Cell

Written by Stephen King

Narrated by Campbell Scott

The next call you take could be your last in this terrifying #1 New York Times bestseller by master storyteller Stephen King!

On October 1, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and graphic artist Clayton Riddell is visiting Boston, having just landed a deal that might finally enable him to make art instead of teaching it. But all those good feelings about the future change in a hurry thanks to a devastating phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse.

The delivery method is a cell phone—everyone’s cell phone. Now Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization’s darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a relentless human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.

There’s really no escaping this nightmare. But for Clay, an arrow points the way home to his family in Maine, and as he and his fellow refugees make their harrowing journey north, they begin to see the crude signs confirming their direction. A promise of a safe haven, perhaps, or quite possibly the deadliest trap of all…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jan 24, 2006
• ISBN: 9780743555708

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch, the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), Holly (a New York Times Notable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

Reviews for Cell

[Ryan Jordan Gutierrez · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Riveting book that falls to Mr. King's problem of unsatisfying endings

[murphyjesus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not one of my fave's by King, but it has its moments of "Kingness"

[Björn Sackemark · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s Stephen King. What hit me initially was the similarities to The Walking Dead. Only The Cell came first, and it’s not a waste of your time.

[Brandon McCormack · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Narrator was monotone, found myself forgetting everything instantly. Horrible.

I switched to the physical book and gave it 4 stars

[Ruth Galicia-lopez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed listening to this book. I read it a long time ago, even before cell phone usage was such an integral part of daily life. It's a little freaky.

[msaucier818 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was not a typical Stephen King book. First of all, it was short, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Second, King did not take the time he usually does to develop his characters. One of the things I love about Stephen King is how he gets into the mind of his characters and goes back into their past to explain where they are coming from. This book does not do that, but for the most part, I think the story carries itself. The ending was not final and leaves the reader hanging, but King does this on purpose and it pretty much works. All in all, not one of his best, but I was entertained.

[schnaucl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The premise of the book is that a virus that turns people psychotic with rage (think Firefly/Serenity's Reavers) spreads via cellphone. It's the perfect way to spread a virus because the first thing people do when a disaster strikes is to try and contact loved ones via cellphone.The book was mostly well written and interesting. I liked the characters. There was one moment with a pet cat that seemed especially poignant to me.Unfortunately, everything falls apart in the last few chapters and the ending doesn't make much sense and is therefore unsatisfying. On the plus side, Stephen King manages to write a post-apocalyptic novel without spending 500 pages killing off all the unimportant people like he did in The Stand.Also unlike The Stand, this isn't really a story about good and evil or even the sane vs. the insane. It's instead a story about evolution and the struggle to survive. Perhaps because of that, none of the characters really cares about who started the virus or why. There's a little speculation, but most of the time the characters are too focused on survival to worry about why things are the way they are. I was a little surprised that I wasn't all that interested in who or why either.

[John Water · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I have heard king does not like writing endings. This is very true of this book. Great idea but poor execution. Normaly king makes you feel for his characters but not here.

I vote pass on this one.

[caneil_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The only reason I didn't give this a better rating was the ending. It was lacking! I give it 4 stars because the rest of the book was great. A real page-turner.

[anniejanicki · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[WyoGun Guru · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good story. I just wish King would study subjects he writes about more. Firearms and how they work for example. Also wish he'd keep his political bias out of his stories. Just ruins it every time he does that.

[mahsdad · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Continuing my occasional trip down King's bibliography. Got this at Christmas '14 from one of my friends in my book group. Its a pretty good, probably right in the middle of the pack.Its a apocalyptic road story, where the mcguffin is that some unnamed source as created a "pulse" that when listened to thru cellphones, turns people into mindless zombies. The King twist is that they don't really become "mindless" zombies, they become of one mind, a telepathic hive mind. One that is out to get our plucky group of survivors. An interesting idea on the illogical conclusion to the growing cellphone obsession in the early 21st century. This came out a year before the first iPhone. Would be interesting to see how the story would be different in today's world. Would more people be turned with the ubiquitousness of of smartphones, or less because no one actually talks on the phone anymore. 6/10S: 1/18/15 - F: 2/18/16 (32 Days)

[Todd Stoddard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't care for the whole zombie thing, but this was a really good story.

[Alex Craft · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my 4th stephen king book in a row. Pet sematary was the last one I finished and I thought that would prepare me for some of the more bogus endings. This was a disappointing ending altogether, to say the least. I really enjoyed the story and characters and the world that was set up. I just feel tricked

[carpe_librum · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Stephen King's novel 'Cell' begins with a Pulse that turns people who use mobile phones crazy. Filled with Kings' predictable gore, the story follows the main character Clay, who leads a small band of normal people against the 'phone crazies'. The plot moves quickly and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this mindless tale. This novel is nowhere near the literary heights of 'The Green Mile' but entertaining just the same. My favourite quote was on page 37:That tight little accent grated on Clay's frayed nerves. He thought that if it had been a fart, it would have been the kind that comes out sounding like a party-horn blown by a kid with asthma.Very amusing, and typical of the King style of writing I'm quite fond of.

[Girl Muse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've been a Stephen King / Richard Bachman lover since I was about 5 years old. Yup! I was reading his work, instead of "Cat in a Hat." Even then!??. My only note, would be to have a more lively narration. It helps to really bring the work, alive!

[Sabrina Massey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fast paced! In true Stephen King detail! A page turner for sure!

[William Dampman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Typically love all of kings stuff but this was a long listen.

[gasmacaroni · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite King book, but the sensitive performance by Campbell Scott makes this a must listen.

[Shawn · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Luckily, I had already read this novel years ago & enjoyed it enough to listen to the audiobook. The book itself isn’t the issue, it’s very good.
The problem is that the recording skips around a bit then stops abruptly, no ending.

[maz74_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I hate giving a negative review, but this really was awful. There is nothing positive I can say. I thought the story sounded like a good idea, especially as everyone has a mobile phone these days, but instead of being thought provoking or scary, this was laughable, predictable and I really couldn't care less. I'm sure it will be made into an equally ridiculous movie some day.

[Emily Sutton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent as always from King
Great listen and keeps you coming back for more

[Shana Harris · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Stop working I cant listen to it I dont know

[Rob Frantz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Superb story that moved relentlessly from start to finish and I thought the finish was brilliant. Very well narrated.

[David Flowers · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was a rehash of The Stand. If you haven’t read The Stand, it’s better.

[David Corkhill · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very Stephen King, The Stand but w cell phones.
It's got death, gore and Maine.

[augger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book and good but not great. The ending is strange and leaves you hanging

[daland_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Fast paced, starts well, but never really finishes. Not Stephen's best work.

[Kimmy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic read. Classic Stephen King. I only wish there was a follow up book.to cell

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cell is a little like The Stand. There's the same big apocalyptic event wiping out parts of humanity, and the us against them mentality, similar problems of survival. However, there are quite a few differences, too.

For starters, the first thing I noticed was the much quicker beginning to the action. By page eight, in my copy, things were going to hell. No big build-up introducing us to a ton of characters. I actually quite liked it. It sucked me in pretty fast, and it didn't cost much in terms of characterisation -- I still got to know and love the characters.

It's also not as... explained as The Stand. In that, we knew what was happening. With Cell, we're in the dark and we have no idea what is really going on, or why. We have the same journey of discovery as the characters. The pseudo-science is also on much shakier grounds. I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to read it, but your mileage may well vary. Particularly as, be warned, this book does not come with explanations as to why, which definitely did irritate me.

This reminds me of From A Buick 8, which is the same deal, but even that has more closure than Cell. I quite liked the uncertainty, and the last line, but I wasn't ready to leave the story, really.

Not my favourite King novel, but definitely okay for a quick, immersive read, I think.