One of the better of the latter day King books but, as is often the case, he seems like he loses interest before we do. ( )

Such a quick read. I'm dying to know certain things. Such as - how plausible is this? Could something like this theoretically be accomplished? How would it work? Who did it? Was it terrorists, like the characters theorized? What happened to them? What would have happened if you could have taken one of the original phoners and kept them in some kind of a medical containment room and studied them? What exactly would their body be doing to itself? Where did the Raggedy Man come from - i.e., how did the "flock" first begin to come together and form their collective hive-mind? Was someone behind that? Or are we supposed to just believe that this is some kind of Jungian collective unconscious at work? Ok, whew, I'm out of questions. But it was a nice, fast read. Though I agree with the reviewers who said it had quite a bit in common with The Stand. And funny, in real life with the swine flu scare, it seems that we've come full circle as a society, and are now more afraid of the superflu than we are of our own technology again. But this is King doing what I like to see him do most - the fast-paced scare. Only he could make cell phones that kill people anything other than laughable, even for an afternoon. ( )

What a great take on a modern zombie story. Mr. King did a great job as he usually does. The ending left one wondering if it was a happy ending or not. ( )

Great action packed horror which will keep you reading till the blurb.

On a beautiful October day in Boston, Clay Riddell, an artist from Maine, is on top of the world because he has just sold a graphic novel to a publisher. Little does he realize that the world as he knows it is about to change. A "pulse" has been sent through cell phones that turns anyone using their cell phone into zombies. Clay doesn't have a cell phone and he watches in disbelief as people around him attack each other and even themselves. Clay soon hooks up with Tom McCourt and fifteen year old Alice Maxwell, who were both unaffected by the Pulse. Clay is anxious to find his wife and son, so the three head out to Maine to find them. They have a long, strange journey ahead of them.

After several non-horror novels, Stephen King returns to horror with "Cell" and what a return it is. The "Pulse" hits just a few pages into the book and it's non-stop action from that point forward. "Cell" is told entirely from Clay's point of view and readers are privy to his thoughts only, so his is the best defined character, although I could picture Tom very well also. King's strong point is his story telling, reading his books you can picture what his happening, as if you were watching a movie instead of reading a book. It's the little touches that make his writing special - a street littered with discarded cell phones; an abandoned child's sneaker; a pregnant zombie falling on her stomach; a hamburger feast in the middle of chaos - all these stay with the reader long after the novel is over.

This being a Stephen King novel, readers can't predict what will happen and just when you think you know where the novel is going, "Cell" has some unexpected twists, starting with the visit to Gaiten Academy. The novel has plenty of gore mixed in with King's trademark humor. And while many readers will complain about the (non-) ending, I liked it.

"Cell" may not be his best novel, but it's one of his better ones and a must read for Stephen King fans. ( )