Book Review: Under the Dome

Under the Dome
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Fiction, science fiction, mystery
Number of Pages: 1,074
Where I Got It: Library

First line: "From two thousand feet up, where Claudette Sanders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester's Mill gleamed in the morning light like something freshly made and just set down."

It's a typical day in Chester's Mill, Maine until suddenly and without warning an invisible force field surrounds the town, effectively sealing it off from the rest of the world.  The race is on - not only to free Chester's Mill from The Dome and rescue its inhabitants from deteriorating environmental and ecological conditions, but to also stop religious fanatic Big Jim Rennie who likes the idea of an isolated community all for his domination a little too much.  As Rennie continues to exert his power, Iraq veteran Dale "Barbie" Barbara and his allies start on a nonstop thrill ride to figure out the riddle of The Dome.

There are two things that will immediately scare you about this book.  One is the fact that it comes in at a whopping 1,000-plus pages.  The second is the lengthy list of characters, including Dogs of Note, that King maps out before the story begins. It's a lot to take in all at once and even made me think twice about picking this one up.

Wow am I glad that I did.

This book is genius.  This is my first try with anything by Stephen King (I know, a book-a-holic like myself never having read Stephen King is pretty blasphemous) and I am kicking myself over and over and over for not having tried something of his before.

Here's the thing. I'm not a fan of science fiction and I'm not a horror fan - both genres I immediately associate with Stephen King. This book though suspended all of that for me.  It was so well-crafted and developed so perfectly that I was engaged the entire time.  For all 1,074 pages. In fact, I was so into this book and the "will they/won't they get out of this Dome" concept that I found myself breathless and not able to read fast enough to get to the next part.

You guys. I cried.

I can't rave about this book enough. It took me on a literal thrill ride - I found myself holding my breath at some points - and I haven't felt this strongly about a book in a long time.  

Go. Read. This. Now.

Overall Rating: What do you think?

Coming Up Next: Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Portia Nathan is an admissions officer at Princeton University who scours the country looking for the absolute best of the best, and those that are even better than the best, and lives a pretty standard domestic life. But a life-altering decision from her past sneaks up on her and just as thousands of students wait to hear about their own admission, so too must Portia make the decision to make an admission of her own.

And now a movie review...
Role Models - Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott are sentenced to community service at the Sturdy Wings mentoring program and are paired up with two kids who couldn't be more different. McLovin from Superbad is in this and is hysterical as a teenager who is obsessed with a fantasy world where everyone role plays characters from medieval times. Paul Rudd is one of my favorite actors and his one-liners are always hilarious. Overall this was a pretty good and funny movie and I recommend it. One thumb up, one thumb sideways.