Under the Dome by Stephen King

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.

π π π π

I did it!! My 2 parts of Under the Dome came to a total of 1,243 pages and I think this was the longest book that I have ever read. I should give the novel 5 calculators just because I finished it! I’m going to go right down the middle and give it 3 calculators – some parts I liked, some parts I didn’t.

Under the Dome is scary. Not the typical Stephen King horror, but scary since I could totally see this happening. A dome covering a small town and the townspeople – both good and bad – are left to battle it out, no consequences. It has a Lord of the Flies type of feel, but with a lot more characters and pages.

I struggled with the characters. I normally run from a book that has a list of characters at the start. I wish there was more focus on the main characters, instead of the randoms that I lost track of and didn’t feel any sympathy for when they mostly likely ending up dying. I think King did such a great job with the main characters – Big Jim, Barbara, Julie, Junior and Brenda. I have never felt such love and such hate towards characters. They felt so real that I could easily see them in any town.

Under the Dome was also very uncomfortable. There are some graphic scenes of murder, animal cruelty and rape. I found it tough to read those scenes and ended up skimming.

3 calculators out of a potential 5. Easily could of been cut by 400 pages. I wish there was more focus on the lead characters and the aftermath of the dome. I may check out the TV series to see how it compares.

Let’s be friends! Goodreads & Instagram