Get Caught 'Under the Dome'
Christopher Swietlik
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: Entertainment
Stephen King's latest novel, Under the Dome, is one of epic proportions. It comes in at just under 1100 pages and tells the tale of not just a few characters, but an entire town. Under the Dome opens on a warm October morning in the fictional town of Chester Mills, Maine. However it doesn't take long before a plane crashes into nothing, and a deer's head falls off at the hands of an invisible knife. The residents soon find themselves cut off from the rest of the world, trapped under a dome that has a nasty tendency to blow your iPod out of your pocket if you get too close. King shows how quickly society can crumble and how fast rationality can be thrown out the window when people are left to their own devices.
Under the Dome is unique because it is perhaps the only novel I know of that starts by giving the reader a list of characters, and believe me you are going to need it. King fires names off like a machine gun, making it sometimes hard to keep straight who each of the characters are when they pop up again. King also does not make any of his characters invincible, so by the time you start to sort out the characters in your head, some may already be dead.
It's hard to write about everything King throws into this book, so here's just a sample of what you can find in Under the Dome: drugs, sex, arson, politics, religion, woodchucks, English professors, a kid who goes by the name Scarecrow Joe, murders, migraines, homemade radiation suits, riots, propane, Anderson Cooper. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Despite all the characters and all the pages, King still manages to create a plot that never lets up. From the moment the dome comes down the people of Chester Mills are in for the time of their lives, and so is the reader.
4.5/5 stars
Under the Dome is unique because it is perhaps the only novel I know of that starts by giving the reader a list of characters, and believe me you are going to need it. King fires names off like a machine gun, making it sometimes hard to keep straight who each of the characters are when they pop up again. King also does not make any of his characters invincible, so by the time you start to sort out the characters in your head, some may already be dead.
It's hard to write about everything King throws into this book, so here's just a sample of what you can find in Under the Dome: drugs, sex, arson, politics, religion, woodchucks, English professors, a kid who goes by the name Scarecrow Joe, murders, migraines, homemade radiation suits, riots, propane, Anderson Cooper. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Despite all the characters and all the pages, King still manages to create a plot that never lets up. From the moment the dome comes down the people of Chester Mills are in for the time of their lives, and so is the reader.
4.5/5 stars
Be the first to comment on this story