In his foreword, Zafón talks about how he wanted to create the kind of book he himself would like to have read as a kid and how reading a novel is like an adventure into the world of books.
The story begins when a watchmaker decides to move his family away from the city to escape the encroaching war. The time is 1943 and World War II is raging across the European continent. The Carver family arrives at the train station where Irina quickly disovers and befriends a stray cat. Her siblings Max and Alicia immediately take a disliking to the cat's perpetual piercing gaze.
Their new home is located on top of a hill, overlooking the sea and the town's lighthouse. Mr Carver finds a box of old films that Max seems very interested in. But the house has a lot more secrets and mysteries to offer the Carvers. Max discovers a stone enclosure in the far ends of the garden that houses a garden of statues with a scary clown statue at its centre. There seems to be something off about the statues, as if they're moving.
One day, Max encounters Roland, the son of the lighthouse keeper. They soon become friends and go diving together. Roland shows Max the wreck of the Orpheus, a cargo ship that sunk in the bay a few decades ago. Meanwhile at the house, Irina has a freightening encounter with a ghostly presence in her wardrobe that leaves her comatose. With their parents away to watch over Irina, Alicia and Max are left alone in the house.
Events begin to unfold more quickly when the lighthouse keeper tells them the story of the Prince of Mist. A magician of sorts who had the power to make people's wishes come true, but this came at a price. He also tells Max the story of their house's previous owners. Mr and Mrs Fleishmann and their son Jacob. It turns out that Mr Fleishmann had made a deal with the Prince of Mist years ago and as a result, tragedy befell his family. This prompted Mrs Fleishmann to sell the house to the Carvers.
Things go awry when a powerful storm develops over the town and marks the return of the Prince of Mist. It is now up to Max, Alicia and Roland to discover a way to stop the Prince of Mist from finishing what he has started so many years ago.
While reading this book, I couldn't help but think about Stephen King's It. Both Zafón's and King's novel have a similar evil entity that threatens a small community. Even though King beat Zafón to the punch with Pennywise, Zafón's Prince of Mist offers a twist to the evil persona that King in turn seems to have borrowed for his novel Duma Key several years later. The fact remains that the Prince of Mist is a haunting character whose scare-factor easily translates from the letters on the page into your own mind. He offers what so many of us crave: our deepest desires. Is it any wonder that the characters in the novel all too willingly oblige with whatever payment he asks?
The ominous cat in the novel reminded me of Poe's Pluto, but here it serves as a prelude to its master, not as the true conduit of evil.
The Prince of Mist might not be a lively book, having only 200 pages it still provides for an excellent horror/young adult mystery novel. Zafón doesn't need overly long descriptions of the places his characters visit. Instead he keeps it short, but with enough attention for the small details, such as the recurring six-point star within a circle symbol. He keeps the character development firmly between his three main characters (Max, Alicia and Roland) without adding too many names and relationships. He does throw in a small triangle affair as it still a young adult novel and some sense of relationship drama is needed.
Overall, this book is perfect for when you have a few hours and you want to read something à la Stephen King but don't have the time -or energy- to wrestle through one of his encyclopedia-esque books.
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