Under The Dome - A Review

Under The Dome - Stephen King (Bought)

• Pub. Date: November 2009
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover, 1088pp
• Sales Rank: 12

• ISBN-13: 9781439148501
• ISBN: 1439148503

Synopsis

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

My Thoughts:

Yes! I finally got this monster finished! I was beginning to think I wouldn't get to read anymore books this year at the rate I was going.

This was a huge undertaking for me. It has been a very long time since I read a book of this length. Two weeks later I have completed this monstrosity of a book. Mr King gives the reader so much information that for me, I have to slow my reading way down just to take it all in. I had to read in shorter bursts so I could digest it. You've got your main plot and then you have several smaller plots building through out that mix in with the main plot.

The premise of the story itself is interesting. The idea of being shut off from the outside world and see how you and your town would react to such a situation, I find intriguing. The characters all had varying reactions, all of which felt fairly plausible. I liked this. It gave the book a sense of realness.

I found the little snippets of political and literary views to be humorous, although It wouldn't surprise me if some people found it irritating on some level. But I definitely saw this scattered here and there throughout the book.

On to the characters. There's not a whole lot to say you either love them or you hate them. You get a pile of both in the book. One minute your all into the story and the next some idiot character has you seething. Boy did some characters have me seething so bad at times, I wanted to reach into the pages and throttle them!

Well this review went a little off course from my usual reviews. A little on the technical side for me. So my final thoughts, I liked it. It was long and the ending was a bit strange but all in all I really enjoyed it, even if it took me nearly two weeks to read.

~Special note for J. Kaye~ Yes it has an ending, a bit strange, but an ending was had.

~EDIT~ I forgot to mention there should probably be some warning for voilence, some sexual violence. It is Stephen King so violence and gore is normal but I decided I should note this just in case some don't know his writing style.