The Fog

James Herbert
1975
0-450-03045-8

Nothing is as insubstantial as fog, so when it's the enemy, how do you fight it?

An earthquake releases a fog into the English countryside, where it roams at the mercy of the wind, sending any creature it touches completely insane. Holman, exposed and apparently immune, is left to try and convince that his story isn't fantasy, and to figure out how you fight a mist.

This is one of those horrors that unnerve you - there is normality mixed with unimaginable craziness. There is no central bad guy; everyone has the potential to lose their mind, so there is an uneasiness rather than an out-and-out fear, which seems even scarier.

There were several points in this book where I had to put it down altogether to get my head around what was happening, but it was also a story where I really had to know how it ended.

There was one thing that I thought was missed from the ending - the fate of McLellan's family wasn't told - but aside from that I thought this was riveting, and made more so for two reasons: it was set in England rather than America, and it was written in the 70s, so there wasn't the annoying convenience of technology like mobile phones and the internet.

Another reason why James Herbert is becoming my favourite author.

Date Finished: 20/03/08
Year Total: 10