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Outstanding
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Booklist Ray Olson
King blasts any notion that he's exhausted or dissipated his enormous talent. [1 Jan 2006, p. 24]
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Outstanding
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The Independent Matt Thorne
All fans will need to know is that this is King on top form, and for the first time in a long while.
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Outstanding
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Daily Telegraph Justin Williams
The author's most successful work since the high-water mark of the mid-1980s.
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Favorable
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The Guardian Matthew Lewin
This is a Stephen King novel, so while it is very clever and brilliantly written, it is also bathed in blood; veritable geysers of the stuff. But it's like comic book violence that you can marvel at without becoming depraved.
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Favorable
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Bookslut Ned Vizzini
Cell is not a hopeful book. King does not follow any of the movie rules that may be brought in for the adaptation... This is less a horror novel than one of extreme pessimism.
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Favorable
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The Onion A.V. Club Keith Phipps
After all these years, [King] still relies too often on flat characters and flatter dialogue, but nobody else does half as well at suggesting how a nudge can turn everyday life horrific.
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Favorable
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PopMatters Bill Gibron
Suspenseful and sentimental, unbridled in its ability to disturb and disgust, Cell stands as a writer's manifesto to the post-accident part of Stephen King's career.
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
A glib, technophobic but compelling look at the end of civilization.[2 Jan 2006, p. 37]
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Favorable
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
"Cell" displays the author's habit of beginning with a real-world idea and following it into a hazy dreamscape, only to re-emerge from the vortex when his cautionary tale is over. In that sense, and in the visceral impact of its descriptions (out comes an old man's eye, with "a loose, gobbety plopping sound"), this is a traditional King narrative studded with alarming signs of the times.
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Favorable
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USA Today Carol Memmott
Cell is a gratifying tribute to George Romero, the crown prince of zombie movies, to whom King, in part, dedicates the book.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Book Review Dave Itzkoff
A good zombie tale should offer some fresh insights about basic human nature, if only to pass the time between episodes of cannibalism, and it's in this capacity that "Cell" turns out to be a bit brain-dead.
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Mixed
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Washington Post George R.R. Martin
Cell has plenty of gross-out moments and ascends to the level of horror more than once, but it never reaches true terror, let alone the heights achieved by King's best work. While it is a solid, entertaining read, I'm afraid we will need to wait a bit longer for that Great American Zombie Novel.
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Unfavorable
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Wall Street Journal Kyle Smith
"Cell" is a 200-page plot lost inside a 350-page calling area. The surplus consists of bad jokes, strange digressions, references to the movies that Mr. King is poaching from and the author's momentum-destroying political musings
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Unfavorable
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Boston Globe Erica Noonan
The book is cacophony, without a clear signal.
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Unfavorable
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Los Angeles Times David L. Ulin
"Cell" stumbles because its intent remains unclear. Is this a horror novel? A bit of post-apocalyptic science fiction? A cautionary tale? [24 Jan 2006]
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