Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Under the Dome by Stephen King

50 reviews

melosamatic's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.25


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jrocbutterfly's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A beast of a novel even for King's standard of writing long books, this one comes in at over 1000 pages. But even with its length   the momentum of the book is high paced and doesn't seem to have the mid slow that other long books can have. Though there is a supernatural or otherworldly element to the story.  The real horror of Under the Dome lies in what happens when humans are put, quite literally, with their backs against the wall.  When the outside world is unreachable people's true since of morality comes into play. The scariest part is seeing who rises up as heroes and who rises up as monsters when their is no one to hold anyone accountable.  And how humans truly can be the masters of their own downfall.

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hampshark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

4.75

This is one of King’s best. Engaging from page 1 to the end. Even with the few weak spots, I come back to this year after year for the study of humanity and the consequences of no consequences. 

Even 15 years later, it feels fresh and pertinent and subversive and possible. 

Of note, due to its scope, there are many (every?) triggers so take care. 

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hocuscrocus's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I finished this book out of spite, I'm not going to lie. Even when this was published, Stephen King had been in the game far too long to lean on his tired shock value routine. The acts of fictional characters do not reflect on the author, but the author's choices on how those acts are told certainly does in this case. It's lazy storytelling at best.
For a man who has made money offering advice to writers, you'd think he'd a) understand how human beings speak, b) put some respect into writing women, c) learn how to tell a shocking story without slurs, random gross out "humor," and graphically described sexual assault.
This book is a remarkably weak story hiding behind cheap, edgy humor and good worldbuilding.

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chloerom's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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emilythebarwench's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Pretty good once you get into it a little further and get a handle on all the characters. Very dark and graphic overall.

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andrewbarzal's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Potential Spoilers:

Worth reading if you can stomach some rather intense content. The climax of this book genuinely astonished me, but unfortunately I found the ending a bit weak and drawn out. The “man behind the curtain” if you will, was a tad on the predictable side of things which made the reveal less impactful than it could have been. 

The strong point of this book for me was its characters, specifically its villains. The main bad guy in this book is FUN to read, and he has stuck with me, which is much more than I can say about the main Hero who is sort of your standard chill/cool badass with a dark past who is competent and likable. He serves his purpose in the book well enough, but I found myself wishing I was reading about more colorful characters whenever the book spent much time with him. 

I thought more could have been done with the town. The decay took place over the course of just a few days if my memory serves me, and I just would have liked a bit more sociological content. I think King took a pretty straightforward approach with how the town would react to the dome which is fine, I just wanted a bit more spice I guess.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. Parts were genuinely hard to read, and the bits about Big Jim’s heart condition made me squirm and still make me squirm today!

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c_dmckinney's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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bittie_bee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What a very stressful ride.

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omnilegentoberski's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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