Book Review: Cell
Book Review: Cell (2006)
Over the past several years, Stephen King has drifted away from the monsters and macabre that made him one of the best-selling authors of all time. With a few notable exceptions (such as the disappointing Dreamcatcher), most of his work since the early 90s has trended towards character dramas and dark fantasy, not quite lapsing into the horror that he’s known for. While this shows the versatility of the writer, something he’s not usually given enough credit for, this also left horror fans thirsty for a new piece for quite some time.
With his newest novel, Cell, King has returned to the genre that made him huge. Cell focuses on Clay Riddel, a graphic artist who has landed a deal with a major publisher to produce his own graphic novels. He now just wants to get home from Boston, back to his son and estranged wife, hoping that this fix to their financial situation will help spur a reconciliation. Just after leaving the publisher, however, an event that comes to be called “The Pulse” shatters all of his dreams and tears apart the world. Everyone using a cell phone at just that moment has their minds destroyed, transforming them into a ravenous, murderous monster. The effects are immediate and devastating: planes fall out of the sky, cities burn and streets run with blood.
The book is dedicated to George Romero and Richard Matheson, appropriately, as the novel borrows liberally from the sort of zombie and undead stories they made so popular. While he uses the framework of a zombie story, though, King has created something unique - the effected, the “phone crazies,” are far from your typical zombies. In fact, they’re evolving into something else entirely.
Early descriptions of this story invariably compared it to King’s early blockbuster The Stand, but while both are about apocalyptic cataclysms and the survivors thereof, they’re really very different. Where The Stand was a far-reaching, epic tale, Cell is much more personal, focusing just on Clay and the few people he connects with along the way. The book also doesn’t have the strict “good versus evil” feeling of the earlier work either - while the creatures they battle in Cell are certainly horrific, they feel more of a malevolent force of nature than the devil himself that spurred The Stand (King’s ubiquitous boogeyman Randall Flagg).
The novel isn’t exactly perfect - as usual, King manages to work in some autobiography (Clay’s graphic novel is a western fantasy called Dark Wanderer, quite similar in description to King’s own Dark Tower, which is in development as a comic book series from Marvel Comics). The characters, while interesting, aren’t developed much beyond their surface descriptions.
The plot carries the story. I was nervous at a few points in the book, I must admit - King is a proud devotee of stories where things “just happen” without explanation, which is fine if the story can support that. As he devoted more and more time to the bizarre abilities that the “phone crazies” manifest, I was worried that we’d never get a payoff of that plot thread. Fortunately, we do. While the writer doesn’t tie up everything in a neat little bow - in fact, we’re left with many dangling plot threads and mysteries, but that isn’t a negative in this case. He gives us just as much as we need for the story and nothing more, and he manages to do it in a way that doesn’t leave you feeling like a sequel is in the offing.
Overall, this return to form is entertaining. It won’t be as classic as King’s earlier horror works or his later masterworks like The Green Mile, but it’s a satisfying story for anyone who enjoys a few old-fashioned creepers.
Over the past several years, Stephen King has drifted away from the monsters and macabre that made him one of the best-selling authors of all time. With a few notable exceptions (such as the disappointing Dreamcatcher), most of his work since the early 90s has trended towards character dramas and dark fantasy, not quite lapsing into the horror that he’s known for. While this shows the versatility of the writer, something he’s not usually given enough credit for, this also left horror fans thirsty for a new piece for quite some time.
With his newest novel, Cell, King has returned to the genre that made him huge. Cell focuses on Clay Riddel, a graphic artist who has landed a deal with a major publisher to produce his own graphic novels. He now just wants to get home from Boston, back to his son and estranged wife, hoping that this fix to their financial situation will help spur a reconciliation. Just after leaving the publisher, however, an event that comes to be called “The Pulse” shatters all of his dreams and tears apart the world. Everyone using a cell phone at just that moment has their minds destroyed, transforming them into a ravenous, murderous monster. The effects are immediate and devastating: planes fall out of the sky, cities burn and streets run with blood.
The book is dedicated to George Romero and Richard Matheson, appropriately, as the novel borrows liberally from the sort of zombie and undead stories they made so popular. While he uses the framework of a zombie story, though, King has created something unique - the effected, the “phone crazies,” are far from your typical zombies. In fact, they’re evolving into something else entirely.
Early descriptions of this story invariably compared it to King’s early blockbuster The Stand, but while both are about apocalyptic cataclysms and the survivors thereof, they’re really very different. Where The Stand was a far-reaching, epic tale, Cell is much more personal, focusing just on Clay and the few people he connects with along the way. The book also doesn’t have the strict “good versus evil” feeling of the earlier work either - while the creatures they battle in Cell are certainly horrific, they feel more of a malevolent force of nature than the devil himself that spurred The Stand (King’s ubiquitous boogeyman Randall Flagg).
The novel isn’t exactly perfect - as usual, King manages to work in some autobiography (Clay’s graphic novel is a western fantasy called Dark Wanderer, quite similar in description to King’s own Dark Tower, which is in development as a comic book series from Marvel Comics). The characters, while interesting, aren’t developed much beyond their surface descriptions.
The plot carries the story. I was nervous at a few points in the book, I must admit - King is a proud devotee of stories where things “just happen” without explanation, which is fine if the story can support that. As he devoted more and more time to the bizarre abilities that the “phone crazies” manifest, I was worried that we’d never get a payoff of that plot thread. Fortunately, we do. While the writer doesn’t tie up everything in a neat little bow - in fact, we’re left with many dangling plot threads and mysteries, but that isn’t a negative in this case. He gives us just as much as we need for the story and nothing more, and he manages to do it in a way that doesn’t leave you feeling like a sequel is in the offing.
Overall, this return to form is entertaining. It won’t be as classic as King’s earlier horror works or his later masterworks like The Green Mile, but it’s a satisfying story for anyone who enjoys a few old-fashioned creepers.