Review: The Mist by Stephen King

Description

It's a hot, lazy day, perfect for a cookout, until you see those strange dark clouds. Suddenly a violent storm sweeps across the lake and ends as abruptly and unexpectedly as it had begun. Then comes the mist...creeping slowly, inexorably into town, where it settles and waits, trapping you in the supermarket with dozens of others, cut off from your families and the world. The mist is alive, seething with unearthly sounds and movements. What unleashed this terror? Was it the Arrowhead Project---the top secret government operation that everyone has noticed but no one quite understands? And what happens when the provisions have run out and you're forced to make your escape, edging blindly through the dim light?

Book Details

Title: The Mist

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horror

Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages

Publisher: Signet

Release Date: October 2, 2007 

ISBN-10: 0451223292

ISBN-13: 978-0451223296

Author’s Website

Source:  Self purchase

Review

This was my very first Stephen King read. I’ve watched so many of the movies that have been adapted from King’s books, but I have always been a little too scared to read the actual thing. So it was recommended to me that The Mist be the one I start out with, as one of King’s shorter works. I was excited because The Mist is in the handful of King’s book-to-movie adaptations I haven’t seen. I will be honest: I thought I would wuss out and have to put the book in the freezer at some point. (Did you get the Friends reference there.) But, I found myself enjoying it…maybe I’m not such a scaredy-cat after all.

After a horrible storm David and his family were cleaning up the wreckage when he noticed an odd, thick, fog-like mist over the lake, and that is were it all begins. David and his five year old son go to the grocery store leaving his wife behind to continue at home. They are at the store much longer than intended due to the long lines and that is when everything starts. You never find out why, which makes it all the more nerve racking but the mist rolls in. I guess if I were to be trapped somewhere the grocery store would be at the top of my list, at least I would have all I needed to survive. Not everyone does so well being locked up inside, and there are monstrous things  hiding inside the mist just waiting for you to come outside.

The true horror for me would be dealing with my child in all of this crazy mess. I thought King did this well in the way he wrote David’s anguish and anger. I also loved the use of monsters and the fact that you just never find out were these horrific things of the mist come from. Was it some government experiment the storm knocked free? I guess we will never know and that just added to the horror. I think there are some that may have a problem with the ending but I liked it.

Happy Reading,

 

 

  Awesome! Reread worthy.

Recommended For:

Adults: For language, and violence.