The first Stephen King book I read was Firestarter when I was 13. I don’t remember how I found it, but I do remember how I found my second Stephen King book. I was looking up zombie books because I loved zombies when I was 15. I saw one called Cell and recognised Stephen King’s name. I read about it and knew I had to have it. The next weekend I went and bought the book. I loved it. Unfortunately, I forgot what most of the book was about apart from the start until recently when I bought a copy from eBay.
Cell follows Clayton Riddle. A graphic novelist who has just sold his comic and sequel to a publisher in Boston, Massachusetts. He is estranged from his wife in Maine, New England. As he is in the park, a phenomenon known as The Pulse sends a signal to every phone and radio signal. Those who hear it turn into murderous monsters with no humanity. He and a man named Tom take shelter with other survivors, including a teen girl called Alice. They hold up at Tom’s house first, where they begin noticing a pattern with the phone crazies behaviour. A flocking nature seen with birds. During this time, Clay has nightmares of his son, Johnny G, using his green cellphone. Clay is dealing with the grief of the thought of losing his son. This is the motivation that drives him throughout all of the book. Never giving a thought about his wife.
They agree to head north to Maine. The phone crazies don’t move at night, so they head out then. During their trek they come across a school, Gaiten Academy, with two people residing there. The school’s headmaster, Charles Aradi, and student, Jordan. They seem unaffected by the events but have a surprise. The football field is full of the phone crazies lying down and listening to music. They also are receiving the signal in their mouths. This adds an element you don’t see in classic zombie literature. A theory that the signal that made them this way has changed them into beacons, each one controlled by the radio waves. They have become a hive mind, which the group finds out.
The group come up with a plan to kill the phoners with petrol and fire, which they do. That day, they have a dream of a phone-crazy wearing a Harvard hoodie, which Clay calls the Raggedy Man. The dream has them in a stadium as they are declared insane in what seems like an execution-type event.
Now, they are targets and have been labelled insane by Raggedy Man. To prove the power of the hive mind, they compel Charles to commit suicide in a graphic manner.
Survivors avoid them. They see signs that tell them to go to a place called Kashwak, which is labelled a safe place. It’s also a place that Clay and Tom recognise as the place they will be killed by Raggedy Man.
They come across two men who get into an argument with the group, and they throw a brick from their car and kill Alice.
Now this adds more grief onto what they are going through, especially Clay. He keeps having nightmares of his son. This is when they understand their dreams are being invaded and controlled by the hive mind.
They run into another group of survivors who are also Flock Killers. They make it to Clay’s hometown, where they find out Johnny went to Kashwack and his wife was turned into a phone crazy. The group split off, with Clay heading to Kashwack and the others heading to Canada. After a few days, they are reunited after the hive mind disrupted their reality and made them turn back.
A member of the group, Ray, gives Clay a phone and number to ring at the right time before killing himself.
On the way, they see that the newest phone crazies are acting out of the pattern. Jordan has a theory that, like a computer signal, a worm has gotten in and corrupted the file so new ones are not like the originals.
They get to Kashwack and speak with the Raggedy Man with telepathy.
As they await execution, they manage to escape and blow up the bomb that was hidden in the van they were driving, killing most of the flock and the Raggedy Man. Clay finds his son, who has been turned but is acting odd due to the worm in the signal, and the book ends with him trying to turn him back with a phone call.
The book deals with grief and worry throughout. It came out in 2006, when mobile phones were popular but not on the level they are now. It offers a unique look into what would happen if the objects we use daily turned on us.
A fear back then I remember was the signals affecting our brains due to radiation, so this novel plays on that and comes from a place of actual concern.
Please check this one out if you like zombie stuff and apocalyptic events.
