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mediaevalmuse's review against another edition
3.0
I adored Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind and Marina, but this book fell kind of flat for me. To be fair, Prince of Mist is Zafon’s first book, and he has grown and improved as an author since this book’s publication in 1993, but still. I didn’t quite love this one as much as his other work. The passive characters, lack of atmosphere, and absence of a strong, central theme made me feel like I was reading a book without real substance, though there were enough interesting images and creepy moments for me to give this book 3 stars.
Writing: Zafon’s prose is usually incredibly atmospheric, and though I got some of that out of this book, overall, Prince of Mist seemed to be lacking. I really wanted Zafon to lean more into the unsettling environment of the seaside town - perhaps by making it feel uncanny, or by making things feel deceptively peaceful. I also would have liked Zafon to hang back a little more on the telling and instead showing the reader the significance of certain events.
Plot: The main plot of this novel involves Max and his older sister, Alicia, figuring out what happened to Jacob - the son of the previous owners of their house - who supposedly drowned a number of years earlier. At first, I thought this book was going to be about ghosts or a haunted house, but it’s more about the creepiness of the ocean nearby. This is all well and good - the ocean can be terrifying. However, I ultimately felt like I was waiting for random spooky things to happen, rather than characters gradually solving a mystery and creepy things happening along the way. Supernatural events seemed to have no real connection to each other - they happened to mainly insert a spooky scene here and there, without really pointing to a reason why the spooky thing is happening here and now. For example, there’s a scene when Max visits a graveyard, and spooky things happen, but we’re not really told why. Does the Prince of Mist want to prevent Max from learning a secret buried in the graveyard? We never find out.
Also, I felt like a lot of backstory and rationale for the spooky things is dumped on us through one character’s extended monologues, rather than revealed over time by characters uncovering secrets and piecing together a story. This made the characters seem somewhat passive - Max and Alicia mostly had to wait for information to be revealed to them, rather than drawing their own conclusions. I would have rather seen Max put together the story himself, perhaps by watching all of the mysterious home films he found, perhaps by checking out the graveyard in more detail. Something more than just depending on the lighthouse keeper to tell him what everything means.
Characters: Max, our primary protagonist, is a likeable 13 year old boy, but ultimately doesn’t have much development. He seems smart, but doesn’t actually piece together much himself; instead he relies on other characters to tell him what to make of certain information. I did like that he was brave and did things even when he admitted to being scared. That much was admirable, and I wish Zafon had made that part of his character development.
Alicia, Max’s sister, is also around a lot but mainly exists to be a damsel in distress towards the end of the book. She does much less than her brother, and I felt like she and Max could have been combined into one character for a stronger story.
Roland, the boy that the siblings meet by the sea, is also fairly likeable in that he’s adventurous and friendly, but again, he doesn’t really develop much. I think I would have liked to see him be more self-centered and egotistical so that his act towards the end of the book would have been more impactful.
Max and Alicia’s family - their parents and younger sister, Irina - seem to exist just to be absent, and by that I mean Zafon had to give a plausible reason for why the parents aren’t around while all the spooky shenanigans are happening, so he wrote the rest of the family in only to have them spend most of the book at the hospital. While I think the rest of the Carver family is charming, I think their absence was too painfully obvious.
Rolan’s grandfather, Victor Kray the lighthouse keeper, was also likeable but existed mainly for infodumps. His backstory is sad, and I think the way he tells it is moving, but he didn’t have much of a role other than to dole out information.
The Prince of Mist was perhaps the most disappointing character in that he didn’t have nearly as complex a motivation as some of the antagonists in Zafon’s other works. Because the Prince of Mist isn’t seen directly for most of the book, he feels like a boogeyman more than an actual threat (even though we learn that he does have the ability to harm people). I would have liked Zafon’s story to hammer home a central message or theme that the Prince of Mist embodies: in Marina, the theme was about extending life beyond its natural boundaries, and the antagonist showed how that could be a bad thing. If the Prince of Mist was something like a stand-in for greed or some other concept, then the other characters and their arcs could have lined up with that and we would have gotten a more compelling narrative.
TL;DR: Prince of Mist is a spooky but disappointing novel that fails to stick with readers due to its passive characters and lack of strong theme. While it had enough creepy imagery to keep readers entertained, it’s ultimately one of the weaker examples of Zafon’s writing.
Writing: Zafon’s prose is usually incredibly atmospheric, and though I got some of that out of this book, overall, Prince of Mist seemed to be lacking. I really wanted Zafon to lean more into the unsettling environment of the seaside town - perhaps by making it feel uncanny, or by making things feel deceptively peaceful. I also would have liked Zafon to hang back a little more on the telling and instead showing the reader the significance of certain events.
Plot: The main plot of this novel involves Max and his older sister, Alicia, figuring out what happened to Jacob - the son of the previous owners of their house - who supposedly drowned a number of years earlier. At first, I thought this book was going to be about ghosts or a haunted house, but it’s more about the creepiness of the ocean nearby. This is all well and good - the ocean can be terrifying. However, I ultimately felt like I was waiting for random spooky things to happen, rather than characters gradually solving a mystery and creepy things happening along the way. Supernatural events seemed to have no real connection to each other - they happened to mainly insert a spooky scene here and there, without really pointing to a reason why the spooky thing is happening here and now. For example, there’s a scene when Max visits a graveyard, and spooky things happen, but we’re not really told why. Does the Prince of Mist want to prevent Max from learning a secret buried in the graveyard? We never find out.
Also, I felt like a lot of backstory and rationale for the spooky things is dumped on us through one character’s extended monologues, rather than revealed over time by characters uncovering secrets and piecing together a story. This made the characters seem somewhat passive - Max and Alicia mostly had to wait for information to be revealed to them, rather than drawing their own conclusions. I would have rather seen Max put together the story himself, perhaps by watching all of the mysterious home films he found, perhaps by checking out the graveyard in more detail. Something more than just depending on the lighthouse keeper to tell him what everything means.
Characters: Max, our primary protagonist, is a likeable 13 year old boy, but ultimately doesn’t have much development. He seems smart, but doesn’t actually piece together much himself; instead he relies on other characters to tell him what to make of certain information. I did like that he was brave and did things even when he admitted to being scared. That much was admirable, and I wish Zafon had made that part of his character development.
Alicia, Max’s sister, is also around a lot but mainly exists to be a damsel in distress towards the end of the book. She does much less than her brother, and I felt like she and Max could have been combined into one character for a stronger story.
Roland, the boy that the siblings meet by the sea, is also fairly likeable in that he’s adventurous and friendly, but again, he doesn’t really develop much. I think I would have liked to see him be more self-centered and egotistical so that his act towards the end of the book would have been more impactful.
Max and Alicia’s family - their parents and younger sister, Irina - seem to exist just to be absent, and by that I mean Zafon had to give a plausible reason for why the parents aren’t around while all the spooky shenanigans are happening, so he wrote the rest of the family in only to have them spend most of the book at the hospital. While I think the rest of the Carver family is charming, I think their absence was too painfully obvious.
Rolan’s grandfather, Victor Kray the lighthouse keeper, was also likeable but existed mainly for infodumps. His backstory is sad, and I think the way he tells it is moving, but he didn’t have much of a role other than to dole out information.
The Prince of Mist was perhaps the most disappointing character in that he didn’t have nearly as complex a motivation as some of the antagonists in Zafon’s other works. Because the Prince of Mist isn’t seen directly for most of the book, he feels like a boogeyman more than an actual threat (even though we learn that he does have the ability to harm people). I would have liked Zafon’s story to hammer home a central message or theme that the Prince of Mist embodies: in Marina, the theme was about extending life beyond its natural boundaries, and the antagonist showed how that could be a bad thing. If the Prince of Mist was something like a stand-in for greed or some other concept, then the other characters and their arcs could have lined up with that and we would have gotten a more compelling narrative.
TL;DR: Prince of Mist is a spooky but disappointing novel that fails to stick with readers due to its passive characters and lack of strong theme. While it had enough creepy imagery to keep readers entertained, it’s ultimately one of the weaker examples of Zafon’s writing.
mochi_cat_is_cool's review against another edition
3.0
One of my all time favorite author. Carlos Ruiz Zafron never fails to amaze me with his eerie tales and sinister antagonists.
ktstorm's review against another edition
4.0
Incredibly creepy and scary in parts. Slightly annoyed the plot with Irina and the cat just seemed to be an excuse to take the parents out of the picture :o/
lmm0's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
During wartime, the Carver family relocates from the capital to a small coastal village where they’ve bought a new home, only to be greeted by strange happenings from the moment they arrive. The spirit of Jacob, the previous owner’s son who drowned, seems to linger in the house. With the help of their new friend Roland, Max & Alicia Carver begin to investigate Jacob’s death and discover the sinister Prince of Mist, a mysterious figure who has returned to settle an old debt. Together, the 3 friends are swept into an adventure filled with sunken ships & an enchanted stone garden, one that will change their lives forever.
Man, this got me with the creepiness. The audiobook is truly a production, with music from the author playing in the background while the narrator read. I was by myself on a work trip, listening before bed, and I had to switch to another audiobook b/c I was getting a little freaked out. I feel like the music really added to the experience, and for a 5 hour audiobook, it was a fast paced story. Might look into the rest of the trilogy.
Man, this got me with the creepiness. The audiobook is truly a production, with music from the author playing in the background while the narrator read. I was by myself on a work trip, listening before bed, and I had to switch to another audiobook b/c I was getting a little freaked out. I feel like the music really added to the experience, and for a 5 hour audiobook, it was a fast paced story. Might look into the rest of the trilogy.
milena3198's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent
jprescritor's review against another edition
4.0
«El príncipe de la niebla» es la primera novela de Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Según el propio autor, esta obra marca el punto de partida en su carrera literaria y omite todos aquellos textos previos, que nunca verían la luz, al considerarlos una falta de respeto hacia los propios lectores si los hubiera llegado a publicar.
La novela, desarrollada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, narra la historia de una familia que debe abandonar su hogar en la ciudad y trasladarse a un pequeño pueblo en la costa donde comienzan a suceder situaciones un tanto extrañas —tanto en la nueva casa junto a la playa como en los alrededores de la misma—.
Max, uno de los protagonistas, se ve envuelto en una trama de misterio, relacionada con un antiguo barco hundido y un jardin secreto lleno de estatuas, de lo más inquietante. Un mago, una familia marcada por la tragedia y diversos accidentes llevarán a los Carver a vivir situaciones extremas, desembocando en una serie de enigmas, que los protagonistas deberán resolver y sortear.
El autor utiliza un narrador omnisciente para acompañarnos a lo largo de toda la historia y se focaliza, de vez en cuando, en los protagonistas para que entendamos como se sienten durante situaciones muy específicas. La tensión e, incluso, el terror que algunos de ellos sufrirán durante las escenas más importantes llevarán al lector a vivirlo como si fuera real y no abandonar la novela hasta haber resuelto el misterio.
La lectura es fluida y el vocabulario es apto para cualquiera.
En determinadas ocasiones se detectan algunas repeticiones innecesarias; la utilización frecuente de palabras concretas que denotan el gusto del autor para emplearlas; y el uso de adverbios terminados en -mente que se podrían llegar a evitar en determinados párrafos.
En definitiva, una buena novela juvenil con los ingredientes necesarios para engancharse a ella y llegar a devorarla en pocos días.
NOTA: 8/10
La novela, desarrollada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, narra la historia de una familia que debe abandonar su hogar en la ciudad y trasladarse a un pequeño pueblo en la costa donde comienzan a suceder situaciones un tanto extrañas —tanto en la nueva casa junto a la playa como en los alrededores de la misma—.
Max, uno de los protagonistas, se ve envuelto en una trama de misterio, relacionada con un antiguo barco hundido y un jardin secreto lleno de estatuas, de lo más inquietante. Un mago, una familia marcada por la tragedia y diversos accidentes llevarán a los Carver a vivir situaciones extremas, desembocando en una serie de enigmas, que los protagonistas deberán resolver y sortear.
El autor utiliza un narrador omnisciente para acompañarnos a lo largo de toda la historia y se focaliza, de vez en cuando, en los protagonistas para que entendamos como se sienten durante situaciones muy específicas. La tensión e, incluso, el terror que algunos de ellos sufrirán durante las escenas más importantes llevarán al lector a vivirlo como si fuera real y no abandonar la novela hasta haber resuelto el misterio.
La lectura es fluida y el vocabulario es apto para cualquiera.
En determinadas ocasiones se detectan algunas repeticiones innecesarias; la utilización frecuente de palabras concretas que denotan el gusto del autor para emplearlas; y el uso de adverbios terminados en -mente que se podrían llegar a evitar en determinados párrafos.
En definitiva, una buena novela juvenil con los ingredientes necesarios para engancharse a ella y llegar a devorarla en pocos días.
NOTA: 8/10
motocatlady's review against another edition
2.0
Spoiler: Not sure if I like that the bad guy won in the end.
books2010's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad book but there are some elements lacking slightly however it has a great plot twist! 3⭐️