Review of “Under The Dome” by Stephen King

I finished reading “Under The Dome” by Stephen King yesterday, and though I don’t normally do reviews on his novels, I’ll give you a quick one. I mean, come on, if you are a die hard Stephen King fan like I am, it doesn’t matter what kind of reviews he gets, you are going to read whatever new novel he puts out. Am I right? Of course I am.

I have been putting off reading, “Under The Dome” because frankly, I knew it would be a long read, and it was.

1,072 pages! Phew! But I really needed my Stephen King fix.

“Under The Dome” is an  Apocalyptic type story for one small town in Maine.

The story was gripping and pulled you in, in the classic King style. But there were things I noticed, since I started writing myself, that I never have paid much attention to before. I’ve heard that you should write what people want to read and leave out the rest. Now you know as a writer we all strive to do this and you would think Stephen King, would be great at leaving out the parts that people skip, but I did find a couple of paragraphs, heck I found one whole section, that was talking about Big Jim Rennie, that I skipped over, eager to get back to the story-line about what was happening to Barbie. BUT…We as writers will say, “But that needs to be there!” Right? Okay now I am sure That Mr. King has a great editor, but I still found some typos and grammatical errors, but then when you have to edit 1,072 pages…Just saying.

Another thing I noticed, was that he tends to give you more of a sense of the main character’s personalities, rather than their physical traits and visa versa on the secondary characters. Not sure why though.

So to sum it up I give it a 4 1/2. Great book! He is still my fave and I highly recommend it. Oh and the short sex scene, was just adorable!

I started composing this blog post on Friday November 30th and this was my horoscope that day and the reason for me reviewing, “Under The Dome”. Okay read my horoscope and then I’ll get to the point.

Daily Extended
You’re attracted to someone’s unique energy today — they have a way of looking at the world that you admire. It’s time to get to know them a little bit better. Find out if they are free for lunch or afternoon coffee. Don’t be coy about why you want to get to know them better — admit that you just like who they are. They’ll be flattered, and most likely they’ll return the compliment. You two have a lot of things in common, and it’s time you both learn what they are.

If you could interview your favorite author, what would you ask them? Yes, there are the usual questions like; Where do you get your ideas? and have you always been a writer? Etc. But for me, I want to know the emotional side.

So if I was to sit down and talk to Stephen King, I would ask:

What do you feel when the story starts forming in your head? When the plot is on a roll? When the characters start talking to each other? What emotions do you have?

Do your characters live on in your head, long after you’ve published the book? Talking still, making you think, I should have said that? Or done that.

And this last question has to do with “Under The Dome”

How did you feel when you were killing off certain people in the last chapter? I noticed that, with a few, you kind of slipped them under the door. You gave them a quiet demise, not wanting to bring a lot of attention to them. I know you can’t just kill off all the bad guys and let all the good guys live. Real life isn’t like that and neither should your story be like that, but we all feel the emotions of having to choose. So was it hard for you? I am happy that you let a certain person live, because if you would have killed him off, I would be mad at you, but it wouldn’t be the first time. 🙂

Well Mr. King as my horoscope said;  Find out if they are free for lunch or afternoon coffee. So whenever you are ready, hit me up. I’ll more than happily put you under a microscope and pick at your brain. And I’ll even buy you lunch!

I’m sure if I had the opportunity to have lunch with Stephen King, I’d be dumbfounded, to say the least. 🙂 But if you had the chance to sit down to lunch with your all time favorite author, what would you want to know?

• Posted in: interviews ♦ Reviews ♦ Uncategorized
• Tagged: characters, coffee, emotions, horoscope, interview, lunch, published, questions, stephen king, under the dome, written