"The Mist" by Stephen King II Book review

Hello friends!

I just finished "The Mist" by Stephen King and immediately decided to write a review, since I had so many thoughts about it. And it turned out to be a huge review...

First, a non-spoiler section:

This is my second Stephen King book - I've only read "Carrie" before this one - and even though I liked "Carrie" a little bit more, this one was still really good. The story is quite interesting and makes you wonder what's going to happen next. The pacing is fast and keeps you turning the pages. The characters are beautifully crafted and even though I didn't care much for the protagonist, I had very strong feelings - positive or negative - for the rest of the cast. The monsters and the horrible things that happen are so well described that they give you chills. It has some shocking and unexpected scenes/moments, that had me screaming on my page, or asking "what?" and "why?". I loved all the descriptions, but mostly the descriptions of sounds which made the book feel more real and alive. My only big problem with this book was the ending, which was uncertain and didn't answer all the questions that the story raised, it left me a little bit unsatisfied and craving for more. 

Overall, it was a really enjoyable read and the book is definitely a page-turner. It is thrilling, scary and creepy. After all, Stephen King is truly talented; he is great at what he does and knows exactly how to do it. In my opinion, his books certainly grab your attention and captivate your thoughts and imagination. The rating is probably more like 3,5*, because it feels to me that it's not as good as a 4* rating, nor is it as bad as a 3* one. I really couldn't decide how to rate it, but I'll try to be fair with it and since I enjoyed it, I'll give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

 

And now, for the SPOILER SECTION!!!

I wanted to talk a little about some of the characters:

1) I didn't really care for David, he felt pretty indifferent as a protagonist. I didn't particularly like him or dislike him, he just seemed like a decent person with some good judgment and very much luck. His love for his child was obvious and touching, he was protective of him and probably the only aspect of him that I liked. I felt that there were so many other characters in the story that would be more interesting protagonists and more active heroes. But I was glad that he made it as far as he did and managed to get where he got, mostly for his son.

2) Billy didn't really exist in the story, but the few moments he cried he made me feel sad and when they wanted to kill him I was mad! I didn't get to know him well, but I felt for his innocent soul.

3) Ollie was definitely my favorite character out of all. I loved his calmness and rationality and how he faced the dangers. He was decisive and active and his choices really helped the plot proceed. He really felt like a character that would make it to the end of the book and I was shocked, frustrated and devastated when he died. One moment I was so happy and proud of him for killing Carmody and I was wishing that he would survive and three lines later, boom, he was dead. His death also made me feel hopeless and certain that no other character would survive in the end.

4) Dan Miller was another one of my favorite characters, even though we didn't get to see much of him. I loved his cleverness and his resourcefulness which helped the story go forward. I also wanted him to survive, but his death was somewhat more predictable and I wasn't as shocked.

5) Mrs. Reppler was a badass, awesome character and I wish we had more of her in the book, but at least she survived, so I'm happy for this at least. Her scenes made me laugh at first - they had something funny indeed - but as time went by, I started to admire and root for her.

6) Mrs. Carmody... Oh, how much I hated this woman from the begging! She was loathsome and disgusting! As I turned the pages I wished more and more that she would finally shut up or drop dead. I was beyond relieved when Ollie finally killed her - I even cheered when it happened.

7) Norton, Norm, Myron I really hated them as well, along with some other annoying characters. Bud Brown was also pretty annoying, but I grew to like him a little later on.

8) I liked Amanda, but I couldn't care about her flirting with David and it was my least favorite part of the book. I think that the couple of scenes of him admiring her, or making love with her were neither very enjoyable nor were they that necessary to the plot. 

Another thing that I really wanted to say was that I hated how it was never explained what caused the mist and the monsters. We never got a clear answer, just speculations, and theories, that for all we know could have been urban legends. Maybe it was the arrowhead project that caused everything, maybe not, maybe it was an alien attack or something else - who knows. It's frustrating to not know after reading this whole adventure. 

The only thing that was more frustrating than that, was the ending! Oh, I really disliked the ending, this last chapter. How far did they get? Did they survive? Did the mist ever go away? Did the monsters ever die? Did he really hear something on the radio? It left me with a hundred unanswered questions. The ending didn't feel like an ending, it almost felt like the beginning of a second story - maybe a second book, a sequel, which by the way sounds like an awesome idea to me. I liked the fact that he was just writing down everything on a piece of paper in the end, but I would like a little more after that. I would like to at least see if they survived to see the sun. An open ending does leave you the freedom to decide yourself how you want the story to end and in that case, I will definitely pick a happy ending, but still, I would like to know if that was really it... 

I am going to watch the movie as well, as soon as I get the chance. Maybe I'll get some of my answers in the movie, or maybe it'll have a better ending. In any case, I would really love to see the movie adaptation of this book.

Thank you for reading once more!