‘Under the Dome’ by Stephen King

My Review (5 stars out of 5)

A small New England town is suddenly wrenched from the rest of the world when an invisible forcefield drops over it. Cars, planes, and people smash into the dome causing horror and panic.

Iraq War veteran Dale Barbara is on his way out of the town when the barrier crashes down, forcing him to return to his job as a short-order cook. But second select-man Jim Rennie is determined to run things his way and begins to recruit anyone who will side with his point of view…

One reason it’s taken me so long to get around to reading this is the sheer size of the thing – the paperback version runs to nearly 900 pages, and the cast of characters is humongous. Switching to the Kindle version (due to the unwieldy size of the paperback) I got to grips with the dramatis personae and found that even though dozens of new characters are introduced almost on every page, following the plot wasn’t anything like as difficult as I’d expected. The machinations of Jim Rennie and his seriously-weird son pulled me in and things quickly began to look very black for protagonist Dale ‘Barbie’ Barbara and his handful of friends.

As a long-time fan of Stevie King, I’m happy to say this is a fantastic read that entertained, thrilled, and shook me at every turn. A masterful tale, woven with King’s usual wit, originality and cunning.

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