Under the Dome in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

May 20, 2010 Debbie rated it really liked it

Shelves: sciencefiction, thriller, mental-illness

When the small town of Chester's Mill is suddenly and inexplicably enclosed by an invisible and indestructable dome, the citizens are left with only each other. Some pull together for the good of the town and some think only of themselves.

The key players in the huge cast of characters are Dale Barbara, aka Barbie, a short-order cook haunted by his wartime experiences, Julia Shumway, a newspaper editor who believes in the power of the press, Big Jim Rennie, a crooked politician with survival ins ...more

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Nov 27, 2017 Graceann rated it really liked it

Shelves: suspense

Having tried (and failed) to get through the television series of the same name, I was interested in reading this so that I could see if the book made more sense to me. It did, for the basic reason that it is markedly different from the series in hugely important ways. As a matter of fact, the only similarities I really see are that there was a Dome and there are a few similarly-named characters. It's more than fair to say that I find the book far superior, though that probably isn't the right w ...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Kristin rated it it was amazing

I always think of Stephen King as a horror writer and by default that his books must be scary, but this is the second of his that I read (also 'The Green Mile'), and while both are somewhat dark, they didn't give me nightmares. In this one, the small town of Chester's Mill is suddenly enveloped in a nearly impermeable barrier that cuts it off from the rest of society. As it is invisible, planes and cars crash into it, animals and pedestrians are knocked senseless, and no one knows how far it ext I always think of Stephen King as a horror writer and by default that his books must be scary, but this is the second of his that I read (also 'The Green Mile'), and while both are somewhat dark, they didn't give me nightmares. In this one, the small town of Chester's Mill is suddenly enveloped in a nearly impermeable barrier that cuts it off from the rest of society. As it is invisible, planes and cars crash into it, animals and pedestrians are knocked senseless, and no one knows how far it extends in any direction. King provides a list of notable Chester's Mill residents who were trapped inside the dome, though many only get a scene or two before their untimely demise.
The two characters who get the most focus are relative newcomer Dale Barbara, a chef at the local greasy spoon who is on his way out of town on Dome Day after being assaulted by some of the hoodlums of Chester's Mill; and Big Jim Rennie, a used car dealer who is also the town's Second Selectman but as a lifelong resident of The Mill, has the townspeople in his palm, including the town's First Selectman. Rennie also happens to be the father of Junior, one of the guys who beat up Barbara, so there is no love lost between these two principals. Each man has allies in town, with Barbara lining up his colleagues from the eatery, the local newspaper editor, and the widow of the police chief (the chief having been killed when his pacemaker exploded upon the chief's touching the electric field of the Dome) while Rennie has the new police chief on his side and recruits Junior and his friends to be deputies to keep order in the suspected chaos of being trapped in the Dome. In reality, Rennie is the cause of much of the chaos, including framing Barbara for 4 murders that actually occurred at the hands of Rennie and Junior.
I really enjoyed King's shifting of perspectives throughout the book, because even though Rennie and Barbara were causing most of the drama, the Dome itself was the focus, and each Mill resident reacted uniquely to it. A group of young teenage skateboarders are completely fascinated and use their technologic know-how to investigate how the Dome formed. The town drunk is largely oblivious until Rennie shuts down sales of alcohol 'for the good of the people'. Likewise, the woman who serves as 3rd Selectman is a painkiller addict but realizes she may need to sober up and actually lead the town. Then there's 'The Chef', not to be confused with chef Barbara, whose concoction of choice is methamphetamine, funded by Rennie and his pastor, whose church is a cover for the drug production. The Chef stays stoned through most of the book until he feels his supply may be threatened.
King's description about what life might be like if a dome suddenly fell over a town seems very realistic as he takes into consideration things like pollution, rivers drying up, lack of rain, and an inability to get anything larger than a water mist through the barrier. Sound waves and light can pass, so people can talk to and see each other but not touch or provide supplies. While the entire book encompasses less than a week's time, King's level of detail prevents the book from becoming dry over the course of 1000+ pages.
Can't say I cared for the ending, but it did provide the sci-fi/horror weirdness I expected in the beginning and perhaps was the only way to end it without it being a complete letdown. If you don't like lots of people dying in lots of strange ways, this might not be the book for you, but considering the next book I'm reading (not by Stephen King) involves a murderer who removes all of the bones from his victims and leaves only soft tissue behind, this one seemed utterly tame on the blood and guts level. ...more

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