Cell by Stephen King

If you think that zombies are antiquated monsters of the horror genre, Cell is probably the book for you as King updates this old horror trope and gives it a modern look. Having said that, for me the biggest strength of Cell is its concept—namely people turning into zombies when they receive a signal from their cell phones. The plot, the horror, and the characters are okay but not mind-blowing. To his credit, King tries to terrify the reader not through visceral images (although he does try and one realizes one should be reading a Palahniuk book if one wants to simply be disgusted) but through psychological horror: what choices people make in times of crisis, what humans are capable of when we’re down, and finally the source of the zombie epidemic. It’s honestly not the best King work and settles somewhere in the ho-hum pile of books. As I said before, Cell is more of a concept book and the rest is mediocre writing.

Rating: 3/5.