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The Prince of Mist

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The Prince of Mist

(52 customer reviews)

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I9780316044776

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ISBN13: 9780316044776
Condition: New
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Description

A mysterious house harbors an unimaginable secret...

It's wartime, and the Carver family decides to leave the capital where they live and move to a small coastal village. But from the minute they cross the threshold of their new home, strange things begin to happen. In that mysterious house still lurks the spirit of Jacob, the previous owners' son, who died by drowning.

With the help of their new friend Roland, Max and Alicia Carver begin to explore the strange circumstances of that death and discover the existence of a mysterious being called the Prince of Mist--a diabolical character who has returned from the shadows to collect on a debt from the past. Soon the three friends find themselves caught up in an adventure of sunken ships and an enchanted stone garden--an adventure that will change their lives forever.

Product Details

Author:	Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Hardcover:	224 pages
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date:	May 04, 2010
Language:	English
ISBN:	0316044776
Product Length:	6.0 inches
Product Width:	1.0 inches
Product Height:	8.5 inches
Product Weight:	0.74 pounds
Package Length:	8.3 inches
Package Width:	5.8 inches
Package Height:	0.9 inches
Package Weight:	0.75 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 52 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.0

( 52 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 59 found the following review helpful:

Review of The Prince of Mist May 05, 2010 By Lydia "The Lost Entwife"
I'm not a big fan of ghost stories. I spook easily and end up having to sleep at night with my lights on and an eye half open. I am, however, a huge fan of Zafon's writing and The Prince of Mist proved worthy.

Although The Prince of Mist lacked the more poetic writing of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game, it still captured that gothic, dark feeling that I loved about the books. I could definitely tell this was a book geared more toward a younger audience - it was short, easy to read and drew me in from the very get-go.

Young Max has to move from his childhood home. With him are his two sisters (one older, one younger) and his parents. They move to a house with a history, a house on a beach, and they stumble into a story involving magic, ghosts and some of the creepiest elements of a ghost story that can be used.

There was a little bit of everything in this book. It played on my fear of graveyards, clowns, "The Ring" movie and many more fears. I read the book in an evening, but had to set it down several times because of random noises that had me jumping and looking over my shoulder. It's just a book, I'd remind myself. I'm such a wimp.

This is a fantastic addition to the YA world. The beginning writing is a bit simple, but push through it and you'll find a story that has every element needed to make it interesting, scary, fun, romantic, sad and just plain creepy.

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

A spooky read May 21, 2010 By Brittany Moore "Reading Nook"
During wartime a father picks up his family to move out of the city and onto the sea coast. Once there, however, strange things start happening to some of them. A cat that shoots daggers with its eyes is adopted by the youngest child, the son notices the hands on the clock moving backwards, and the eldest daughter is simply in a slump. When the son, Max, meets a boy from town named Roland he gets a tour of the town and an invitation to go diving on some old boat wreckage. Max sensing his eldest sister's, Alicia, melancholy invites her along when he goes to visit Roland. When Roland tells of tales relating to the Prince of Mist, Max knows that it has something to do with the statue garden and the tapes he has found. He knows he needs help if he is going to figure out what is going on and stop it before it's too late.

I wish I could read this in it's original text, theoretically I can, and probably will. I feel like there were parts that just didn't translate well, because the story will be going along and then all of a sudden the writing seems a little off. Maybe that is how it was written but, until I read the original I can not be sure. Otherwise this was a very creepy, creepy novel. I made the mistake of reading this before going to bed. Big mistake. This story contains the spooky Prince of Mist, clowns(eek), statues that move only slightly, graveyards and underwater sunken ships. All these things make me stay up all night to finish the book hoping that once it's done I won't have nightmares. If you don't enjoy reading scary stories, and any of the above things creep you out, don't read this book. If you don't mind something a little spooky please pick this up it was a wonderful story. It's set in 1943 so it's got a nice historical fiction feel, without reading like your history book for school. The history lies within the characters actions and the way they use their words. Although some things seem out of place, I can't say for certain since I a.) didn't live in 1943 and b.) am not quite sure where this takes place, but it probably isn't New Hampshire. Also really enjoyable was the unconventional ending, I don't want to ruin it, but I appreciated it fully for not ending like you might expect. I certainly enjoy this novel and will pick up Carlos Ruiz Zafón's other young adult novels, should he write any more. I also look forward to reading this in it's original Spanish. Go out and pick this book up it was well written and a pleasure to read.

First Line:
"Max would never forget that faraway summer when, almost by chance, he discovered magic."

Favorite Line:
"Alicia woke shortly after sunrise to find two amber eyes staring intently at her from the window."

19 of 23 found the following review helpful:

geared towards YA audience Jun 01, 2010 By Matthew Schiariti
Being a big fan of The Shadow of the Wind and a fan of the Angel's Game (up until the rather strange and confusing ending) I was pretty happy when I found a new Zafon book being published. I had no idea it was a young adults novel (and his first apparently) until I got my hands on the novel and read the forward.

At its heart, The Prince of Mist is more or less a ghost story. Because of the looming threat of World War II Max's father moves them to a 'town by the sea'. They move into an old shore house that has a rather shady history. As Max tries to fill up his summer days learning the new town and missing his true home he discovers the skeletons that are held within the home's particular closets.

I'm hardly a young adult which is probably why this book didn't appeal to me all that much. I'm not a huge horror fan but I enjoy a creepy ghost story from time to time. While there's elements of creepiness and sinister goings on in this novel as well as a hint of mystery I found myself not at all creeped or surprised at the book's outcome.

I will say that the characters are pretty vivid though, which is one of Zafon's strong suits. Anybody who's read Shadows or Angels can attest to that.

Would I have read the book if I'd known it was intended for younger audiences from the beginning? I'm sure I would have being that I'm a fan of Zafon and I have read and enjoyed some YA novels, although I admit those instances are few and far between.

Not a bad book by any means, it just missed a certain something that normally pulls me into a novel.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Spooky! May 09, 2011 By Alison's "Alison's Book Marks"
Zafon does not disappoint in his spine-chilling YA thriller, The Prince of Mist. Go read it - you'll love it!

It grabbed me from the first line of the first page and it did. not. let. go. I read it in practically one sitting, and wanted more when I turned the last page.

Max Carver is an easy-going, intelligent, 13 year old boy, whose father moves the family out of the city and away from the war, to a house on the beach. The first thing Max notices is the clock at the train station - it keeps perfect time, except that time is going backwards. He shrugs it off as a fluke. Soon he will realize, there are no such things as flukes and minor coincidences. Max and his older sister, Alicia, quickly become friends with Roland, a local boy who lives with his grandfather, Victor Kray, the lighthouse keeper.

Max learns that the house they moved into has a past, and their moving in sets in motion a series of events which resurface old, but not forgotten, secrets. If the signs are to be believed, they are too dangerous to ignore. The legend of the Prince of Mist is a scary one, could he be real? Could he be here? What really happened to the family that used to live in this house? What will happen to Max's family if they stay? How long must one keep a promise? When is that debt paid?

Max quickly learns:

NOTHING IS AS POWERFUL AS A PROMISE.

I have chills just writing that sentence!

I am already a huge fan of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game, so when I learned that his YA novels were going to be published in the US in English and translated by Lucia Graves, I could not wait to get my hands on a copy! I begged for ARCs of this book, so it should not have come as a surprise when two copies landed on my desk on the same day. Thank you to both Clinton Book Shop and Angela at Dark Faerie Tales! You made my week!

It's not commonly known that Zafon wrote his YA novels before he penned his world wide bestseller The Shadow of the Wind. The Prince of Mist is hopefully the first of many more of his YA novels to be translated to English and available in the US. He makes me want to learn Spanish, just so I don't have to wait for the translations!

The Prince of Mist may have felt like an earlier, less polished, work to some, but I think that this is only because we adult readers are used to such complex characters, plot and settings from Zafon. This YA might fall short for some of Zafon's fans, but not me!

This was a well crafted ghost story worthy of any flashlight! Then again, you may want to keep the lights on. It's suspenseful, exciting, and scary. I loved every minute of it!

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Plot holes galore Oct 03, 2010 By octobercountry
Looking at the Amazon plot summary, this book seems to have all the elements present that would suggest that this would turn out to be exactly the sort of story that I really enjoy. And true enough, it started out well. However, about three-quarters of the way through I began getting a sinking sensation that all the plot elements were not, in fact, going to tie together in the end---and I was correct. I thought the shreds of plot only imperfectly masked one loophole after another. It just didn't make sense.

Still, I held out hope until the final two chapters. Not only did the conclusion make everything that happened before seem kind of pointless, but I have to say---in the strongest possible terms---that I HATED THE WAY THIS STORY ENDED. I think if the final two chapters had been different, I still would have given this a weak recommendation despite my misgivings, but as it stands---nope, not going to happen.

It wasn't a bad book in terms of the skill of the author (though as with any translation, you have to wonder just how much of the author's original voice and vision are getting through). But I thought it had major logical inconsistencies; some real problems with style over substance. And as I said---there's that horrible ending that left me with a very negative feeling about the entire enterprise.

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