The Mist by Stephen King

David is puzzled by a storm that hits his small town by the lake. Once it passes after a night, they emerge from the basement to check the damage, pretty much everything is in tatters. Once David heads to the store for supplies, a mist falls upon the city. No-one can leave, and no-one is getting out. There’s something in the mist but you wouldn’t dare to find out what.

Title: The Mist

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror

Publisher: Signet

Publication Date: 2nd October 2007

Pages: 180

Summery : In the wake of a summer storm, terror descends…

 

I picked up a copy of the mist a few years ago when I wanted to read more Stephen King novels. It’s the first Stephen King novel that I’ve read and I wasn’t sure what to expect. For me, this story turned out to be pretty average.

I enjoyed the first 50 pages or so, the idea of the storm and the disturbed family life that followed intrigued me. However the rest of the book seemed to drag on with a lot of unnecessary detailing. Some of which was quite difficult to follow. The writing of some of the action scenes was disjointed and left you thinking what actually happened and who actually died. I was just a little bit confused by the whole thing but managed to keep up with the general plot.

The one really big downfall of this novel is the amount of characters that are crammed in to less that 200 pages. It makes it to be very confusing as you have little information on each person, what they do, are they friends with David or not… it just made it a little difficult.

That said, I did really enjoy the characterisation of David’s family, his wife and son. And the description of the monsters that live in the mist were clear. You can really imagine what that look like and you get a sense of atmosphere in the store. The language used has made me excited to read more Stephen King novels in the future.

I don’t have much more to say about this book because I didn’t hate it, nor was I in love with it. It possibly could be the genre as my interesting in sci-fi dipped while reading The Mist. I’m excited to watch the movie adaptation and compare the two. If you like short sci-fi reads with hints of reality, this is probably a really good novel for you. I just wish I’d read it when I felt like reading something like this.