Cell
Stephen King's Cell is an image of a world collapsing not to consumerism, global warming or any of the other Fight Club/Al Gore causes but simply collapsing into madness. Pure, unaltered, animalistic human instinct. It is, in that regard, much more horrifying than the ocean rising to flood us all into oblivion. The way King weaves his stories still gets me. His main idea in the tale is always simple (it's a zombie novel!), his character analysis masterful (particularly with a complex character like that of Alice Maxwell) and his creation of the sense of impending doom in the first few pages is incredibly hooking. You really can't put this thing down.
At some points, the story seemed to be more sci-fi than 'apocalypse tale' which is good; it just means a little more experimentation. The ending is a cliffhanger, as always with all the good stuff he creates. The storyline progresses naturally and the charcters develop slowly and are, at points, forced to develop. The idea of telepathy is so well used, at points, it becomes the driving force in the novel and certain pages that tale a dream a protoganist have are so vivid and often confusing; shaking you from reality to dream and back to reality again. The whole mixture of dream/reality is jumbled up in those pages for the material to become the written equivalent of a Dali painting.
Anyhow, I felt this book was worth the read. There are certain King's books that are not worth the money, let alone the read...Insomnia is one such example as well as certain parts of Hearts in Atlantis. Now don't get me wrong, Hearts in Atlantis is a brilliant tale of America worthy of a Fitzgerald but at points; it simply seemed boring. No drama, no suspense, no tragedy, nothing...just boredom. Insomnia was a horrific experience for any human mind. It is a ridiculous, boring tale with elements so far from being good fiction that they border on the lame. If you see it in a bookshelf, don't even think of reaching for it!
And, as I always suspected I would end this one:
Your number is up!
2 comments:
You know, I've seen so many Stephen King books in store's and I pick them up and for some reason I just put them back...not so sure about them. I read his books back when I was younger though I forgot most of them. His books are quite freaky actually.
But now I'm really interested in this book! So I hope I can find it in stores...haven't seen it around >.<
His early work is not so bad(Carrie was possible one of the most disturbing novels I have ever read, personally) and his recent work is excellent both plot-wise and style-wise...He really pours all those years of writing into every new book and it shows cause it reads brilliant.
Try to get your hands on Cell then get your hands on Duma Key...Probably Duma Key first though, you'll love it. It's almost like his name (which is mostly associated with vampires and ghosts) is on the cover by mistake; a very different King =D
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