Finished the recently released novel version of Stephen King's 'The Mist', and while it's been too long since I read the short story to compare the two, I thought a review of the novel was in order. (I'll list my favorite 10 SciFi movies tomorrow).
Since I'm a struggling writer, I thought I'd go about reviewing this book two ways. The first will be as a reader. The second will be a a writer and will reflect the feedback that I've gotten from agents and publishers. I encourage you to let me know if you disagree with what I have to say, or if you have other points that I don't mention.
As a reader: Stephen King is generally known for three things (besides putting out best sellers and being the father of the genre in America). His books are usually extremely long, he does an excellent job in developing the characters and he usually has some quirky phrase that keeps popping up in the story. 'The Mist' represents a departure from these three attributes. The (expanded) story is just a little over 200 pages and makes for a good 3 - 4 hour read. I liked this. As far as character development... he did a good job with Mrs. Carmody (primary character antagonist) and did a so/so job with the protagonist, Mr. David Drayton. I was neutral on this. There was enough characterization there to keep me interested - and I guess with just over 200 pages he couldn't afford to do much more than that. I didn't find any quirky phrases repeated throughout the story (neutral - like). As far as the story goes itself, I thought there was good tension in the beginning as the Mist rolled in across the lake. But once the location shifted to the store I thought the tension and creepiness died away. Personally, from a reader's perspective, I liked the short diversions King went into like the story about his father or that of the black ice. These didn't do anything to move the story along, but they establish that comfortable feeling that you'd only get otherwise by sitting around the wood-stove in a small, country grocery listening to King tell the story himself. I also liked the ending. It left me to decide on who lived - if anyone. I also really liked the New England vernacular King uses. To tell you the truth, I live in the Midwest and have no idea if the good folks of Maine actually speak like that - but boy I sure like reading it in a story. It's extremely colorful.
From a writer's perspective: Probably the first thing I noticed about this book was how passive King was in his writing style. That added to the lack of tension. We were told about conflict happening to the characters instead of being shown. Sentence structure wasn't what I've come to expect from the master. "Steff threw a quick, startled glance at my face and then said..." It would have been less clumsy to say "Steff threw a quick, startled glance my way and said...". From a writer's perspective I've been beaten up for including verbiage that didn't add to the progression of the story. Now I know this is King and in part this is what's made him famous, but there's a lot of paper used up in 'The Mist' that doesn't add to the story. I'm just say'in... There was also so much description used in giving life to the storm that blew in at the start - that I got confused. I think there's a few choice descriptions that could have been used to summarize a lot of what was written (dark ominous waves, rolling and churning across the sky...). I mean we've all seen bad storms roll in - how much do you need to add to that? Some of the actions of the characters were also a little hard to believe (David sleeping with Amanda, Mrs. Carmody wanting to sacrifice Billy...).
So on my scale of 1-5 (5 being a great book), I give 'The Mist' a 3.5 from a reader's perspective and a 2.5 from a writer's perspective. Now before you get all huffy and say who the hell am I to judge someone like Stephen King - I'll tell you I'm no-one. I love Stephen King and have enjoyed several of his books. But I have to be honest, 'The Mist' is a good book, you just wouldn't think that it was written by King. But again, don't be shy. Let me know if you think I'm full of crap.
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Until then, continue reading on. J/W
