Cell: A Novel by Stephen King Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cell: A Novel
Book Review: Another Stephen King Masterpiece for me!
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally I've read this book, and I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it! I'll read this one again for sure. This is the kind of writing I enjoy from Stephen King! I hope he writes another "creepy" soon!...Thanks Steve!Book Review: Apocalypse with cell phones
Summary: 5 Stars
I hadn't read any Stephen King's books lately, but I stumbled upon this hardcover edition in a book sale. The story is a typical Stephan King line-of-story where from the first happening you know things have gone wrong and will probably not be solved by the main characters.
The enemy characters are developing during the story which make them more realistic, way more than just harmful creatives they appear to be at the beginning.
After reading the full book, you kind of wonder if there would be some sequel, how this will end up.
This book showed me that there is a lot more work from Stephen King that I still will want to read.
Book Review: Are You One Of THEM....?
Summary: 4 Stars
Are you one of them....? The seemingly mindless throngs of people (More and more every day, it seems) who sleepwalk through life with a cell-phone attached to the side of their head as if it were a malignant, metallic tumor? Horror fiction legend Stephen King is, apparently, not a cell-phone user, nor is he a fan of the slaves to the technology, and he uses our current cell-addiction as a springboard for his first post DARK TOWER horror novel, CELL. And it's a pretty fine return to his classic form.
CELL is King stripped down to the bare essentials, without the bloat that's marked some of his novels (TOMMYKNOCKERS & NEEDFUL THINGS, anyone?), and it starts out FAST. Comic-book creator Clayton Riddell is on his way back home to Maine from Boston, flush with success, thanks to the sale of his graphic novel Dark Wanderer to Dark Horse Comics. Things are looking up for the struggling writer/artist........There's money in the bank for the first time in a long time, and Clay is looking forward to sharing the news with his son, Johnny, and hoping for a fresh start with his estranged wife, Sharon. Unfortunately, going home isn't going to be as easy as catching a flight out of Logan international Airport. At 3:03 P.M., the world as Clay knows it ceases to exist, as cell-phones all over the world ring, exposing their unwitting owners to the phenomenon that will come to be known as "THE PULSE". Within moments, there is bedlam in the streets. Children bashing their heads against lamp-posts, men eating dogs, businesswomen tearing out ice-cream vendors throats with their teeth, naked men roaming the streets with genitalia "that swung from side to side like the pendulum of a grandfather clock on speed." (How can you not love a book that has a description like that in it?) And this is all in the first 28 pages......
The remainder of the book will be very familiar to fans of King's post-apocalyptic masterpiece THE STAND, and also evokes echoes of George Romero (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) and Richard Matheson (I AM LEGEND), both of whom are mentioned in King's dedication. Clay hooks up with a few other survivors, and they head off to find that horror genre staple the "safe place", in this case KASHWAK= NO FO, A.K.A. Kashwakamak, a cell-phone dead zone, where the rag-tag band hopes to find a safe haven, and Clay hopes to find his wife and son. But are the survivors heading there of their own free will, or are they being herded by the "phonies", who start out as rampaging murder machines, morph into easy-listening reverse vampires (Sleeping at night while they zone out to such brain-cell-killing tunes as "You light up my life", and "Baby Elephant Walk"......), and finally evolving into a menacing hive consciousness reminiscent of Wyndham's THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS. King even gives the mob a face and voice, in the form of the Randall Flagg-esque "Raggedy Man", alias "The President of Harvard", a hoodie-wearing zombie who appears to be leading the brainless masses of phonies.
It's nice to see King return to straight horror, especially in such a stripped-down, balls-to-the-wall manner, but is CELL up to the high standards of his masterpieces like THE STAND, IT, THE SHINING, & 'SALEM'S LOT? Not even close. But it's still better than most of the stuff out there, and it's a lot of fun in it's own B-movie kind of way. The characters are sympathetic and endearing, and you actually give a damn about them and hope they all find a safe haven in Kashwakamak. King fills the book with gory descriptions of the phonie's carnage, floats out some interesting theories on just what might be driving them, and generally does an nice job of propelling the story along, making it a fun ride for his "constant readers". Flaws? Yeah, CELL has 'em. The quest for a safe place to call home is a tad too close to THE STAND, Dark Horse Comics is located in Oregon, so Clay selling the book to them in Boston is kind of weird and senseless, and there are a few events in the book that just seem to come out of left field (The bizarre drive-by, for instance....), but the tale is in the telling, and with CELL, Stephen King tells a whopper.
Book Review: As good as it gets
Summary: 5 Stars
King is really the best writer of our age. I loved the story and I hate cell phones.Book Review: Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
I haven't read a Stephen King book in a while, but I saw this sitting there, and I needed something to read. I was blown away. It only took me two nights to finish it. I won't ruin the story for you, but I will say that I couldn't put it down. From the first few pages, I was trapped. It wasn't just the usual hack and slash, Hollywood horror. Not what I expected at all. It was definitely not predictable either. Ever time I thought I knew what was coming, King threw another curve-ball and sent the story hurtling off in a new and shocking direction.