Review: Under the Dome: A Novel [Paperback]

Under the Dome: A Novel - Stephen King

Seriously, does he get paid by the page?

 

 

Normally I don't review a book until I've read the entire thing.  However, this book is 1072 pages long and I'm not going to make it.  I'll explain why, but I do want to say that I did not finish the book.  Maybe it gets better later.  However, I'm currently on page 113 and I realized that I don't care about any of the characters.  At this point in the story, they've barely admitted that anything is wrong, and I don't even think they've realized that it's a dome that they're under... they know that it's a circle that goes up, but I haven't read a mention about it actually being recognized as a dome.

Normally when I'm 113 pages into a book, I've made a connection to at least one of the characters, which keeps me interested even though the dry spells that just about every book has.  But with Stephen King's "Under the Dome", I've discovered that I don't actually like any of the characters.  There are so many characters that we haven't really been given enough of a story or personality for any of the characters to like them.  There are a couple of characters that are made so unlikeable that you HAVE to dislike them, but there aren't any characters that are standing out.  Barbie is the closest, but even he seems to want to hide in the background.

Honestly, I'm bored.  I've tried reading further, but I can't. Reading 113 pages into this novel was difficult enough because I started getting bored about 60 pages or so in, so picking it back up was difficult.  And I've decided that I won't continue.

The reason that I am reviewing this is because in every other book I've read, even longer books, you've been able to get a semblance of plot and characters and back-story... there's been something to keep you going.  I really liked Stephen King's older work, so I picked this to give it a chance.  I'm extremely disappointed because it feels like he is getting paid by the page, and was just trying to extend the book by loading it with too many characters.

 

You'll notice that I'm not including a link to purchase this book like I normally would.  If you're interested in seeing if you like this better than I did... or if you're at least able to make it past page 113, I recommend checking it out from your local library.