Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Under the Dome

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Under the Dome by Stephen King

6 reviews

hocuscrocus's review against another edition

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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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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