Book Review: UNDER THE DOME (Stephen King)

This is a guest review from Julia and Corduroy. Sarah's diving into it this weekend! Click on the title of this posting for a ton of information about the book from Stephen King's Web site.

Slobbers,
Finn

UNDER THE DOME by Stephen King

I am a whimpy utopian reader. I like happy books with happy endings.  But for some strange reason I have been dying for Stephen King’s new book “Under the Dome” to be released and I was at the book store on Tuesday morning to snap it up.  If there had been a midnight release party for it I would have been there with bells on.  Which is Sooooo unlike me. Not the midnight release party involvement but I tend to avoid horror books like the plague.  My imagination is just too fertile to give it sharp implements to play with. 

I’ve read a few of his (King's) books over the years--Carrie, the Stand, Cujo, the Green Mile--but the last one I picked up, Lisey’s Story, I gave up after the first 75 pages without a clue what was going on.  However, I sucked down “Under the Dome” in just under 48 hours.  Not an inconsiderable feat considering it is 1072 pages and must weigh in at 3 pounds.  I took cat naps in order to be able to keep reading until the early hours of the morning.  It’s FABULOUS! 

The concept is Brilliant and really funny in a weird Stephen King sort of way.  The characters are memorable and the evil ones are truly evil but totally believable because we all know someone that fits each role.  The only character that wasn’t totally believable was the hero who was a little too all knowing but that’s ok, it works.  I LOVED this book even though it contained everything that I don’t like reading about, rapes, child abuse, child abandonment, stupid people with power, racial slurs and evangelical Christians. 

“Under the Dome” is great like the movie “1408” is great.  It’s creepy, disturbing on too many levels to count but seriously great.  In fact, I think it’s Stephen King’s best book ever.

Wags,
Julia and Cord