I have been a Stephen King fan for years. ‘Gerald’s Game’ was brilliant, as was ‘The Stand’ and ‘Carrie.’ I even read ‘On Writing’ and couldn’t put it down. Somewhere, however, around the time of his Entertainment Weekly column ‘The Pop of King,’ he lost me. It’s not that his fiction went south, or that he lost his touch when it came to creating suspense, I just realized he was out of touch with pop culture as a whole. Pop culture junkies love ridiculous bullshit like ‘Survivor’ and Madonna albums. We follow Britney’s relationships and tape ‘General Hospital.’ That is why, in my mind, he isn’t now, and never was, a good fit as a regular columnist in my beloved EW.
So, when ‘Cell’ first came out, I ignored it, largely due to my disdain of his monthly column. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have waited so long. I shouldn’t have doubted a man whose talent has brought me so many sleepless nights and hours of enjoyment. ‘Cell’ is everything a good, no great, novel should be. It captivates from page one and holds that interest until the last word of the last page and beyond.

I know it sounds like I love every book I read. Believe me, this is not the case. As WIL has pointed out though, I get to choose the books I read, so in essence I choose things I know I will like. With all that said, I knew I would like ‘Cell,’ but I never in a million years believed I would love it to the extent that I did.

I literally could not put it down. I found myself thinking about it at work, when I could not read it. I sat on the train for an extra minute just to get one more sentence in.
The thing about it I loved the most was that it got better, smarter, and more suspenseful as I went along. It inspired me to be a better writer. It made me want to pick up my pen again and put my own ideas to paper so that someday I could influence someone in the way this book did for me.

It’s an apocalypse story, as anyone who has read my previous reviews knows I love. It’s a psuedo-zombie story, but to say anymore will give too much away. I hate spoilers so I won’t do that to you, but I will say that you have no idea what is really going on in the first half of the book. It is so smart and so unexpected.
I haven’t cried while reading a book since the adaptation of ‘My Girl’ I read in the sixth grade (and I can’t believe I just admitted that). But ‘Cell’ took me there because I became so attatched to these characters and their mission.

The simplest form of the plot goes as follows:

Clay Riddell is an artist from Maine who has just received his big break. On his way home to break the good news to his estranged wife Sharon, and his son Johhny, he gets caught up in global catastrophe called The Pulse. Unsure of what the Pulse is, he knows enough to realize that it has been transmitted through cell phones and altered the minds of everyone caught in it’s path. Clay, along with a small group of survivors, begin to make their way north in search of answers, and with the hope that Clay’s family is still alive.

There is a movie version in the works, and I can only hope it turns out as brilliant as the novel. As with all things in Hollywood, it really depends on what team is assembled and who they cast. Eli Roth is supposedly involved which actually gives me hope. He is dedicated to the genre so I think he will at least bring that dedication to the script. Unfortunately, for every brilliant Stephen King adaptation there have been ten awful ones, so only time will tell. (By the way, if anyone involved with the casting is reading this, I truly believe Ellen Page IS Alice Maxwell.)
I don’t care how you have to get this book. Buy it, steal it, take it out of the library, but read it. It’s great. Really great. Don’t wait as long as I did to find this unbelievable ride.

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