Clay Riddell has finally done it -- he's sold his comic book artwork for a tidy sum, making his dreams come true. He can't wait to tell his estranged wife Sharon, and his son Johnny-Gee, that their financial worries are over. But on his way home from the business meeting, something terrible begins happening all around him!
One minute, he's worrying that a business woman waiting for her ice cream will puncture her ear drum with her long fake fingernails, as she tries to hear the caller on her cell phone. The next minute, she's trying to rip the head off the ice cream man! What the heck is going on here? Unfortunately for Clay, he is about to find out.
Stephen King delivers another chilling suspense and horror story. What would happen if some terrorist group, or some tinkerer in a garage somewhere, sent out a mass signal via cell phone that would mess with people's heads? Well, if you're Stephen King, the answer would be that the unwitting victims of this "Pulse" turn into zombie-like creatures out to convert "normies" to their flock.
It's a classic King novel, delving into the good and evil that lies in the human heart and soul. In this particular book, this battle is embodied by the struggle between the two new classes of human beings. How far would you go in self defense, if another culture posed a threat to life as you know it? Morally, how far is too far? How long and hard would you fight to find a missing child, not knowing if they would turn against you when you finally found them? As usual, these issues and others are dealt with and interspersed into the gripping storyline.
Along his journey to find Sharon and Johnny-Gee, Clay meets a cast of interesting characters. There is Tom, a regular joe caught in the fray. And Alice, a 15 year old whose own mother tried to kill her when the Pulse hit. And Jordan, a smart prep school student who has some clever theories about the "phoners" and their cycles of behavior. And there is the hated "Raggedy Man", sporting his Harvard hoodie, who seems to be the leading face for the phoner zombie culture, always taunting the normal survivors in their dreams. (Kind of makes you wonder just what King has against Harvard before you're through!)
The descriptive phrasing in this story was very graphic and I could easily picture this being made into a film. Be forewarned though, that this is one of King's messier books, in the sense that there is plenty of gore throughout. If you have a weak stomach, I would skip this selection. But die-hard fans of King and good suspenseful storytelling will enjoy the way this tale keeps you turning pages swiftly to find out what happens next to our heroes.
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Comments: 18
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You have a distinct character when describing a storyline of such diversity.
BTW, I understand there has been some mention about a movie somewhere around 2009.