I finished Under the Dome at about 2:00am on January 6th, completely unable to stop reading until I’d reached the end. When my prediction came true, I knew I was in for a ride.
Except for when Stephen King slows down the pace and switches to present-tense, for the most part the story is very fast-paced. When Halloween comes early to Chester’s Mill, King slows everything way down and you feel completely helpless as you watch it happen right before your eyes.
Because of its fast pace and its display of how easily a tragedy can change even the best of us for the worst, I would say that Under the Dome was better than The Stand — which is one of my all-time favorite Stephen King novels. While reading, I felt like I was a part of the town, and I became very invested in all of its citizens and the events that unfolded. (I even felt a little bad for Junior at times, because I know what it’s like to live with chronic pain.)
Synopsis
A small town in Maine becomes trapped underneath a giant Dome, reminiscent of the bubble part of candy machine toy containers. The town is led by money hungry Second Selectman James “Big Jim” Rennie, who does a lot more than just bully people.
References To Other Stephen King Works
If you haven’t already, go pick up Under the Dome. It’s over a thousand pages long, but well worth the time you’ll have to invest in getting from beginning to end. Really, you won’t even notice.
Freaking Stars: ★★★★★
TITLE: Under the Dome
AUTHOR: Stephen King
DOGEARED: 979/1088
SPOILERS: Don’t read this if you haven’t gotten at least to page 969 yet.
I’m in the final stretch of Under the Dome, and on page 969 I had a startling revelation.
The fire and screaming that all of the children kept seeing when having seizures and nightmares? I don’t think the leatherheads are going to be the ones to deliver Halloween. I think it’s going to be self-inflicted by the townspeople. More specifically, I think the raid at WCIK is going to result in Chef hitting that door opener, and that’s where the fire and screaming starts. I think the leatherheads know this and they are just sitting back and waiting to see what happens. I think that’s why they’re laughing, because the Friends of Barbara think they’re under a magnifying glass but really the leatherheads holding said magnifying glass won’t need to lift a finger to watch them burn.
What do you think? (Don’t spoil me if you’re ahead of me — just leave me your predictions at this point in the book!) Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
This post needs a disclaimer, since I am a HUGE Stephen King fan and am highly biased. Which is okay, because book blogs should be about PASSION, not about denaro. And when it comes to my Stephen King collection, I’ve got passion.
The first SK book I ever read was The Stand, I think. My Aunt Rikki used to swap books with my mom and their mother, and sent The Stand in a bag full of other SK goodies, such as The Talisman and Hearts in Atlantis. As a kid, I’d watched Carrie, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and a few other requisite SK movies, but I’d never actually read any of his novels.
Anyone who loves Stephen King will know what I was missing out on.
I spent most of my high school career catching up. The Stand instantly became one of my all-time favorites, quickly gobbled up by the epic Dark Tower series. (For those of you DT fans, there is a Discordia online game!! Which I am, admittedly, playing right now as I write this. Hello, ADHD!)
Many minutes later….
Oh, hi! Where were we? Oh, yes, Under the Dome.
You can’t not read a book that starts off with a woodchuck getting sliced in half and an airplane crashing into an invisible Dome. According to Wikipedia, Under the Dome is actually the product of two novels based on the same idea that SK started to write in the 1970s and 80s. (Don’t follow the Wiki link if you haven’t read the book yet. I am waiting until I finish the book to read the whole entry.) SK finally finished the book and published it in November 2009. (I now don’t feel bad that I haven’t finished a book I started five years ago and another one I started three years ago.)
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that, so far, Under the Dome is better than The Stand. Whoa, I know, it’s crazy talk! But seeing what is happening to this town and its people when they’ve been cut off from the rest of the world makes me believe that there are things more horrible than Randall Flagg. Then again, I have suspicions that Under the Dome is connected to The Dark Tower. The town that is under the Dome, Chester’s Mill, is right outside of Castle Rock. And if you are an avid Stephen King reader (or horribly obsessed, like I am, with the worlds that he has built and connected), you will know that the Castle Rock novels, The Stand, and The Dark Tower series are all connected.
My first hint was last night, while reading and drinking beer, and “listening in on” the town meeting. Suddenly I had a flashback to Wizard and Glass, the fourth Dark Tower book. I saw Second Selectman Rennie as Mejis mayor Thorin. I saw Barbie as Roland, jailed up waiting for someone (Jackie/Susan) to break in and get him out.
And then, on page 804 of Under the Dome:
We follow her gaze and see a vast full moon climbing from the clouds to the east of town. It is the color and shape of a freshly cut pink grapefruit.
In Wizard and Glass, the orb that Roland and his ka-tet in Mejis must bring to Roland’s father is dubbed the pink grapefruit.
Coincidence? In the world of Stephen King, I think not. “There are other worlds than these,” Jake said in The Gunslinger, the first Dark Tower book.
Earlier this afternoon, I came to and stopped at the next section of the book, “Blood Everywhere.” So far, I’ve only lost a few favorite characters. I’m honestly a little hesitant to keep reading, as Stephen King is pretty good at breaking my heart. Of course, I can’t NOT keep reading, so I’m sure I’ll jump back into it later.
So far, Under the Dome is INTENSE in a way that The Stand never could be. I’ve become really attached to a lot of the characters, and the town’s Second Selectman and his son are evil enough to make Flagg more than proud. Under the Dome is considered to be science fiction but, like I said, many of the world’s in King’s book bleed into each other and are attached. Do ya kennit?
All of the back history and the culture of the town itself is so rich. There are so many backstories and relationships between the characters. The town itself seems so real, you’d almost think you could get in your car and drive to it.
Are you a Stephen King fan? Have you read Under the Dome yet? What do you think, and what’s your favorite SK novel? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with me!
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