bookoftheweek: Cell by Stephen King

Remember when I said that Stephen King writes really killer openings but sucks at endings?  Well, he did it again with his newest book, Cell.

The premise is pretty simple, but cool: everyone with a cell phone has turned into zombie-like creatures.  People without cell phones are normal.  The book then follows a group of these normal folk as they try to survive.

Simple, right?  King captured me from the get-go with that premise, and I eagerly flipped the pages, wanting to see what would happen.  What was also interesting to me was that this felt like it happened in the Dark Tower universe, with the event seemingly caused by the Crimson King.  Heck, I think he even makes a cameo appearance, although obliquely (you'd have to be familiar with school mascots).   Things were building up to an exciting finish when...

He ends it.  Just like that.  He ends it.  No sense of closure.  Nada.  I nearly threw the book at something, except it would've woken up the wife and kids.  He addresses this somewhat on his site (scroll down towards the middle, posted April 26, 2006), but to me it felt like he didn't know how to end it, so he just did.

Nonetheless, it's an entertaining page turner and is worth the read. 

Just make sure you don't hit anything if you throw away the book in disgust.