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Book Review Thursday: Under the Dome by Stephen King




  • Paperback: 1088 pages
  • Publisher: Gallery Books; Media Tie-In edition (June 11, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1476735476
  • ISBN-13: 978-1476735474

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. 


My Thoughts:
Those who follow me know that Stephen King is one of, if not, my favorite author. There maybe many reasons why this is beyond his writing style. I tend to like many of the same books, movies and TV shows he does. We were both born on the same day, September 21st. Mostly, I think the reason why I am such a fan of Stephen King is because maybe we see many things the same way and his novel Under the Dome is one of the books I love most by this amazing author because of how he captured the deep down human nature inside each of us.

I know many King fans were not overly happy with this novel by our beloved author. I can understand a lot of their reasons for that, however, even though there is a lot of detail and at times the plot slowed down quite a bit, the intensity of the plot was amazing. I think as readers we may have overlook what King was trying to do with this novel (and a novel that took him a long time to complete). So what is it that I think King was trying to do? To give us a good look at human nature and how people, or "sheepeople" as my son and I like to call them, react under extreme circumstances.

I think Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) said it best in the movie Men in Black. "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."

Stephen King really showed in perspective exactly what Kay was talking about in Men in Black. So Kudos to you King for doing a wonderful job.
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