani album when you know he listened to copious amounts of Blue Oyster Cult back in his heyday.
Instead of any quick potshot at cell phones (which he does not own, according to the hardcover jacket bio), King takes the higher road by offering little in the way of what makes his column so frustrating to read, and instead uses the asset that made him famous in the first place: scaring his readers shitless.
At its core, Cell is efficient. It reads quickly because of its urgent pace, and compels because of its subject matter. Often the novel feels like a hybrid between Pet Cemetery and The Stand, a mixture that results in what may be King's best novel since the 1999 release of Bag of Bones. The elements all work in his favor, because he deals his cards deadly with the use of lone survivors, a world that needs restarting, and malevolent forces beyond human control; elements that elevated King to historic heights in the past.
A finer parallel may be drawn to The Mist, the short story he released under the Skeleton Crew short story compilation. In a way the setting of a small-town grocery store was more important to the success of that tale than the creature waiting in the mist. The feeling of being helplessly cooped up during a world-ending catastrophe allowed the characters to explore each other's fears. It allowed strangers to be real with one other, and find renewed interest in simple rituals like eating non-perishable food, simply because it was the thing you did before your world went to hell in a hand basket. There is a scene in Cell where the characters resort to consuming soda pop and candy for sustenance, and this dark period in the novel has a grim outlook which shows it to be an unmistakable reflection of hurricane Katrina.
By tapping the recent nightmare of the Katrina aftermath, King has wrapped the best of Romero and Matheson into a post 9/11 climate that bears a lot of the weight people have felt from the effects of family displacement. In this manner, King has used his status as a pop-culture icon and turned it on its head to give his readers a story that feels more relevant now than ever before.
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Greatest book I have ever read.
Instead of a horror novel, King's 'Cell' is a gruesome novel. It moves fast and the characters are well developed. After finishing this novel, I look with suspicion at my small blue cell phone.
this is a great novel whould read it again
I loved this book and i'm reading it again
This was a typical Stephen King novel. That is to say that the cliches come flying fast and loose, the social commentary was easy and the type you would expect from any half bright high school junior and it seems as if the book is just begging to become a big budget Hollywood thriller.
I went from reading Stephen Donaldson to this novel. It was like eating a steak dinner and then swtiching to a big plate of cotton candy.
All style, no substance.
I loved Cell very much and wished there was more hehe.
I'm re reading it again and might be able to do it for my Senior Paper.
It's a great book and I recomend it to everyone. I barly use my cell phone now, I'm scared
cell is the greatest book of its kind....until the king writes another one that is.
I LIKED THE BOOK BUT DIDNT GET THE ENDING
Good to see that more than I didnt get the ending. King is usually the master of endings so I'm a little disappointed...
Honestly, the fact that there was no real ending ruined it for me. I loved it until then. But you can't just leave us wondering if the kid made it or not. Which makes me think. Sequel of some sort? If not, Mr. King can take this book and shove it.
I agree with Brad, the last opinion......Exactly....I finished and said to my self 'WHAT!!!'
I agree. The ending was a HUGE let down. Anyone know what the dates refer to?
There has to be a sequel. The book was just to good and there is just to much more to explain. One the best books I have ever read, so fast paced! Give us more Mr. King!
Being a great Kingäs fan, I appreciate this book a lot, but found it somehow different from those I read before. Maybe because first ones were in another language...
To say about the ending i think it's a good trick so to say. One can imagine whatever he likes.
And I think sequel won't be a good idea...
Beteer one more book but with another plot
I loved this book, but I dont understand why anyone would re-read this book (let alone any novel). If you were to re-read this excellent book over again, I guarantee that it would not come even close to as good as the first time. I mean come on!, it takes away all the suspense and finesse..anyways, hats off to King. People should fear phones for a while after that one.
On recommendation from a friend, I just read this book. This is the first SK booked I've read in a LONG time, because I would get so frustrated with his endings. I would get so sucked in to a great story line and then 'poof' a stupid ending. This was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. For those of you who didn't get the ending….what's not to get? It had the perfect ending. He left it to your imagination….or a possible sequel (not that SK does sequels), but what would you rather have an alien spider shape-shifter thing from IT?
I so disagree with you Mel. This is not the sort of story where there is enough basis in reality to actually question ourselves 'what would I think about tomorrow at Tara?' Given: that you can delete a human brain like a computer hard drive with a lightening bolt - will it reboot if given inadequate new programming?
Who the **** knows? ...Only Mr. King.
And another question, there was no end of test subjects for Clay to experiment on...
I'm not critisizing SK for his obvious craft, I plowed through his book, but what a disappointing ending.
i liked the book and the ending was good you just have to use your own imagination for what happened. And SK had to end the book sometime if he told you what happened to clay and his son he would probly just go on for another hundred pages about what happened afterwords. A sequel would just turn out really bad and you all know it. Anyways if you want to complain about somthing make it something other then the ending and when you don't find anything shut up.
Can someone explain the ending to me?
I loved the book until the very end. What the heck was that all about?
Thanks for your intelligent analysis and insightful commentary Ben.
His son is cured. That's the ending. Stephen said so himself. He said it was obvious what would happen to Clay's son, seeing as how the zombies had been slowly turning back into humans themselves.
Having been given the book over the holidays as a gift, I dutifully read it. Deacnblews - you hit the nail on the head.
I just finished Cell and
Just finished cell and very dispointed just like the dark towers last book.Has he just giving upp?
Given the sort of progression we're given leading up to the ending, you know, Clay finding his son against the odds and all that, if what happens next remains true to pattern, then Clay's son almost certainly regains most of his sense of self. The boy would certainly be what we would call 'a little off' for the remainder of his days, though. But the post-apocolyptic world would more than 'a little off', so there you have it. And while the 'phoners' who were converted later with the corrupted version of 'The Pulse' would regain some sense of self, there would probably still be overflocks in various places in the world comprised of 'original phoners', wouldn't there?
I liked the book. I didn't get the ending. Were we to figure the ending out ourselves?
i REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK. i recommend it to any body who likes suspense/horror books. though i know alot of people are confused as to what it means. I don't know if this is right or not. but u know how the crazies were evoling, i think that he had first anwsered the phone and had become a crazy too thats why he said fo-fo-you-you and was trying to make johnny a crazy too. this is propbably wrong but i haven't heard any other guesses.
This is the fourth Stephen King book that I've read, and I'd have to say that it was the best, by far. It was just a truly amazing novel.
The ending, I think, was since the signal, or The Pulse, kept on changing and getting less or more strong every so often, Clay took his chances with it and just hoped that his son would get better. The two possible outcomes of Clay letting Johnny listen to The Pulse for a second time was that he could have gotten better or worse, depending on how it had changed since Johnny used a cellphone last. It's a cliffhanger; no one really knows what exactally happens. Except maybe Stephen King, of course.
in response to dillions comment: you are thinking too hard, the fo-fo-you-you thing was something his son said when he was little (excpet i believe it was fo-fo-me-me?). This was brought up during a paragraph or two when clay was reminiscing.
Therefore that part of the ending made sense, although the logic behind giveing the poor kid a second exposure seemed slightly flawed. If anything it would have porably made the situation worse.
Can someone confirm for me that Johnny dies and is implied by the dates at the end?
I could not put the book down, it was that good...but what was the deal with the ending? I invested that much time in reading it, King could had at least gave some kind of conclusion...maybe a Cell2...SOMETHING????
i think king left the ending up to us, i dont know why, but eli roth is making a movie CELL and is to be released 2009 :(, but i think kin wanted us to put it together, like is his sone gonna reboot?, or is he gonna find tom and jordan again? this was a great great great awesome book! i will read again to prepare for the movie. i recomend to any zombie fans it really opens a new door to zombie horror, really kings style. loved it.
I thought the book on the whole was alright - it's not Kings best book though. He could have explained more about the technology and why it happened. I thought it was confusing and disjointed. The ending was a cop-out.
C
I just finished the book last night. I couldn't put it down and read it in a little more than 24 hours. I was so mad when I got to the ending. I even searched through all the additional pages that weren't in relation to the story thinking that there was NO WAY he would in the story like that. I mean, it really wasn't even an ending was it? There was no actual resolution to any part of the story. Did Tom, Jordan, Denise and Don make it okay? Did Clay actually help his son? Did they all manage to meet up again? What happened to all of humanity?????? I don't think I was never so upset with letting myself commit so much consecutive time to a book as I did with this one! If anyone has any insite on the ending please email me at iamericagee@yahoo.com
An action-packed suspense-filled book crammed with expectation should NOT leave readers wondering whether the last page has fallen out.
'You're meant to use your imagination' isn't any defence - I used my imagination throughout the book to guess what was around the next corner for 472 pages (I'm sure that's what King wanted), and then hit a ridiculous dead end. Open ends should be used with a fitting build-up. This build-up was not intended for an open end, but for an end full of twists, lessons and some resolution (and I wasn't expecting a Hollywood ending).
Writers have the privileged responsibility to lead the reader on and mould their minds with fear, expectation, or whatever emotion fits what the author's trying to achieve. The reader should not be left with disappointment and blank surprise, and reading the other reviews, I was nowhere near the only one.
King has a great reputation, but this is my first and last King book.
Stephen King said on his site that Clay's son was back to normal at the end.
For everyone who didn't get the ending!!! You weren't supposed to. King doesn't write his books with clear-cut, picture-perfect endings because thats not how things work. Who knows if putting the phone up to his sons ear turned him back to normal? King doesn't! That's why he want YOU to use your imagination and come up with your own conclusion.
BTW: Great book. I highly reccomend it to anyone with an imagination.
I think you are all a bunch of egg suckers. The book was great through and through. i loved the ending. it was a suspenseful cliff hanger in which a value is to be found. Come up with your own ending. i did . i wrote 20 pages to an ending . that's wat ur supposed to do. get that through your thick skulled heads.
Man Cell was a great book and not only was it thrilling but with a punch of horror and the feeling of a whole new world.I think this could be the movie of the year and make millions! if this became a movie, i would totally make sure everyone i know should see it because this is a awesome book and im reading it for my third time!
I agree with Jude, I did not get the ending and was so disappoined in it I wanted to toss the book across the room. It seems Mr. King left a lot open for a sequel to Cell per the ending. Oh Well, I would probably read that also.
To the one person who said that reading Cell was like switching from a plate of stake to a plate of cotton candy..... what the crap!?!? Cell was by far, one of the BEST novels SK has EVER written!!! And for everyone who is complaining about the ending.... if u want a bad ending read 'The Mist' then watch the movie. the movie ending was HORRIBLE!!!!!!!
This comment board is depressing. How did so many people not understand the ending? Stephen King is a pop author. Nothing about his books are complex. They're quick, simple, and fun and that's it. If you didn't understand the ending to the book it's like saying you think reading Harry Potter is too difficult. Stephen King is barely a step above J.K. Rowling. In fact, I would say even though she's a childrens' book author in some ways she has definitely surpassed him in writing skill. I don't dislike Stephen King. I respect anyone who's encouraging people to read. I respect anyone who's using their art, like the Coen brothers do with their films, to challenge people to use their brains, but in order for this to work you have to...use your brain.
It's hard to uphold a strong suspension of disbelief when characters are able to make wild guesses about something they should have no understanding of at all...and are correct every time. On the other hand the characters of the book are definitely enjoyable. But at the same time Stephen King would rather sacrfice plausible human communication for a suspenseful moment. He does this repeatedly and it becomes almost laughable. 'I can't tell you what it is, you have to see for yourself...'
Score: 5/10, worth your time, but only once.
I forgot to mention, I enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending. It's almost cinematic. I can see the black and white CELL title card coming up right after he puts the phone to his son's ear. If he had outright told you what happened it would completely ruin the tone of the book. If his son had ended up cured, it would change the book into a cheap, cheesy, satisfying 'popcorn fun' type of book. If he had gone crazy again it would have been almost like the twist ending to an awful 'Z-movie.'
Sorry if you have to Google the film references. I'm much more literate in cinema.
I'm back again. This is the last time, I promise. It just kept gnawing at my brain because I forgot to mention WHY the ending was ambiguous. The ending wasn't about satisfying you, it was about completing that character's development. This character grew and learned things based on events in the story, clearly the people reading the book did not. After his experiences with the teenage girl, he learned to take action. It was ending that required you to think. Did he do the right thing? That girl decided to kill the zombies and try to help the guys in the car and she got killed for it. So was trying the phone thing on Johnny a good idea or not? If King had showed you the result that would have completely missed the point. It would have changed it from a thinking book to something Hollywood and Michael Bay-ish. Which, I'm sure, if Eli Roth actually adapts this book into a movie he would be stupid enough to do. I read what he wrote about the book and it's pretty obvioius that he didn't understand it either.
The ending was a little off but I think it was an good read especially since I was grounded so it blew my mind away
After reading some of these comments I can't just simply write that the ending gave me the uncontrollable urge to hurl my book across the room. More appropriately, I should say that I now want to throw my copy at Melinda! Could this lady be any more condescending??? I mean, wow!
I agree with MOST of the comments in their angry response to this ending. The purpose of reading this book was for personal enjoyment... not to write some literary thesis on character development and plot transitions. I personally enjoy my story line to find resolution at the end as do most others and I don't see how this has any reflection on ones level of intelligence. Call me old fashioned, but I like the 'Happily Ever After' ending, even when it comes to a thrilling novel.
I remember in 6th grade getting as equally angry over the ending to 'The Lady or the Tiger' by Frank Stockton whose ending, like the cell, cuts itself short and leaves you to choose your ending...
*rolling my eyes*
I beleive that this book was very good. But i didn't like that Steven King did not end the book instead left a cliff hanger. Anyone know of a Sequal???
With what TMT said i have to agree. Cell was his best book. the mist's movie ending was disgusting what was the point. Anyway not to get off topic, does anyone know of sequal
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JudeMar 12th, 2006 - 00:50:52
I didn't get the ending -
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