#82 in Horror
The Mist
- 314
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Mist” is a lean siege story in which the frightened people indoors become as dangerous as the creatures outside. King stays close to the narrator and his small son, shut inside a supermarket, and the horror is direct. Some readers miss a deeper emotional or symbolic layer and see no more than a story; as survival horror it does its job.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Mist is a science fiction psychological horror cosmic horror novella by American author Stephen King. Originally written in the summer of 1976, the story was first published by Viking Press in 1980 as part of the Dark Forces anthology, an edited version was subsequently included in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. In the story, the small town of Bridgton, Maine is shrouded in a dense mist that conceals otherworldly creatures. The protagonist and narrator David Drayton, who has taken refuge with his young son in a supermarket, tries to survive against not only the creatures of the mist, but also fanatical aggression from other survivors. In The Mist, King addresses the themes of man-made fears and religious fundamentalism.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 510 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 78% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Horror average of 7.5. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 9.0 | 10 | 2% |
| Google Books | 9.0 | 20 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 480 | 94% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Mist?
It has 314 pages — shorter than 75% of the ranked books in Horror.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Horror — with scores between 7.1 and 8.4, closest to this book.
