The Mist by Stephen King

Hey everyone so as you may have guessed I am not a huge fan of horror movies. So it might come to your surprise that this week I decided to read Stephen King’s The Mist. But to be honest I don’t know if I would call this horror. Maybe Thriller suits it better.

I never watched the movie, because I really don’t like seeing those things, but I did read the synopsis of the movie online so I knew what was going to happen. I find that there has to be a very good writer behind the story of a horror or thriller genre to get the emotions flowing. That is why I sometimes like to take a break from teen and adult fiction to take a look at some horror writing. And what better author to look at than Stephen King when looking for horror?

David, his wife, and their young son are living a peaceful life on the side of a large lake when a large storm blows in. This isn’t unusual for them as they have been getting storms like this for the last couple days.

But this storm proves to be different as it destroys most of the area leaving many places without power and destroying their family boathouse.

For the family this isn’t something worth getting too worked up about. In the morning they set about cleaning up from the mess and being careful to stay away from the live wires all over the ground.

Later in the day David and his neighbor decide to run into town to get supplies at the local grocery store so that they can get back to work. David’s son decides to come along and they leave his wife at the house to continue working.

Before they leave David notices an odd fog that is very slowly moving along the lake in front of them. By time they are ready to leave he notices that the dog has moved closer to shore. He gets a bad feeling when he looks at the creepy mist.

In town the local store is very busy with tones of people getting supplies to fix their houses and food to last them the next couple days. They grab what they need and prepare to spend an hour or more waiting in line.

As they wait people start to notice the fog rolling in around the store. People fall into silence as they stare out the windows into the strange mist.

When a man comes screaming out of the mist, claiming that something is living and hiding in the fog, the store becomes deadly quiet. At first no one wants to believe what the man is saying. Some people choose to leave while others stay there unsure.

David decides to venture into the back of the store and try to fix a generator. A young boy working as a bagboy volunteers to go outside and fix it himself. David doesn’t like this idea and tries to talk him out of it to no avail.

As soon as the doors are opened large tentacles wrap around the boy and drag him screaming out into the mist. After managing to close the door leaving a small chunk of the tentacle on the floor the ones who were present return to the rest of the store. The people there are oblivious to what happened outside.

After the truth is revealed the store separates into three groups. The first follow the local crazy woman who claims that the mist is an act of God who is punishing them for their sins. The second follow David’s neighbor who claims that it is all a lie and that there is nothing-dangerous living within the mist. The last group is the group that believes that there is indeed something dangerous in the mist but instead of becoming crazy try to protect the store.

As the three groups argue amongst themselves there are people within the store who have their own theories about what is happening in the mist. Monsters begin to appear and the store residents try to figure out a way to defend themselves or to escape without falling victim to the strange creatures that remain unseen in the mist.

For David all he wants is to be able to protect his son and to get home to see if his wife is okay. A task that proves harder as time goes on.

The book wasn’t all that bad. This being the first book I read by Stephen King I have to say I expected more from him. There wasn’t anything extraordinarily unique about his writing style and the characters, while realistic, were kind of boring. He goes through the trouble of introducing a character in great detail only to kill them off in the next page.

This being said the story was good besides the minor problem with the writing. The story was good and the decisions that were made were logical.

I will give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating.

Have a great day everyone and I will see you soon.

- K