Book Review: Under the Dome

After reading my first Stephen King book, 11/22/63: A Novel (also awesome, highly recommend!), I've discovered he's not so scary and I wanted to read more. Under the Dome is the fourth book of his that I've read.

Under the Dome

My rating: 4 out of 5 bookmarks

Summary from Amazon page: 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 review:
I really enjoyed this book. The first thing I thought after I started reading it was there better be a good explanation for this dome at the end of this book. It delivered that explanation. I won't give anything away here, but I will say I wasn't unsatisfied. Yes, that's a double-negative, I know. I liked parts of the explanation, but parts of it could have been better explained or done differently. So I could say I was satisfied, but that sounds a little too positive to me. I'm a Minnesotan at heart (see the end of Lesson Three).

What about the rest of the book? There was a lot happening throughout. I really liked all the characters, I thought they were well-written. I enjoyed Dale Barbara. Big Jim Rennie is one of those characters you love to hate. The scary thing is I could totally imagine a small town acting like this if it was cut off from the rest of the world. A big city would be different, but small towns have their own dynamics and King does a good job showing that. Lots of drama and twists and turns. At times I felt it was taking too long, but that could be attributed to my wanted to know what caused the dome in the first place. I knew it wouldn't be revealed until the end, but I'm not so good with patience.

I heard they're making a show based on this book. I'm seriously contemplating checking it out. I think there's a lot of potential.

I definitely recommend this read!