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Under the Dome

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 77,540 ratings · 7,286 reviews

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 familie...more

Hardcover, 1074 pages

Published November 10th 2009 by Scribner

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Nov 28, 2009 brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. in the 2008 film max payne, there's a point in which the gloomy hero is, of course, offered casual sex by this ridiculously beautiful woman:

aware that payne is mourning the murder of his wife she says something to the effect that he can call out his wife's name as he fucks her. ok. this is kinda interesting. if i was the director i'd hard cut to payne banging away and, yes, squealing his dead wife's name. play it straight. sad and tragic but also kinda funny and very human. and it offers up a co...more

133 likes · like · see review

Jun 09, 2013 Stacia ~ Mistress of Mediocrity rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Stacia ~ Mistress of Mediocrity by: buddy read with Wendy and Leea

Shelves: adult, dystopia-or-apocalyptic, science-fiction, horror, hybrid-multiple-genre, multiple-pov

Finished after almost a week of reading. I liked this for the most part, but by about the 85% mark, I was screaming STFU Mr. King! in my head.

Watch an inside look at the upcoming t.v. show here.

Great storytelling and characterization is present, and it gives enough weight to cancel out some of the over-excessive descriptions and random add-ins. But only to a certain extent. Obviously, my opinion matters little, since Stephen King is popular enough that he can write everything as long-winded as...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jason by: Danielle

Shelves: devil-made-me, 2011, reviewed

I’m not sure how to feel about Under the Dome. In one sense, the concept of an entire town being suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world and the social, political, and even meteorological struggles that ensue is highly fascinating. But at the same time, King has really let me down with this cast of dull, one-dimensional, and highly stereotypical characters. It seems in this novel you are either a hateful, fear-mongering, murderous megalomaniac or you are a gentle, respectful, selfless ind...more

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May 25, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Book Report: Chester's Mills, Maine, is having itself an ordinary morning, and its citizens are gettin' up to all the usual things: Spending too much of their husband's money, killing girls, beating up people they don't like and driving them out of town, making evil brews, only thing missing really is a bonfire and a faggot. Business as usual for the human race, in other words.

*WHAM*

Down comes the Dome.

No way in, no way out, no one can understand the nature, the origin,...more

26 likes · like · see review

Jan 28, 2010 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: it-is-for-class, icky-sex

in brief, because i am nearly starting my first day of readers advisory class (yay!) and i have to prepare mentally for the schoolplace after the long break, plus i'm not really in the mood to write this review what with salinger and all casting a pall over my day, but book report compulsion gets the best of me, so.

this book ... whole lotta length, not much depth. and as any lady will tell you...etc etc... i don't have a problem with stephen king. i stopped reading him when i was a teenager not...more in brief, because i am nearly starting my first day of readers advisory class (yay!) and i have to prepare mentally for the schoolplace after the long break, plus i'm not really in the mood to write this review what with salinger and all casting a pall over my day, but book report compulsion gets the best of me, so.

this book ... whole lotta length, not much depth. and as any lady will tell you...etc etc... i don't have a problem with stephen king. i stopped reading him when i was a teenager not because i felt "better" than him or was too snobby for mass market fiction, but because gerald's game was so so so laughably bad that i could not carry on. oh, god even thinking about it now makes me chuckle a little bit. go, read it - it is dreadful. but the stand i think is a bunch of fun, and i have read that one a number of times. king is also the only author to terrify me to this day with a story i read when i was about 7 or 8 on my way to the fair (yeah, i know, but what better to read trapped in a car on the way to some fair?) and even thinking about it now (the boogeyman) gives me delicious shivers.

this one started off pretty good - engaging plot, fast-paced, numerous characters to keep straight in the head. but then...it just goes nowhere while going everywhere, you know? much of it seems tacked-on, in a way. he attempts to give the characters more dimensions than they deserve and he somehow fails to follow through with this promise. by trying to complicate them, he makes their shallowness stand out even more. bad guys melt in the face of abandoned children, good guys have secret shady pasts... but i'm not buying it.

all the action takes place in about a week, even though this thing is the size of the bible (which is much more willing to sacrifice some details in the interest of economy; learn from god, s.k; we like a little mystery....) i am a huge fan of the "aftermath" novel, but i think i prefer a little more time to have passed before the story begins... when we had the blackout here in nyc, and we allll had to walk home to our respective boroughs, vendors were handing out bottled water along the way and the atmosphere was actually kind of fun. if this had lasted longer than it did, those vendors would probably be huddled in their bodegas, guarding their chips and gum like gold... and that's when it gets interesting. it's true there is some bad behavior in this book. some hugely antisocial behavior. but no one seems panic-stricken, until provoked. come on, maine, act like survivors!! stop making pancakes for everyone and hoard some shit.

there are cool moments - how the dome affects pacemakers is pretty awesome, there is some nice description in places of sunsets, meteors, nightgowns - also a shout-out to librarians (smart stephen king, smart...) and i like it when authors name-drop themselves in their books. if stephen king were on goodreads.com he would be a total votewhore, say these two facts.

the resolution is just awful. truly. i was hoping for something really cool, or at least plausible/comprehensible. it was like the happening in my epic disappointment, only this took longer than 2 hours to get through. ON MY VACATION!

i am scattered right now - i will probably tidy up my thinking on this book later, but i wanted to get a start while it was mostly fresh in my head. it was overlong, and i hated the ending, but fun enough for me to not hate it overall. but i have no desire to reread it ever, the way i did with the stand, several times over. schooltime now!

okay - school is over - i had one other thing to say I AM NOT FLOATING!! but here is the good librarian comment: "who better to recruit than a librarian when you're dealing with a fledgling dictatorship?" yes sir!

but so this is about language, and i might be nitpicking a huge book's tiny problem, but while i love (and will in the future use) king's word "joyshit", it troubles me that he uses "debark" instead of "disembark", which is just more elegant and honestly, i have never heard the word "debark", and i thought he made it up. he hadn't. and also, he should know the difference between "unbelievingly" and "disbelievingly". just things that stuck out in my jerky mind that i felt would be exciting to share. was it?(less)

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Nov 24, 2011 Felina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-kindle, 2010, star-5, favorites, own-nook

Of all the King books I've read so far this one was my favorite. Because of my working situation I was only ever able to read this book in 10 to 20 minute intervals and it took me about 3 months. Even with the constant breaks and interruptions I still found this book very engrossing.

This book isn't conventionally scary. There are no monsters or creepers (well not really) but I think the villians in this story are much more terrifying because of the recent outbreak of fear-mongering in America. W...more

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Nov 24, 2009 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, horror

Here’s a nightmare scenario. A mysterious disaster occurs. The area is completely cut off from any outside help. Resources are limited. People are confused and scared. And Dick Cheney is in charge….

That terrifying idea is what makes Under the Dome one of the best books King has done.

Chester’s Mill, Maine, is a typical Stephen King small town, filled with people both good and criminally insane. One fall day, a force-field crashes down around the area, causing a fair amount of carnage and disaster...more Here’s a nightmare scenario. A mysterious disaster occurs. The area is completely cut off from any outside help. Resources are limited. People are confused and scared. And Dick Cheney is in charge….

That terrifying idea is what makes Under the Dome one of the best books King has done.

Chester’s Mill, Maine, is a typical Stephen King small town, filled with people both good and criminally insane. One fall day, a force-field crashes down around the area, causing a fair amount of carnage and disaster. The Dome is quickly found to be impenetrable, and while the townspeople can communicate with the outside world via cell phones or wireless internet, they’re essentially on their own. If the situation wasn’t bad enough, the town is now in the hands of Big Jim Rennie.

Forget about Randall Flagg or Annie Wilkes or the Crimson King or Pennywise the Clown. Big Jim, a used car salesman and town selectman, is King’s scariest villain ever. Why? Because America lived through a Big Jim-like reign after 9/11, and it’s all too easy to picture how much worse it could have gotten while reading this book.

King isn’t very subtle in the allegory here. Chester’s Mill is the stand-in for America, and Big Jim is obviously based on Cheney, a corrupt political weasel hiding behind the dim-witted first selectman of the town as a front to cover up his shenanigans. He doesn’t drink or smoke and talks about his love for Jesus, but Big Jim is utterly ruthless about destroying his enemies. And to Big Jim, just disagreeing with him makes you an enemy.

Big Jim has spent years refusing to spend money on needed town improvements while involved in all kinds of criminal enterprises. While he demands total power and authority, he’s actually completely incompetent at leadership except for placing blame and manipulating people. When the Dome comes down, his first concern is covering up his criminal activity, but he quickly realizes that with the outside world at bay, he can create his own little dictatorship inside the bubble. And of course, he’s doing it for the good of the town.

A small group of people realize what Rennie is doing and try to stop him, but they vastly overestimate what the threat of eventual punishment from the outside will do. They just can’t believe that anyone would actually go as far as Big Jim is prepared to do, and while the federal government tries in vain to assert its authority, Big Jim is all too happy to thumb his nose at them and continue to consolidate power even as the air inside the Dome is getting awfully stale.

King’s always been terrific at depicting the strengths and weaknesses of a small town in books like ‘Salem’s Lot or Needful Things, but this is something different. He claims that he’s had the idea for this book since the mid-70s, but never completed it because the science of what would happen within the Dome was beyond him. Delay may have been a blessing, I don’t think this would have been the same book if it wasn’t for the Bush/Cheney administration after 9/11.

It’s being routinely pointed out in various reviews that the plot here is eerily similar to The Simpson’s Movie where the government puts a giant dome over polluted Springfield. I’ve read an interview where King claims that he had no idea about this until the book was written and someone told him. I’m going to cry bullshit on that. He writes a column about pop culture for Entertainment Weekly and has played himself on the show. I find it really hard to believe that he somehow missed The Simpson’s Movie having a giant dome in it. It’s very weird that none of the people within the Dome ever mention the movie since King has never been shy about incorporating pop culture references before.

But that’s nitpicking and doesn’t change the fact that this story and Big Jim scared the crap out of me. (I grew up in a small town, and I could easily think of some of the locals who would have tried to take over after a crisis if left unchecked, and some of them probably would have been worse than Big Jim and his crowd of hand-picked bullies.) Although this is a huge book and King has been bad about over-writing in the past, this one flies by and I actually found myself wanting a little more detail about some of the people since many of them don’t get much of a wrap up. I was a shade disappointed in the eventual explanation to the cause of the Dome, and how it is resolved, but overall, this is going to end up being one of my favorite Stephen King books.
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May 26, 2012 Mary JL rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of horror/SF/Stephen King

Recommended to Mary JL by: I am a fan of this author

Shelves: main-sf-fantasy

Many persons regard this is King's best book since The Stand. I agree--I rate them both a very high four stars.

This is vintage KIng, with his usual large cast of characters facing a mysterious and horrifying danger.

One thing I found really chilling in this books was the realistic characterization of Big Jim Rennie. I don't believe in hauted houses or haunted cars; I doubt that a Dome could exist.

But corrupt politicians---correction, corrupt individuals of any sort--DO exist. With the town cut of...more

16 likes · like · see review

May 01, 2010 Sandi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic-dystopian, horror

Once I got past the whole "Simpsons Movie" correlation, I really liked this story. It's more science fiction than horror, but it's got plenty for the horror fan too. The horror may have been a little too real though because it was about the terrible things people can do, not the supernatural. I would have given it 4 stars if it had just been shorter. The story rambled way too much and a lot of it wasn't even necessary.

ADDED MAY 1, 2010:

Oops! I forgot to talk about the audio production of this bo...more

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Feb 14, 2010 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

More like 3 1/2 stars. This is my first full-fledged Stephen King novel, so I'm not sure how it measures up against other King classics like The Stand, It, Salem's Lot, or Carrie. Sure, I've read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but only because it was described as a young adult novel (King-lite, if you will). I have spent most of my life actively avoiding Stephen King and here's my story as to why Mr. King and I parted ways before I even read anything by him.

When I was but a wee little girl, ful...more More like 3 1/2 stars. This is my first full-fledged Stephen King novel, so I'm not sure how it measures up against other King classics like The Stand, It, Salem's Lot, or Carrie. Sure, I've read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but only because it was described as a young adult novel (King-lite, if you will). I have spent most of my life actively avoiding Stephen King and here's my story as to why Mr. King and I parted ways before I even read anything by him.

When I was but a wee little girl, full of innocence and a precocious love of reading, my mom was also a voracious reader. As I was consuming Little House on the Prairie books (my earliest encounter with book rape--thanks, grandma) and Nancy Drew, I began noticing that mom was always reading these big ass books with KING running down the spine. When she wasn't reading these books, they were always placed on top of the refrigerator which was well out of my grasp. Eager for us to share this love of reading (Mom had no interest in the plight of the Ingalls family), I begged and pleaded to be allowed to read the King books. "Gee, wouldn't it be fun if Mom and I read the same books? Then we could talk about them!" I thought. Days, weeks, months went by and, eventually, my constant wheedling became too much. She relented, but the deal was that she would pick the scene I was allowed to read. She chose a particularly horrific and descriptive scene from The Stand. I read with increasing horror--Nancy Drew never encountered messed up shit like this! When I finished that scene, I handed the book over and never asked to read King again. And I stepped lightly around Mom from that day forward. I suddenly understood that, if that woman snapped, it would be ugly--and she would know what to do with the bodies.

Therefore, unlike most teenagers, I skipped over the desire to consume everything King between junior high and high school. And this brings us to present day and my first King novel. At 1,072 pages, this is definitely a doorstop of a book. However, it read fairly quickly. My main complaint was that many of the characters were one dimensional stereotypes. There are no shades of gray in the small town of Chester's Mill. At first, this bothered me; however, I think maybe individual characters had to be sacrificed in order to portray the real character--small town America and how it reacts to cataclysmic events. If King shorthands individual characterizations, he nails the panic and herd-like mentality that takes over when uncertainty is the order of the day.

The premise of the novel, as blatantly presented by the title, is that Chester's Mill one day finds itself cutoff from the outside world by a mysterious dome that perfectly conforms itself to the borders of Chester's Mill. In the days ahead, the people wait and worry as the United States government desperately tries to free them. As hope begins to dwindle, reason is in short supply as people trade in their humanity for mass hysteria and panic.

The dome is not, however, the ultimate villain in this tale. The real villain is Big Jim Rennie, the town selectman who has been waiting for just such a "clustermug" so that he can claim control of the town. Big Jim is the most vile type of Christian, one who believes that being able to quote scripture and abstain from saying cuss words is all it takes to be amongst God's chosen. Big Jim does everything in the belief that God is on his side and damn anyone who tries to get in his way, for not only are they his enemies, but enemies of Christianity itself. It is possible to have religion without true faith, and Big Jim is proof of that. He has customized his religion to serve his needs; indeed, his belief in God is little more than a manifestation of his own belief in himself as superior, as "chosen," to be above all others.

It appears that my review may be destined to be as long as the book, so I'll cut it short. Weaknesses: there were a few clunker sentences that pulled me out of the story, there was an abundance of detail that I could have lived without, and I was disappointed in the reason for the dome because it seemed so obvious. Strengths: King deftly keeps his cast of characters straight and realistically interacting with one another, he captures the terror and bovine-like stupidity that takes over when day-to-day life is disrupted and threatened, there are some colorful cuss words that I hope to employ in the near future, and there's a catastrophic scene toward the end that is one of the most terrifying and well-written that I've ever read.
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Oct 11, 2012 Eric Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Under the Dome
By Stephen King

A Review by Eric Allen

Anyone who has read anything put out by Stephen King in the last, oh, say, fifteen years or so, knows that he's basically just started churning out generic crap of low quality because his name sells books regardless of how well they're written, or what they're about. People will buy them simply because he wrote them, without even bothering to find out what it's about beforehand. I attribute this to his kicking a severe alcoholism problem, and ho...more

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Oct 04, 2010 Debby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

WOW! What a phenomenal story and cast of characters!! Under the Dome ranks right up there with The Stand as one of my favorite Stephen King books. It's long (over 1000 pages or over 33 hours on CD), but well worth the investment in time. The story is captivating and thought provoling and the characters are a full spectrum of the good, the bad, the weird and the truly wicked.
Imagine being a resident in a small town in Maine and suddenly being trapped inside the city limits by an invisible but ve...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Kasia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: stephen-king-books-read

I bought this awesome hunk of a story when it first came out but didn’t plan on reading it right away, somehow time flew and here I was three years later still unaffected by the Dome. Maybe it was the size of it that made me think of one thing, Picasso's Guernica which is one of my favorite pieces of art and one of the largest I have ever seen, funny enough the meaning of that painting can be compared to this story, the suffering of the innocent in war like conditions. So one night I let my comp...more I bought this awesome hunk of a story when it first came out but didn’t plan on reading it right away, somehow time flew and here I was three years later still unaffected by the Dome. Maybe it was the size of it that made me think of one thing, Picasso's Guernica which is one of my favorite pieces of art and one of the largest I have ever seen, funny enough the meaning of that painting can be compared to this story, the suffering of the innocent in war like conditions. So one night I let my computer pick a random title from my list and it selected Under the Dome, I glanced at the clock and wondered if eleven p.m. was too late to start this project but I decided to read a few pages, six pages and I might read something else, something small and easy… well two chapters later there was no going back, I was instantly drawn and whether I liked it or not I was part of Chester’s Mill until I got to the last page. Gripping, shocking ( but not surprising considering human history) and fast moving the story became a part of my life for the time I read it, it formed a bond with me beyond that paper pages, it felt real even though some of it was truly otherworldly and as much as I enjoyed reading it I couldn’t wait to find out how it would end.

The Dome itself is a tool to magnify and speed up what is inside of us in a form of a clear and non-penetrable shield that drops out of the clear blue sky and severs anything in its way; trees, animals and people. Planes and cars crash into it ( or as King calls it a Viking Funeral) until it slowly becomes polluted and defined by a trail of dead animals along its perimeter. Chester’s Mill is a small town where everyone pretty much knows everyone else, or so they think. Sides start to form, youth with a bad track record is promoted as extra Police force, and propane tanks are missing as a bigger picture starts to emerge. This isn’t just a peaceful town; it has been used and abused all in good faith by one of the vilest and most evil characters that King has ever written. Cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible barrier made people fearful, and fearful people needed a strong leader, unfortunately the worst thing that could have happened to them was the one man who stepped up to the job. His reign over the town was long and torturous and quite aggravating to read about as he continued to do some of the most outrageous stuff ever pulled in such a short amount of time, he made my blood boil but it made for a good reading. I was anxious to find the reason and solution of the Dome but in truth the Dome itself wasn’t the main character, just a vehicle for the story, luckily the reader does get some answers and might shed a tear or two in the end.

This might not be for everyone, sure some will sneer at it, so much easier to critique a big story than to write your own but I loved it and was blown away by the ending, pure insanity but good to the last letter.

- Kasia S.

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Dec 17, 2009 Dorsi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned-by-me, fantasy

Whew! I finally finished it! It took me almost 2 weeks. That is the longest it has ever taken for me to read a book. This book was quite the undertaking but well worth it. I have never been much of a Stephen King follower but that has changed. I have converted to a SK fan! I take my hat off to King for the ability to write such a complex novel with so many characters & story lines merging into one. What a fantastic smooth read. The characters came to life! While reading it, I almost felt as...more

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Feb 26, 2010 Jason Pettus rated it 3 of 5 stars

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Like millions of others, some of the very first grown-up books I ever read when a teenager were Stephen King ones, which kept me an avid fan of his throughout high school and college; but then also like millions of others, in my twenties I grew to have more and more problems with King's writing, especiall...more

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May 20, 2013 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 2013, buddy-reads, scifi-fantasy, stephen-king-read

Even though Under the Dome's size might intimidate or scare readers away, the effort to read the 1074 brick, (that's what my version clocks in at), is worth the effort. To tell the truth, I shied away from this story because of it's size, which turned out to be quite deceiving. I did enjoy the story, but for me it was not my favorite, or even a favorite in my "King Favorites List."

I think back to before I began Under the Dome, and remember people telling me the novel starts off with a bang and d...more

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Aug 26, 2011 Cheryl Landmark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a longggg book, but definitely vintage Stephen King. Mr. King has a very fertile, bizarre imagination and, in my opinion, has quite the gift for character development and for depicting the mentalities, prejudices, and secrets of small-town America. I think the most chilling part of the story was not how or why the Dome suddenly descended on Chester's Mill and cut the town off from the rest of the world, but how the citizens handled the terrible situation.

There were all the usual charact...more

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May 20, 2013 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

12 likes · like · see review

Dec 26, 2009 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: stephen-king, 2009, dystopias, horror, mystery-and-thrillers, owned, political, science-fiction, reviewed

Wow. In the author's note at the end of this book, King wrote "I tried to write a book that would keep the pedal consistently to the metal." I think he succeeded. If there is one thing that this book is not, it's a leisurely walk through the park.

And this is what makes King my favorite author (well, the main thing, anyway), when he writes a fast-paced novel, I don't dare look away. Not only is it fast-paced, but King brings the characters and their community to life so convincingly that I'm afr...more Wow. In the author's note at the end of this book, King wrote "I tried to write a book that would keep the pedal consistently to the metal." I think he succeeded. If there is one thing that this book is not, it's a leisurely walk through the park.

And this is what makes King my favorite author (well, the main thing, anyway), when he writes a fast-paced novel, I don't dare look away. Not only is it fast-paced, but King brings the characters and their community to life so convincingly that I'm afraid of what could be happening with my back turned, and I don't want to miss anything. It's more like watching than reading, and every time I closed the book, even for just a second, I would wonder what was happening that I wasn't there to observe. If this is what it means to give a book life, then King is like Dr. Frankenstein, only he knows exactly what he is doing and is more than willing to shape and guide and love these newly formed creations of his.

Under The Dome is like a return to an older, more ruthless version of King. I would not have been one bit surprised if this book had been published as "the last (and we really, really mean it this time guys... maybe) posthumous Richard Bachman novel". It reminds me of some of his older books, with little hints of The Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher, IT, The Stand, and The Dead Zone, and then had minute references to the Dark Tower series and The Talisman.

There is so damn much packed into this book that I know I can't talk about it all without writing a review that's almost as long as the book itself.

Big Jim Rennie, your typical used-car salesman turned power-hungry politician, reminded me of Greg Stillson, only more Caligula-esque. He's narcissistic, and thinks that the world, or maybe at least the town, revolves around him and should kiss his feet in an offering of thanks for managing their pitiful little lives for them. He's selfish and cruel and greedy and manipulative. Let's just say that he takes full advantage of the Dome to achieve his personal agenda.

He pulls the strings behind the scenes that set in motion a series of events that aren't exactly pretty. He increases the size of the police force exponentially, making sure that the new recruits are all young, hot-blooded and authority-wielding men, creates a state of fear and panic, and effectively turns the town into a police-state.

There are a lot of references to Hitler, but I likened it quite a lot to the Patriot Act Mentality of the most recent Bush administration: You're either with US, or with THEM. It shows, at least on the reactionary side, what can happen when we lose ourselves to fear and want someone else to take care of us and make everything all better.

There is also a strong environmental warning here. Be careful what you manufacture, because you may just be forced to live with it and pay the price for it now, and not in some indefinite and indefinable future generation.

The characters in this book were of course brilliant, as I think all of King's characters are. They are fully realized and alive, and at any moment feel like they could walk off the page and into existence. I loved Barbie (Dale Barbara), Rusty, Twitch, Julia, Joe, Norrie, Benny, Linda and the kids... I loved the way that they acted the way that REAL people act, and not the way that over-the-top book characters act. I loved that they were who they were to the end, and rolled with the times, but didn't let the times change them.

I could say a lot more, but I think I'll leave it at that. I loved this book, as I fully expected to. It was definitely a roller-coaster, and even though I was afraid of what the next brutal, cringe-inducing page would bring, I couldn't have stopped reading if you'd paid me. This is why King is my favorite author. (less)

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Nov 21, 2010 Maciek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, own-in-hardcover, big-tomes, read-in-2010, reviewed

Many things can be said about Under The dome, but tedious is not one of them. This is clearly King's most fast paced novel since Cell. He even states in the afterword that he aimed at writing a book that "would keep the pedal consistently to the metal" and in that department he succeeded.

However, that was not to be without sacrifice. King is well known for his famous characters, always well drawn and memorable - even non-readers know about Carrie and Jack Torrance. Those who read the works will...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Mark Souza rated it 4 of 5 stars

When a transparent dome mysteriously cuts off the small Maine town of Chester Mill from the rest of the world, it serves to amplify the best and worst in those trapped beneath. An opportunistic bully, Big Jim Rennie, sees his chance to take control and cover his illegal exploits at the same time. Panicked townies who see him as a man who can get things done soon grant Rennie the near total power he craves. King delivers fantastic characterization (when doesn't he) and tension throughout that qui...more

5 likes · like · see review

May 22, 2011 Braden Canfield rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

23 likes · like · see review

Jul 22, 2011 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010, read-in-2011, all-time-favourites

I was about 50 pages into this book when a girl sitting opposite me on the tube asked if I was enjoying it. She was maybe fifteen or sixteen and seemed sweet, so I let her read the first chapter - and the first chapter is a doozy, a real hook you in starter - to see if she liked it. Reading on through the book later though, I felt guilty that I had recommended it to her as this book is full of bad thoughts, worse behaviour and blood and guts and gore. I was reading this sort of stuff at sixteen,...more

15 likes · like · see review

Jul 20, 2010 Jessie rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Not my favorite book, by far. I found it to be an easy read and rather compelling, but toward the end I just wanted to get to the end to find out how it ended, not because I engrossed in the book or the characters, I just needed to know why the dome was in place.

Oh, the characters. This book had every stereotypical small town character you can imagine. I mean every single one from the corrupt politician, his spoiled and violent son, only one really good cop, the lazy doctor (who misdiagnoses EVE...more

18 likes · like · see review

Feb 15, 2013 Brandon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: uncle-stevie, fiction, 2010

40 days ago I started reading Stephen King's latest novel, "Under The Dome". While it did take me a while to read it - that should be no reflection the quality of the story itself. As you may know, the novel is close to 1,100 pages long and that doesn't exactly lend itself well to a quick read. However, I've been looking around online at various reviews and general thoughts on the book itself and a lot of people had actually sped through the damn thing in a week! Blows my mind.

Stephen King actu...more 40 days ago I started reading Stephen King's latest novel, "Under The Dome". While it did take me a while to read it - that should be no reflection the quality of the story itself. As you may know, the novel is close to 1,100 pages long and that doesn't exactly lend itself well to a quick read. However, I've been looking around online at various reviews and general thoughts on the book itself and a lot of people had actually sped through the damn thing in a week! Blows my mind.

Stephen King actually started writing this massive monstrosity in the 1970s, failed, then tried again in the 1980s - only to fail again. King credits it to the fact that the book was just too big for him at the time. While the first two attempts weren't exactly the same as the finished product; King admits that they were basically the same idea. He wanted to take a group of people and write about their behavior and their reactions after being cut off from the type of society that they've always belonged too.

In Under The Dome, King takes a seemingly ordinary rural Maine town and encloses it inside an invisible barrier. Chaos and death run rampant after cars, planes and birds smash into the side of the dome; exploding at impact. No one inside, or outside, of Chester's Mill knows where the dome came from or if it will ever leave. Shortly after being cut off, the town divides itself into opposing sides. One, led by short order cook and former Iraq vet, Dale Barbara, and the other, used car salesman and town politician, Jim Rennie. As time passes, Rennie becomes increasingly ruthless and does everything he can to maintain power over the town while Barbara attempts to solve the mystery of the dome and get out while he still can.

I've read some reviews that stated that King "put the pedal to the metal" from the get go and never let up. While I agree with that to a certain extent, you really can't expect a 1,072 page novel to be fast paced during its entire length, you've got to prepare for some dull parts. Granted, those "dull parts" are few and far between but everything has its place in the book; he's really trimmed the fat so to speak.

King's villain, "Big" Jim Rennie, is just awesome. Such a despicable, easy-to-hate bastard of epic proportions. I found myself getting angry at times; reading what this guy was doing and actually pissed off that he was getting away with it. I wanted to see him taken down so badly. His son, Junior, was just as bad at times - his "extracurricular" activities were downright disgusting. His confrontations with Dale Barbara were intense and some of the best parts of the novel.

King's "heroes" were some of the best written characters I've ever seen. They were simple, some of them were without complex moral problems - they were "good" and the bad guys were "evil" but they were still interesting nonetheless. Barbara came off as a likable guy, someone easy to get along with and a natural born leader. His main partner, Eric "Rusty" Everett, kicks ass in most of the scenario's he's placed in including his epic confrontation with "Big" Jim Rennie three quarters of the way through.

I'd like to talk about the ending but I don't really want to spoil it for anyone, so I'll just go on record as saying that while I did enjoy it - it partially felt like sort of a let down. Perhaps it's because my expectations were so high but honestly, where else could King have gone with it. The ending made perfect sense in regards to the origin of the Dome and the problems that had arisen in regards to breaching it so what can you do? However, the real greatness is in King's building towards the ending. The final 100 pages are superb with an event occurring that I did not expect. King's descriptions of the event in question are horrific.

All in all, I enjoyed my second Stephen King experience - which pretty much guarantees that it's not going to be my last experience. I recently found out that it's being adapted into an HBO mini-series, which is all kinds of awesome. I can't imagine a cast but I can only assume that it'll be relative unknowns; I mean how can you cast a huge roster like that made up of dozens of characters and keep your payroll at a respectable limit?

While I wouldn't put it in my pantheon of all time favorites - I'd give it a good hearty recommendation.

Also posted on Every Read Thing (less)

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Dec 14, 2009 Mitchel Broussard rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: apocalypse, dystopia, sci-fi, thriller-suspense, stephen-king, mind-equals-blown

First of all, this review contains no spoilers, because i wold kill someone a violent death if i had been told of the crazy twists towards the end of the book.

Okay, so i was pretty sure i'd like this book, i've only read 2 of King's other novels (Cell and The Mist) and i liked them enough, Cell especially, but i never thought i would love this book so much. The characters are so well developed, with individual back stories, relationships, families, dilemmas and problems. But it never becomes ti...more

10 likes · like · see review

Jan 17, 2013 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-on-kindle

It was almost 1,100 pages and held my attention throughout. It is Stephen King and was, therefore, a little out there but I enjoyed it. The first 1,000 pages were much better than the last 72. Not quite a 4 but more than a 3. I'll round up.

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 15, 2012 Janie Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: stephen-king

King did a stupendous job painting the scenery in this novel. It was like the whole town was laid out before me. The characters were amazing. From the ones you love to hate to the ones you will absolutely adore.

There is action and excitement practically in every page, and will keep you turning each one in search of more more more. I was completely consumed by this novel. By far one of Kings best, and it made it's way to my list of favorites.

6 likes · like · see review

Feb 11, 2013 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, horror

What happens when a small town is mysteriously cut off from the world. No one can get in, and no one can get out. Resources are dwindling and some will go to extremes to maintain 'big dog in a small pen' status. The major theme here is corruption and cruelty.

Outstanding book.

The only disappointment was the ending, but getting there was so fantastic that I hate to subtract a whole point. But there you go.

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 26, 2013 Julia Bulger rated it 5 of 5 stars

A press conference is taking place. The audience looks concerned, and there are cameras everywhere. At first there is nothing out of the ordinary about the situation. But then someone steps forward and reaches their hand out to knock on what appears to be nothing. *Knock* Knock* There is an invisible dome separating the crowd from the outside world. They are as detached as they would be on an island, except the whole world is watching. This was the first image that popped into Stephen King's min...more

1 like · like · see review

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About Stephen King

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.(less)

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