Nightmare Fuel / Cell

• The idea of people going berserk worldwide.
  • And on top of that, the hive mind they develop...
  • The worst is that if you see someone bite some guy's ear off randomly in the street, what would you do? Call the police, your mom, the news, with your cell phone of course, without giving any second thought!
  • The mental domination of people that forced them to put the cell phones to their ears and dial knowing that they were doomed as they did so.
• The hardback cover illustration is perfectly nightmarish: A cell phone with a shattered screen, oozing blood. Reflected in the blood pool is a man with no face, and behind him, a burning city.
• After the Phoners start to develop mind control, the ways that they kill their enemies become horribly creative. The Head being forced to stab himself in the eye repeatedly with a pen, along with Gunner and his companion crucifying each other are probably only hints of what the Kashwak flock had in store for the protagonists.
• Alice Maxwell's death. While some of the others in the book are more painful, her head injury results in a slow loss of memory and sanity over the course of several hours before she breathes her last.
• The original book was first published in 2006, when cell phones seemed like they couldnt get more ubituous in everyday life. If you thought the premise was creepy then, it hadn't even scratched the surface of the damage the Pulse could do today, with smart phones, surf pads and similar devices connected to the cell networks.