Book Review: Under the Dome pt 2

Given the enormity of this book I decided to write my review in two parts.
I was surprised how quickly I got through this book. It took me two weeks to read the book, mostly because I didn't want to put it down. I got extremely caught up in the story and the characters. Everytime I had to stop reading I felt anxious about what would happen next to the characters I cared about.
King has a way of making you feel connected to his characters. Which is no great feat. Especially since he tends to trickle their past into the story instead of giving you a lot of background at the beginning like other writers tend to do. Maybe that's why his characters tend to feel like such real people, you get to know along the way just like you do with your real friends.
The story takes place in a small town, Chester's Mill, which gets trapped under an invisible force field. The town goes from a quaint little place to insanity extremely quickly. It's interesting to think about what "good" people would do under such extreme circumstances. In this case, it's not all pretty.
I won't give anything away since almost everything is important to the telling of the story, but I will say that this book tugged at the entire spectrum of my emotions. I loathed so many of the power hungry characters, I loved the brave ones and felt pain whenever any of them got hurt. I rooted for the poor little boy left alone and hoped for the right ending for everyone. I say "right", because I didn't want a happy ending for everyone.

I've read almost every book Stephen King has written and I usually love all of them. There have been a couple that were tough to get through, but were really good stories nonetheless.
This book looked like it would be a difficult read. It's such a large book that it's daunting. I'm glad I tackled it. This turned out to be a very easy read because it was so engaging.
I think it may be one of my new favorite books. I definitely recommend King fans read this book and, as usual, enjoy his talent for writing an amazing story. I also recommend non-King fans to read this book and realize that he's not just a horror writer.

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Book Review: Under the Dome pt 1

I just passed the halfway mark in Stephen King's latest novel. Or should I say, tome, since this book is almost 1100 pages long.
I was expecting this to be my one book of the summer, but I'm actually getting through it really fast. I've only been reading it for a week for about an hour or two before bed. It's really freakin good. I don't want to put it down.
King has an amazing ability to create an "unlikely" situation, and then let us read about how his characters deal with it. His exploration into the psychological make for some pretty scary stuff, mostly because we end up thinking about how we would react in that situation and are afraid of what would happen then.
The story takes place in his usual haunt, a small town in Maine, that one morning ends up under some kind of dome or force field. It's completely impenetrable by anything the government throws at it. Of course there's no explanation of where it's from, at least not at this point in the book.
I'm completely engrossed in the characters and this town. It's amazing how fast things start to go downhill, although not without some help from a very unlikeable character in the town.
I'm sure I'll be done in less than a week with the second half of the book. I'm kind of afraid of what will happen, but I have faith in the good people of Chester's Mill to do the right thing.
I'll just have to wait and see.


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