This was the second time I sat down to read "Under the Dome". I first picked it up around Christmas the year it came out (2009), but for some reason was either not impressed or got bored with it, and I put the book down
So, the book sat on my shelf, waiting patiently for me to pick it up and start again.
I had brought “Under the Dome” along with three other books home with me when I visited my parents at Christmas, and left it for the last book to read. This time, I don't know if I was in a different place, or the story just struck me, or something, but I devoured this book. From the first page, I was sucked in, just like I had been with the classic Stephen King stories that I read during my sophomore to senior years in high school.
“Under the Dome” is not your typical Stephen King horror book; in fact, there was not any elements of horror in the book that I could recall.
As I said, I devoured this book this time around, deciding to give up sleep or food in favor of reading, knocking out chunks of sixty to seventy five pages at a sitting.
The story is simple: what happens to a town when it is cut off from the world by a dome, and how do you get rid of it. It starred a former Army person turned fry cook, Dale Barbara, as the protagonist, and the city’s Second Selectman, Jim Rennie, as they faced off against each other several times during the course of the book.
Mr. King has always been one of my favorite authors, and he did not disappoint with this novel. His ability to build a world that draws you in from the first page and makes you lose track of everything else as you read is something that other authors could learn a lesson from.
This is definitely a book that keeps you guessing for the first two thirds and then once you find out the who behind the dome, you spend the rest of the book wondering how it would be resolved.
My only beef with the book is one that I have with most Stephen King books, and that is the profanity. You could go for several pages without seeing a swear, and then the very next page would be littered with them. But, given that Mr. King has been writing a lot longer than I have, I guess I have no room for criticism, and pushing it to the side as a part of his style.
I could definitely see this book being made into a SyFy miniseries and I would sit down and enjoy every minute of it. My only worry would be that whoever made the movie or miniseries would dwell too much on Jim Rennie and not on the actual story that Stephen King intended.
Overall Rating: 3.5
As always, if you like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com If you don’t like what I have to say, please leave me feedback below or send me an e-mail at childofking88@aol.com.
As always, be kind, please rewind, and remember two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights always make a left.
