I just finished reading Cell. Going into it, I’d seen lots of mixed opinions but I’d gone in with pretty high expectations, as I usually tend to enjoy King books that most people didn’t really like all that much (e. g. Needful Things). And, to be honest, most of the book didn’t disappoint me.
The beginning was absolutely amazing. It probably had best opening of any King book I’ve read so far and the fast pace was a very welcome change to King’s style (I love SK, but oh boy can that man ramble on). The main trio was likeable enough and the whole concept of a zombie apocalypse brought on by cell phones was interesting.
As the novel progressed, it more or less kept up its appeal to me. But the ending. Oh boy. I haven’t gotten to the spoiler section yet so for now I’m just gonna say it’s a huge cliffhanger. I’ve never, ever been more pissed off at an ending before. I immediately rushed online to see if there was a sequel but nope, there isn’t. We never find out what happened. I guess I’d recommend it to someone who likes King’s recent work but make sure to steel yourself for the disappointing ending.
SPOILERS:
spoiler
To me, the departure from Tom’s house - and Clay leaving his portfolio behind - symbolised the trio coming to terms with what had happened and moving on from their past life. However, I do kinda wish we’d seen a happy ending where Tom reunited with Rafe.
I don’t know how I feel about King killing off Alice. I’d come to see Alice, Tom and Clay as “the trio”, and I kinda wished all three of them lasted till the end of the book.
Time for the ending… I wish we could’ve seen Johnny and Clay meet Tom and the others again. The book felt way too short as if King had cut off a chunk from the end just so he could get the cliffhanger in. I never cared much about Shanon, but Clay meeting Johnny and talking to him felt like the logical end goal of their journey, and the fact that King came this close to writing that - only two sentences away, really - just adds insult to injury. Not finding out if Jordan’s idea worked or not felt like a horrible way to end a great book.
.
Overall, I’d rate it a 6/10. It could’ve been an eight but the ending really messed it up.
Bit of an aside, but who doesn’t like Needful Things? It’s pretty much the essential King novel for me and one of my favourites.
It’s been ages since I read it, but I remember really liking Cell and also feeling underwhelmed by the ending. I had to read over the last few pages to remember how it ended. Yeah, still not a huge fan of the cliffhanger. Although King’s sort of notorious for his lackluster/disappointing endings. I think it can be hard to tie up such a long book in a satisfactory way, and I can see the appeal of an ambiguous cliffhanger ending, but ehh… I’m not really sure it worked here. I should definitely reread it though because I did enjoy most of the book, and I wonder if my thoughts on the ending would change after a second read.
(though if you thought the book ending was bad, wait until you see the movie)
Bringing back memories! I remember really liking this book, but wanting more at the end of it. I should reread it though, the way the outbreak started was always so intriguing to me.
