Stephen King is like a less sick Dean Koontz. Or maybe Koontz is a sicker version of King. I first read about Cell in a review in USA Today. I was intrigued. So I was pleasantly surprised when I went to visit my sister-in-law and she had Cell. She let me borrow it. Her husband had read it and really liked it. I was excited. Then she said it was a zombie story. I’m not that into zombies. But I gave the book a go. Here’s the story.
A pulse causes everyone who uses a cellphone to go crazy with rage and become a mindless zombie. The zombies mutate, well the pulse mutates and creates different kinds of zombies as more people use their cellphones. They mutate to the point where the zombies can use mind control over the normal people. Eventually the normies make their way up to a safe area. But the zombies are using mind control to turn them into more zombies. The hero of our story Clayton Riddell helps destroy a zombie Cell, finds his zombified son and on a theory that the normies have (that the mutation of the pulse can reverse the affect) puts a phone to his son’s ear and hits the send button. The end.
Pros: You get to imagine what happens to the son.
Cons: You had to read the whole book to get to that point.
Okay so Cell wasn’t that lame. I really liked the parts about how the normies stocked up on food and lived as society crumbled around them. Not the most macabre or gruesome Stephen King book I’ve read. But I think I like the short stories better. One zombie book a year is enough for me. Look out for I Am Legend
in 2008? Who knows.
