I finished Cell, King's latest book, yesterday and I'm seriously thinking about loosing my brand new cell phone… Well, maybe not but Cell is a really scary story as well as King's tribute to the entire Zombie phenomena.

The book starts of with its main character Clayton Riddell out walking in Boston, feeling very happy because he has sold his first comic series, The Dark Wanderer. And that's when everything starts going downhill…

At exactly 3:03 the event that become known as The Pulse happens. And what happens is that every cell phone starts sending out a signal that turns everyone that hears it info some kind of raging Zombies. People that overhears the signal only gets a small dose of The Pulse but goes totally insane.

Later Clay hocks up with Tom McCourt and teenage girl, Alice Maxwell, and together they start north toward Clay's home where his son is. His son that just got that new red cell phone he's been pestering Clay about…

During the course of the story the phone-crazies as Clay and his gang calls the Zombies start to evolve and the rage they show in the beginning stats to fade away…at least for each other. The normies, like Clay and the others are still fair play though. It's like the Zombies are starting all over again with brains that are like clean slates. The book has some surprises one rather big and the ending is a bit unexpected. Some will be disappointed and some will love it. Personally I loved it.

Cell was the first book I listened to as an audio book before reading it. Earlier I have only listen to books I had already read. Finished I can honestly say that I enjoyed listening to it before reading it but at the same time it really demands your full attention. It's a lot easier for your mind to wander when you listen to a book compared to when you read (at least it is for me) but if you manage to keep focused you'll be very well rewarded.

There is also a bonus with this book (not included in the audio though). At the end you get the first pages from King's next book, Lisey's Story, in King's own handwriting. I liked what I read and it gives me the same feeling I had while reading Bag of Bones, a good feeling…but more on that later this year.

So, Cell is definitely a book you want to check out. It's a very strong King book that feels very fresh but also gives you the same feeling of the end-of-the-world that you got when reading The Stand.

If possible I recommend that you try listening to it as well as reading it. It's actually two quite different experiences, both very satisfying.

If you want to comment or discuss this review, please mail me.