Cell
A Novel
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4.2 • 458 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The next call you take could be your last in this terrifying #1 New York Times bestseller by master storyteller Stephen King—now featuring a stunning vintage cover!
On October 1, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and graphic artist Clayton Riddell is visiting Boston, having just landed a deal that might finally enable him to make art instead of teaching it. But all those good feelings about the future change in a hurry thanks to a devastating phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse.
The delivery method is a cell phone—everyone’s cell phone. Now Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization’s darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a relentless human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.
There’s really no escaping this nightmare. But for Clay, an arrow points the way home to his family in Maine, and as he and his fellow refugees make their harrowing journey north, they begin to see the crude signs confirming their direction. A promise of a safe haven, perhaps, or quite possibly the deadliest trap of all…
Customer Reviews
Interesting concept
Very interesting concept. The ending left me wondering what happened to the characters and I wanted more.
Better than expected
At first I was afraid this story had aged out too quickly, since the premise of there being anyone without a phone doesn't work so well 20 years later. However, it became easy enough (maybe a little too easy!) to imagine the modern equivalent being social media...or AI use. While the narration felt a little rushed compared to most Stephen King books, where he usually leads the readers in little historical sidequests to learn more about the characters, I still found myself settling into its pacing and accepting that the characters here weren't as important as the overall point. In the end, it was a surprisingly unsettling story...sort of a cross between Dawn of the Dead and Pluribus. The ending that other reviewers didn't like is just your typical Stephen King ending, no more or less satisfying than any other book he's written, so it's not a dealbreaker by any means. Overall, I would say this story was better than I expected it to be. Not one of his masterpieces but a decent shorter story to gobble up in a couple of days.
An Updated Horror Story
I appreciate that this story invokes horror in an updated way with phones. When this came out in 2006 phones were being used more and more to where in 2025 it is frightening to know that if this happened for real humans would be mostly unprepared.
This being my first book by Stephen King known as the King Of Horror I was expecting more fear ( I was supposed to read It which is made me feel like he deserved the moniker first but got tired of waiting for a student to finish It. )
I have a better fondness now for the book than I did when read it the 1st time during its tenth anniversaryq. It is not one of his worst books in my opinion unlike most Stephen King book readers ( at the time of this post I have read eight of his stories ).
I nearly gave it 3 stars but it did make enjoy Stephen King’s writing style and had me pondering about his other stories.
The source of the Pulse is not ever made official is 1 complaint I have. Please do not let the horrendous movie detract you from reading the book. I do wish more horror stories would make use modern technology.