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 … 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.
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Like all Stephen King books, I wonder how his mind can think of such strange things. I like to be challenged to pay attention because there are a lot of characters and places. This book is like the Who’s in Who’s Ville. They are small and stuck under a dome. The whole town exists there and they need to figure out who has them trapped there and get out before they die.
Its sort of silly to say, but Stephen King is an amazing writer and can draw me into any scenario. I especially like his early works “Under the Dome” is a good book and is worth the commitment to read. That being said, it is very long. I feel it starts out slow. It actually took me three tries before I could get far enough to care…may have just been me. But once I got into the plot, I was hooked. I won’t get into a summary, but know it is not a traditional horror novel. No real monsters. Just the monsters inside the people trapped in the dome.
I grew up on Stephen King. In fact he is one of my favorite authors, but this book was almost like he just rushed it to meet a deadline. The book starts out slow in my opinion and is hard to stick with. When you do finally get into in to it you realize you’ve already trudged along and it’s already getting close to ending. I’ll tell you, I yruly am a fan, but never before have I felt so strongly the end was so diaappointinf that I just wanted to chuck the book across the room with a NO! Don’t open yourself to that.
So you’re hanging out in your small town and all of a sudden you – and your entire town – have an invisible dome come crashing down on you. People’s “skeletons in the closet” start figuratively walking around. Craziness ensues. Another 5-star read from the master Stephen King.
Big fan of Stephen King’s work, and this is one of my favorites. I was hooked from the very first couple of paragraphs at the beginning of this book, lots of ups and downs and lots of different plot lines intersecting, some really great characters, including a dog’s POV with a couple interesting twists. You find yourself spending the whole book worrying about if you are actually going to learn why this happened….but good news, you do find out!
After a break of several years from Stephen King, Under the Dome brought me back into the fold. Despite the hefty length, I zipped through this massive tome in days (I love my Kindle for that very reason– I read faster!). Under the Dome is more than a sci-fi thriller– it’s a think piece about what can happen in a closed society as well as a not-so-subtle message about the threat of global warming.
There is a huge cast of characters in Under the Dome, which is to be expected in a book of this length, but it can get confusing keeping track of everyone. My recommendation is to read this book without too many disruptions– I initially started it, put it down for a couple of months and had to reread it from the beginning just to remind myself who everyone was.
If Stephen King = supernatural horror to you, this is definitely the book to break that stereotype. While there are certainly horrific events in Under the Dome, they are all man-made realities that are far too easy to imagine– which maybe makes them all that much scarier.
The book is so much better than the movie, makes you really think till the very end.
This book was different than what I’m accustomed to reading by Stephen King. It was OK, but a little disappointing, per my opinion. I bought the book and read it about 3 or 4 years ago. It’s not a book I would read again much less buy again.
What can I say? It’s Stephen King, the Master. I like everything he has written. Some more than others but I like them all. Keep writing Mr. King & I will keep reading. Thank you.
Well written. As usual for King lots of great character development. If you watched the TV program with the same name, don’t judge the novel by the program.
Good story but disappointing finish, almost like King got tired of it and just slapped together an ending.
It’s Stephen King. It’s amazing.
This is good, but not one of Kings best. It moves a bit slowly at times as there is only so much that can happen ‘under the done’. Still, because is is King, it is good.
A hell of an idea.
One of my all time favorites by King. The ending was great.
Loved this books by Stephen king.
I found myself feeling anxious and closed in, and it wasn’t until I finished the book that I realised I was carrying the feelings of the characters with me even while I wasn’t reading the book. Great book from Stephen King.
This book is great. Kept me on the edge of my seat.
Town stuck under a dome. Interesting how each character adjusts
Awesome story! What about the ending??