Max Carver's father - a watchmaker and inventor - decides to move his family to a small town on the coast, to an old house that once belonged to a prestigious surgeon, Dr Richard Fleischmann. But the house holds many secrets and stories of its own. Behind it is an overgrown garden full of statues surrounded by a metal fence topped with a six-pointed star. When he goes to investigate, Max finds that the statues seem to consist of a kind of circus troop with the large statue of a clown at its centre. Max has the curious sensation that the statue is beckoning to him. As the family settles in they grow increasingly uneasy: they discover a box of old films belonging to the Fleischmanns; his sister has disturbing dreams and his other sister hears voices whispering to her from an old wardrobe. They also discover the wreck of a boat that sank many years ago in a terrible storm. Everyone on board perished except for one man - an engineer who built the lighthouse at the end of the beach. During the dive, Max sees something that leaves him cold - on the old mast floats a tattered flag with the symbol of the six-pointed star.
As they learn more about the wreck, the chilling story of the Prince of the Mists begins to emerge.
I loved Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s book The Shadow of the Wind, so I was eager to try some more of his works. I knew this was one of his Young Adult books so I didn’t expect the same level as excitement from this book, but I probably did expect a lot more. While The Prince of Mist is full of adventure, magic and gothic themes, I kind of felt like there was a lot missing from the story and maybe it was rushed a little too much. I understand the idea of having short books for the Young Adults but this book kind of left me hanging, with no sense of closure, I know its is setting up for the next book in the series, I just was expecting it to feel like Max’s adventure with the prince of mist was over; and I didn’t feel that at all. Zafón is a really great writer and this is more for a younger audience; I’m glad I read this but I would of liked more from it.
Reading updates
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17 November, 2011:
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17 November, 2011:
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