A really Spooky Read. (Cell - Stephen King)

Member Name: Wild_Child

Product:	Cell - Stephen King
Date:	24/11/07 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: intresting plot, good characters

Disadvantages: Very Gory!

I'd stopped reading Stephen King books 'cos they freaked me out too much, but my Mom didn't know & brought me his latest novel, 'Cell'. Well, I had to read it then!
Cell was published in 2006, by the infamous American horror writer, Stephen King. Stephen King has written a vast ammount of books, including The Stand,Night Shift & many of his books - Misery, The Shining, Carrie, have been turned into films.
Plot:
The artist Clay Riddell is in Boston on buisness, when all of a sudden, the city erupts into chaos - people kill other people in the streets, jump out of buildings and generally go berserk. Clay quickly realises that this behaviour is due to cell phone calls - there is a 'pulse' being transmitted that causes people to go insane whenever they use their mobiles.
Clays main concern is for his small son, Johnny who is back home in Maine - has he picked up the deadly call?
Clay and a group of other survivors leave Boston and head to Maine to find his son, but the behaviour of the "phoners" (People affected by the calls) is growing steadily more wierd, as they begin to herd all of Americas survivors to a small northern Township.
But what is happening in that place? When Clay realises the awful truth, will he get there in time to save his son?

Is it any good: Like most of Stephen Kings books, this is highly imaginative, terrifying, thought provoking, disturbing & gut-churning. The action starts in the first chapter, and doesn't let up throughout the whole book - it's full of unexpected events.
The characters are very believable, and you find yourself sympathising with them & cheering them on.
I like Stephen Kings writing style - he's very descriptive & shows a black sense of humor sometimes, but I know some people who say his books are difficult to engage with. This is probably one of his easiest books as it's neither too long nor too convoluted so it'd be a good one for first-time Stephen King readers.
I love the idea of this book - it's quite similar to the epic 'The Stand' in that it's very apocalyptic. However, it is FULL of gory description - I almost gagged in a few places, so it's definetly not a good read for the faint hearted!
The only thing I didn't like about this book is the ending, which is very ambiguos - one of those 'you decide what happens' kind of things - I would much have preffered a solid finish, and I was very disapointed with this - when you identify with characters so much, you're desperate to know what happens to them & SK is very cruel to do this to his readers!
The novel is 473 pages from start to finish, so it's a fairly long read.

Intresting facts - the premise of this book is similar to a 1994 X-Files show, where various pieces of technology turn people crazy. It is also a little like the 2002 film '28 days later', in which a 'Rage' virus infects people.
The book reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list

Price - Softback versions from around £6.99, hardback around £15.

Covers - comes in a range of covers, depending on where you buy it from and wether you buy hard/softback.

Summary: Pick up a copy & see !