Cell by Stephen King

I'm starting this with my notes of some quotes and vocabulary I ended up looking up. As this is a book review, well I can only write what comes to mind, so I've also included reviews of TV adaptations of King's novels for filler as we have to have a certain amount of content. Instead of just being able to get to the point and having no filler so the writer's page can look and sound better.

Since making this and having read the book a second time, a movie adaptation was made and sadly it was not memorable other than Samuel L Jackson and John Cusak starring. I say stick to the book. You can find the trailer and my review coming up.

For those of you that have looked at my reading Quests (2013 Year of the Book series & 2014 Reading Room You know I like to make note of the words I was not familiar with while reading, same for favorite lines or character quotes.

Quotes

I'll babbalah your A-Kazzalah.... (the zombies babble not really so much groan)

but trying to say that out loud, made me laugh. Guess that means I'll Beat your A**

-----------------Vocabulary--------------

• Veisimilitude -Apperance of being true or real (but without evidence)
• Mollified- Pacify, to calm or soothe, make less severe or hard /ridgid
• Peroration- speaking at lengths in a grandiloquent manner
• defiles-corrupt, damage, destroy
• Plebeian-Ordinary citizen of roam (commoner) someone considered 'ill-educatied' thought to behave in a crude manner & have vulgar tastes
• extemporaneous-performed unrehearsed or prepared but said without notes

The city of Boston descends into mayhem when a signal turns thousands or millions of cell phone users into crazed zombie killers.

Clay Riddell, played by Cusak is a man who is fighting against a mysterious mobile phone broadcast that transforms cell users into zombie killers. Working with Tom McCourt (Samuel L. Jackson) and Alice Maxwell (Isabelle Fuhrman), Riddell struggles to try and stop whoever is behind the attack, and reunite with his son.

This will be the third time that Jackson and Cusack have worked together, having partnered on another King adaption, the 2007 horror film 1408 as well as 2015’s Chi-Raq. This will mark Cusack’s third King adaption in total, as he also appeared in Stand By Me.

Though it explores the zombie trope which has been somewhat overdone of late but, zombie by definition is someone dead (sometimes brought back by a voodoo spell). This starts as anyone speaking on the phone at the time of the pulse are all turned, so here the term is more of a metaphor.

When I read the story and added cell + zombies I absolutely LOVE the metaphor! If you are like those of us who do not always have our eyes or ears glued to our phones, you may see what I see... those of you that do (especially those of you that can't look away for a second when crossing the road... ) ZOMBIE is the Perfect word for you all.

Before you open your mouth in a defensive argument (which proves it a perfect term) You've got your arms out in front of you (though slightly bent to have the phone or a tablet in reading distance) you look like the old zombie stereotype with their arms out walking slowly (sadly couldn't find the image I wanted) while groaning (oh wait that's my groaning at hearing your conversation...from down the street!)

What the Fu.....(oops sorry almost flubbed there) Why do they have this in an airport? I don't remember that, and sadly I no longer have my copy as I gave it to someone to read.

Unlike the book (or so I remember) this starts in an airport when the signal comes through, turning all with phone (or earbud) to ear into raging serial killers some even foam at the mouth. In the book it happened in a square or park type area near an innocent enough ice-cream truck.

Clay fights to survive and find his son while battling the the evolving horde of 'phoners'

I think what I loved most about the book was the metaphor. While the story is good and different from most, to me the metaphor was so much better in an ironic funny (yet uncomfortably...awkward) sort of way.

The zombies are of a hive mind, thanks to the pulse while they were on their phones. I did see a scene from the book in the trailer. Of course the movie shows some of the more memorable moments from the book like the horde sleeping in the football field and a few other touches.

If you have not seen it yet and have read the book... Skip it. if you haven't read it then it's a toss up, though I have read the book twice (and sadly gave it to someone 2 summers ago and now we broke up never got it back)

So what are some King books to read...

Besides the most popular classic ones like Carrie, Christine, the Shining & so on?

Well I haven't read the books but I watched the tv series they were made into (Is King the writer with the most movies and TV shows based on his work?)

Under the Dome! I've watched the show since it first aired and am so hooked.

I've watched the TV series the past 2 summers (2013) and love it. The first season's scene when the dome falls is definitely memorable. I haven't heard about any differences or any grumbling about things between the 2 so give it a try. as for the show itself.. Mike Vogel, Rachelle Lefevre and Dean Norris star. In this show about a town called Cedar Mills that out of no where is covered by a dome, no one can get in or out. They do what they can being cut off from all civilization to find out What or who caused it, and why. The 3rd season just don't bother, I watched the whole last season and ended up disappointed in the reason for the dome.

Haven- This was a series on Syfy channel starring Emily Rose, Eric Balfor, and Lucas Bryant; in later seasons Adam Copeland or you may know him better as WWE wrestler Edge, who played one of the cops (or was the sheriff after Bryant's character Nathan.) The series is based on the Colorado kid and ran for 5 seasons. It's a drama, mystery and in ways a love story. I enjoyed the suspense of the series the most.

Before I saw the 2017 version of IT, over the summer one of or a few TV stations were showing the original made for TV version. Luckily I was house sitting and they had a DVR. Basically, the only thing I found scary about Tim Curry's Pennywise was the dental bill, he's more camp than scare. In my point of view, the only way to do a proper book adaptation is either as a TV series for a full season or so or as a 2-4 hour movie (likely would be done in 2 parts).

The movie adaptation was so much better. More 'fun, scarier (if I could ever be scared at a movie for any reason.(so far the score for creeping me out is the Insidious demon and Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise)

The First thing to know about the 2017 movie It is not a Remake, Redo or Reboot. A remake would entail using the 1990s mini-series as the source material. This is of its own adapted from the book. They are both 2 separate entities. What was able to be adapted to network or cable TV guidelines in 1990 would be different to what is allowed today, however still there would be limitations if it were on television today even if the 1990 mini-series was made for the theater, there are different regulations to what would be shown in the final edit. We would likely get a darker version now, then what could, should, would have been if it were made for big screen then.