Into the Mist is an apocalyptic fantasy with a fierce feminist edge. P.C. Cast delivers a gripping, high-stakes survival story where a mysterious mist rewrites the rules of the world—and women rise to reclaim it. Blending action, sisterhood, and a dash of romance, this book is equal parts thrilling and empowering. The supernatural twist adds intrigue, but it’s the strength and resilience of the female characters that leave the deepest mark.

Rating: 4/5

Recommended for: Fans of dystopian fiction, strong female leads, and stories where the end of the world is just the beginning of something powerful.

INTO THE MIST introduces readers to cast of six young women who maust take their place in the new world. The first book in a duology that promises to be a "must read" in reading circles.

I was really excited to read another P.C. Cast book, however I am finding that the first book I read was amazing, and everything after has just fell a bit flat for me.

I am sad that I did not love this book even more. I wanted to SO BADLY. Practical Magic is my jam and I thought the strong female leads would do it for me. I think it was the apocalypse vibes that this gave out that I just could not get into.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

This is one of those books I feel that sounded like such an interesting idea, but the execution didn't quite hit the mark. Unfortunately, I DNF'd this book around the 40% mark (I do like to try my best to give all books an equal chance!) but honestly, this was not for me.

The book itself follows a main cast of female school teachers who, while away at a teacher conference, end up getting front row seats to the apocalypse. While the world become a dystopian nightmare, green mist spreads over the world killing all men it comes into contact with, whilst enhancing woman.

Sounds cool? yeah! But the characterisation of the female characters is where it lost me, within the first handful of pages I had accepted it wasn't for me - massively unlikable people and very immature.

This is my first PC Cast book and I don't think I'll be rushing to pick up others in the future.

Thanks for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Just sorry it wasn't for me

The premise for this book was very exciting to me, even though it's sort of been done before. The issue I had was that it felt weirdly YA in a way, while also being incredibly bleak. Obviously it's an apocalypse book so bleak is expected but it felt like a slog to get through. There were moments that I really enjoyed the characters and their interplay with each other but this book definitely suffered from feeling slow.

I really wanted to love this title more than I did, but I also felt the same way about the House of NIght series. I think I am just not meant to be this author's audience, and that's okay! Thank you to all for the opportunity to read this eARC!

I approached this book with uncertainty, as the author is an auto-read for me, but I tend to disregard blurbs and simply request their works from my library. Although the author's previous works mostly fall under the young adult category, this book pleasantly deviated from that pattern. Being a fan of dystopian fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the world's collapse within these pages, making it a perfect fit for my tastes. The women in the story displayed remarkable adaptability, quickly adjusting to the horrors they encountered. They stuck together, devised safety plans, and made necessary adjustments as they discovered the effects of the mysterious green fog. Despite encountering villainous characters, the core group remained steadfast, protecting their unity while enduring significant hardships. I am genuinely intrigued to witness the fulfillment of Imani's spoken words, the possibility of establishing a secure home, Karen's personal growth, and the outcome of Mercury's dream in contrast to the harsh reality they face.

House of Night was a series I loved when I was younger, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to read this book! While not a favorite, it was an enjoyable read with engaging writing, a story with potential, and characters I loved getting to know!

I've always wanted to love PC Cast books but the couple I've read, I really haven't enjoyed. Really strange, as I love paranormal books.

I'm happy to say, this time, I really enjoyed a PC Cast book. Maybe it was the woman forward cast or the fact that it is based on an apocalyptic concept (which I also love) or maybe it was the narrator of the audiobook that I listened along to. Maybe it was all that rolled into one.

Whatever the reason, I'm happy to say that I've finally found a book by this author that I really enjoyed and I can't wait for Book 2 to arrive.

And by the way, that ending! Tears and shock! So good!

My students are loving this book (I had a print ARC as well). Will definitely order through Follett this year, and adding others by the same author to my list as well.

interesting plot and characters. it wasn’t really my cup of tea but it might be someone else’s! i do not not recommend this book, if the plot intrigues you, go ahead

I had high hopes for this one. It sounded like such a cool, exciting book. And while the premise is really interesting, I feel the book itself moved a bit too slow for my taste.

One issue I had with this book was that, while a lot of things happened, the plot itself didn't really seem to progress. The majority of the book felt more like an introduction to the story than a full book. I do realize this is the first book in a series, but I was hoping for a little more plot.

I did enjoy the characters however. Each character had their own unique journey and point of view. I appreciated that every character had a voice of their own and they didn't all blend together.

I'm not sure if I would recommend this one unfortunately. Like I said, the idea is cool and there were some really interesting parts. But after finishing, I was left wanting so much more and a little disappointed.

Thank you to Crooked Lane books, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest review.

I’m glad I started reading this book before I read the reviews as actually this book appears to be a bit like marmite. I read all the HoN books years ago and enjoyed them for what they are and so thought I’d give this a go. I didn’t even read the blurb before requesting it and starting it.

I love a dystopian novel and end of the world plots so I actually quite enjoyed the premises of the plot. The characters developed as the book plodded on and they became more interesting the more we knew. The author provided some good little twists and novels ideas to the story. I agree with the whole anti-men vibe that’s coming from the story, the feminism which feels like it’s gone a bit far. But rather than annoy me, it made me chuckle. It’s only a story and it help reinforce the group of girls looking after themselves.

I definitely enjoyed this book and will be looking out for the second part in this duology. If you keep your views light and don’t take yourself or this book too seriously then it’s definitely a good one to read.

I was excited to try a new dystopian piece, and left feeling a little disappointed.
Did not love the way the feminists ended up portraying a feminist worst nightmare - flipped - and running the utopian society putting down the men. Being a feminist isn't that.
It got a little preachy, and just felt like the author's political beliefs crossed the lines of appropriate in a novel vs. inappropriate and too much.

I tried to read this book but did not enjoy it unfortunately. I will try again at a different time but it just wasn't for me. I hope that others enjoy this book though. Thank you for my review copy!

DNF at 23%

It’s no secret that I don’t like books surrounding an apocalypse based on sex and/or gender. When I requested this ARC, I don’t think I properly read the synopsis, and I’m surprised I made it 23% in.

This novel begins at a teaching conference, where a bunch of middle aged women act like children. I was highly surprised this was written not only by a highly established author, but someone in her mid 60s. I didn’t write down any quotes, but a good 75% of the things these women said were laughable. Grown women, teachers, in a professional setting, don’t say LOL out loud. At least, none I’ve ever met.

As the plot moved into the gender/sex part, I knew already that it was going to be male vs. female, but I held out hope that maybe there would be a slight mention of trans or gender non-conforming folks. There was none. I read a few reviews at this point, and it seems that it never comes up.

Listen. There is no way a disease would affect 100% “men” or 100% “women.” Both gender and sex are a highly complicated spectrum, and there’s no way that this is realistic. Beyond suspending belief over this disease, it seemed the women of this novel just absolutely hated men. They truly acted like what misogynists think feminists sound like. They also had really cringy names. The whole thing just felt like a transphobic, misogynistic parody of a novel.

The only real redeeming quality of the novel was how the disease was written. It was actually some pretty gross body horror.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for this advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

I've read some of P.C. Cast's previous books and quite enjoyed them but this was a huge disappointment.
I love dystopian fiction and female led stories but this book was just awful. I found it difficult to be invested in a story where the main characters were immensely unlikable and that played a large role in my discontent with this book.
Mercury and Stella, two of the MCs, had the emotional intelligence and empathy of gnats and that is being generous. They bullied Karen and others and were not people I would give the time of day too, so I really wasn't interested in how they would survive the 'bombs'.

The story moved at a good pace and it was an interesting concept - the description of what the green gas did to the men was completely gross and also worked to show how awful Mercury and Stella were.
I would not recommend this book.

P.C. Cast is an author that is known to me from her series written with her daughter - House of Night and Sisters of Salem - which are Young Adult ones and has a lot of magic in them. When reading Into the Mist we are following middle-aged women and the apocalypse that just started upon the world - something completely different, is it good or bad though?
A group of teachers is facing the end of the world as it is known to us due to a strange green mist, that brings change for some reason - it kills men, strange right? So now they have to run and hide in the cities that were ravaged by survivors that not always will be nice - going crazy n those circumstances is something normal, but we have t sty sane for the others, this is what shines in minds of our teachers that try to survive ad hep others that they meet n the way... but it's not always possible...
Into the Mist stats relatively slowly, which got me bored in some parts, but the premise kept me interested so I pushed when reading slower moments to get to know what is to come in this post-apo read, the topics are always intriguing as in every book/film we see it differently. What are the best parts - the beginning, was so engaging and left me speechless with the number of emotions it provided - ad the ending - that got us a setup for the next book which can go in quite a few different ways - but which?
As I liked in HoN that girls were getting powers, and the same happens here, it's not rushed, but slow and partial to getting to understand what is going on with them or their bodies, when no one is affected in the same way - I will gladly see what is to come for them as the apocalyptic setting gives so many opportunities.

This is a story about women inheriting the earth

This was such an interesting read- I still can’t decide exactly what I think. On the one hand, the dialogue didn’t work well for me- it felt very YA, but it’s not a YA book. On the other, I really enjoyed the overall plot, and & it was sufficiently horrifying!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ . 🌟/ rounded to 4.


Thank you so much Crooked Lane Books & Netgalley for the eArc!