Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Under the Dome

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Under the Dome by Stephen King

54 reviews

domolk2013's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No

4.0

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pippling's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

I loved how this kicked off immediately with the dome coming down, and how the nearly 900 pages covered just over a week of under-the-dome time yet it felt really fast paced. After a few chapters I felt fully immersed in Chester’s Mill and along for the ride.

The dome brought out the worst of the people trapped under it, and exposed the evil that was already in the works… probably one of my favourite SK novels so far!

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hunkydory's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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cowahbull's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I think this might be my favorite Stephen King yet. I hated character so much I wanted to kill them myself. I loved them so much I cried.
My poor hair almost all got pulled out from the intensity of it all.

Biggest criticism: the ending happened too quickly. A habit of Mr King.

Also this has every single major trigger warning you can think of. If you are someone who needs content warnings for your own mental safety and security, this is NOT the book for you! If you like fucked up shit and to experience triggering things then give it a go

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nburkk's review against another edition

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3.0

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hellokatya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

3.75

where to begin with this behemoth?

this book was a monster to get through. it had sat on my bookshelf for months - maybe even a year - before i committed to the idea of finally getting through it.

i have admired king and his writing for quite some time now, years at this point, and had (failed) to appreciate his world building and storytelling through my read through of IT, and decided this one would get my all, which (for the most part) i succeeded in.

this book was very good — let me start there. it is a fantastic fly on the wall look into the way a “close knit” community falls apart when left to their own devices, and manipulated so heavily by a truly evil power figure. i will say that i was almost shocked by how many truly despicable characters and personalities there were in this novel. a few morally ambiguous - or more gray? - types, and a LOT of “protagonists”. it almost felt a little too skewed to the dark side, but then again, it is a king novel. it latched it’s arms around you and squeezed — it felt almost as suffocating as being trapped in the dome with them.

i do wish that there hadn’t been so many characters, or at least so much focus on some of them, and that it had been a more intimate ensemble cast. it was hard trying to remember who each person was - even with the aid of character lists -, their relations to eachother, and their role in the bigger picture. it also felt like it took away from the immersion into the evil political goals of big jim.

also a complaint is that the book should have been divided up by the passing days — not the way they were (that i honestly can’t comprehend). it only took place over about a week, which is made clear in the story, but i feel would’ve made the story much more cohesive and digestible, especially considering the length of the novel.

there is quite a lot of violence in this novel, a lot more than i had expected — especially when my first introduction and taste of this concept was the tv show. now, i did not expect it to be a carbon copy, but i was expecting more similarities than i got, and the show was much more polished and censored.

angie’s death really stuck with me for a couple days after i read it and not in a good way.

maybe i’ve just become squeamish and don’t have the stomach for it anymore, but i felt a lot of the violence could’ve been toned down, or at least spread out amongst more men — it was heavily aimed at the women and left a bad taste in my mouth.

there’s a lot of sexual violence, a lot of it implied, thank god; but doesn’t make it quite a lot easier to get through.

also the group bullying then gang r*pe of a (personally beloved) character was really jarring and left me with sorrow and a heavy heart.

in addition, i think the book could have been quite a bit shorter. as i also felt at the end of IT, the bulk of the story felt very dragged out and the ending much too quick. it all happened very quickly and felt like a quick wrap up to an otherwise very intricate and colorful world.

the use of children aliens and a box — the whole explanation as a whole — felt very underwhelming and like it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. it felt like something that could’ve been explored much further and not been a side story — especially considering that the entirety of the novel is about the dome itself.

i wanted that explored in greater detail and would still love to see that talked about in the future.

and finally, big jim. that man is the stuff of nightmares. he is so to the core horrible. i hate that man with every fiber of my being, and he deserved so much worse than he got.

his death felt very quick and painless, almost making you question if he truly died, when (per a paragraph earlier) the women had it so decidedly worse and drawn out. there is no doubt that he’s capable, so what’s the hold up?

as a whole, i loved this novel and feel so accomplished to have finished it. i think the timing was perfect, and i was able to give it the love and attention i desired. i highly recommend it, but come prepared with an iron stomach and tissues.

PLEASE read TW as every single one you can possibly imagine is included.

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