Cell: A Novel

Human aggression is instinctual. Humans have not evolved any ritualized aggression-inhibiting mechanisms to ensure the survival of the species. For this reason man is considered a very dangerous animal. Konrad Lorenz

Can you hear me now? Verizon

On October 1, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, is almost bouncing up Boylston Street in Boston.  "Cell" Stephen King

The world changes in a hurry. The event that survivors will refer to as "The Pulse" began at 3:03 p.m., eastern standard time, on the afternoon of October 1. The name hardly matters, in any case. What matters is the effect. The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone. Everyone's cell phone. The opening lines of "Cell" hastens you into a violent, bloody, and deadly dangerous journey of four survivors of a world apocolypse that is unfolding around them, as rapidly as modern commucantion instruments have made possible. How often have you noticed people around you answering their cell phone, on the sidewalk, in a department or grocery store, or in the car? Now imagine, if you will, that the automatic process of answering the tone of your cell phone, removes your humanity, leaving only the basic drives of aggression, rage, and a murderous desire to attack, with bare hands and teeth, and kill every unaffected person you see, with your bare hand and teeth. Clay and his band of desperate survivors, Alice, Tom, and Jorden, find themselves in the black night of civilization's darkest age, a world of chaos, carnage, and a human horde that is reduced to its bassist nature...and then the horde begins to evolve in ways that make them even more frightening. This is the nightmare world imagined in Stephen King's "Cell".

While a King fan, its been years since I've read one of his books. I discovered that reading Stephen King, after an extended abscence, is akin to running into an old friend you have not seen for long time. Your grateful for the oppertunity and anxious to hear what she has to say, because she always has a great story to tell! Cell, is an intensely paced horror story, that delivers a barage of shocks that will cause you to shudder. It differs from many other King offerings, lacking his usual elaborate characterizations, town histories, and delayed gratification. Instead he yanks readers off their feet within the first few pages; drags them into this frightening world, and offers little chance for respite until the very last page. I loved this book, as should other readers, who enjoy a good scare!!

Story 5/5 Narration 4/5

Cell by Stephen King, is a very good thriller! Imagine if the favorite object, of the majority of people in our modern society, became our worst nightmare and our damnation. This book is a nightmarish story about what could happen. It kept me captivated until the very end. Who knows!? Everything is possible!! I highly recommend this book!

Original Review: March 3, 2014 Updated Review: July 1, 2016.

I love Stephen King and have been a fan of his work for as long as I can remember. When it comes to this book, "Cell" I can't help but read it over and over again. When my husband bought me a Kindle Fire HDX for Christmas I was thrilled. Too bad you can't get ebook versions of all the books you already own, but since you can't, this was definitely one of the books in my collection that I had to buy again for my Kindle. Absolutely Love this book!

King's storyline gives us an alternate version of a zombie apocalypse. Those who were unfortunately using their cellphones, directly or indirectly, turned into zombie-like creatures who are driven by hunger and anger, begin to maim and kill, ripping apart anyone they see. Everyone who was "Not" using their cell phone, attending a meeting by speaker phone, or even as tweens tend to do (listening without the speakerphone feature, with heads together) at the time of the Pulse are spared, from the pulse that is.

Our main character, waiting in line at the ice cream truck stares in shock as those around him, basically turn bat-sheet crazy, attacking and killing, even eating one another, well, ripping their throats out with their teeth anyway, not really eating like the typical Zombie fare.

With the vivid imagination of Stephen King, so many events were clear to my mind's eye. I'm sure that instead of a bus being driven intentionally into the lobby of a hotel, the movie version (starting at the airport instead of the park) will have airplanes intentionally crash landing instead.

Our main, secondary and other characters hide from the phone-crazies as the city burns. And that's just the start of the book. As things begin to settle, the phone crazies evolve into a flock-like collective, who like birds begin to exhibit a type of telepathic communication. That's when things get Really interesting. 

I can't wait to see the differences between the book and movie, especially now that it's finally arrived.

No noticeable typos,  errors in sentence structure,  well developed characters,  well thought out storyline. I love this book so much I currently own Paperback, Kindle, hopefully soon in Blu-ray format as well. Highly Recommended.

There have been many who have compared Stephen King's "Cell" with his earlier Apocalypse-Now effort, "The Stand." And there are some good reasons, End-of-the-World setting, the survivors polarized into two camps, one camp, arguably no longer even human, a big bang ending in an arena like setting, etc. But there are differences as well. When King wrote "The Stand," it seemed to mark a moment in that writer's life where he was becoming overt in things religious. "The Stand" is a battle between good and evil, darkness and light, King's Book of Revelation if you will. "Cell" is more ambiguous. The zombie like creatures that inhabit the novel are, through no fault of their own, zapped by the "surge," which pretty much wipes out anyone's human hard drive if they happened to own and use a cell phone. No choice there. To some extent, as animal like as they can be, the zombies of "Cell" are pitiable. Meanwhile, King's little band of survivors are just trying to get somewhere, find some human traction in a world that has been blasted. In particular, there is Clay Riddell, who in his previous pre-Surge life was a graphic artist, and probably something of dreamer. His marriage is probably on the rocks, but he loves his son dearly, and when the deal goes down, he can only think on one thing: to get to him. In King's universe, we now see the Manichean Good and Evil from the "Stand" being replaced by "Cell's" Love and Duty. To some extent "Cell" is similar to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." Both are Father and Son stories; both look beyond the End, to what must remain if we are to survive as a species: Hope. The ending of "Cell" has bothered some, but I think this is unwarranted. In many ways, it's one of King's most powerful endings, and shows the mature writer that he has become. There is no need for a sequel, and I would be surprised if King wrote one.

"Cell" is a fine effort by King, and one that will be viewed, as time goes by, as one of his best efforts. It has as an effective leanness and nastiness to it that will remind some of "Thinner," but also a suggestive depth to it that carries it beyond merely Pulp Fiction.