Stephen King’s latest thriller, Under the Dome, hit shelves Tuesday, just a few days shy of Friday the 13th. The novel is over 1,000 pages long, but it’s safe to say it moves faster than War and Peace. In Under the Dome, the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine, suddenly finds itself under an impenetrable, dome-shaped force field. No one can get in (including parents temporarily out of town, firefighters off on a mission), and no one can get out. The claustrophobic panic that ensues pits good against evil and alludes to the horror that fear and a mob mentality can create. King subtly relates the trapped people of Chester Mill’s to the United States populace, suggesting that those controlled by fear lose their own moral ground. As Esquire reviewer Benjamin Percy notes, “King knows that the biggest danger comes not from the outside — from bombs, from war, from Islam — but from the mob growing within. We are all under the dome.” Of course, if you’re not looking for political allegory, you can simply enjoy the story as a fast-paced, satisfying read.
King swears this isn't a horror adaptation of The Simpsons Movie
“A vivid and harrowing tale, expertly constructed, intensely moral and often thrilling, related with the masterful ease we have come to expect from its author.” – Jedediah Berry, Los Angeles Times
“King’s ability to create a gripping world is so great, his pacing so effortlessly swift, that it can feel as if you’re caught in a cat’s claws, at once fearful of and delighted by the horrors the next page might bring.” – Benjamin Percy, Esquire
“We shouldn’t be too squeamish about the odd half-baked simile or lapse into B-movie dialogue [...]. Writing flat-out keeps [King] close to his story, close to his source.” – James Parker, New York Times
“Critics are apt to be sniffy about the literary quality of King’s work. This strikes me as unfair. He is certainly no Proust, but nor is he a Dan Brown.” – Lewis Jones, Telegraph
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