The Mist by Stephen King starts out innocently enough. Our main character David and his son Billy go into town to shop at the local grocery store. Before they even get done shopping the outside of the store is enveloped in fog so thick you can only see a few feet into it…after some characters exit the building and get devoured by monsters tensions begin to rise in the grocery store.

I love Stephen King’s novellas/short stories. This book, Throttle with Joe Hill, If It Bleeds, Hearts in Atlantis…one of King’s biggest criticisms is that his stories can be too long. These shorter works of fiction give you that same Stephen King storytelling and character building without becoming so long winded.

I found myself rooting for David and Billy and I found myself hating some other mean or stupid side characters. In a book that is less than 200 pages I felt very invested in the story. I will say, there are not a lot of explanations for what happens in the book and the ending leaves everything to be desired…it was not good. No conclusion whatsoever.

How does this book tie-in to the Dark Tower. We can assume that the ‘Arrowhead Project’, that was mentioned in the book to work on breaking through to other dimensions, created a thinny. From the thinny we get the nightmarish monsters from the todash space that cross over and wreak havoc on our world. Also there is an identically described tentacle monster in the 4.5 Dark Tower Book ‘The Wind Through the Keyhole’ so we can only assume that the monsters came from the Dark Tower world or worlds into ours.

If I was basing this book off of just what was presented it would be a 3/5. BUT if I am taking into consideration what I know from the Dark Tower universe I would give it a 4/5.