Under the Dome by Stephen King

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

-Synopsis from Goodreads

This was my first Stephen King novel. My only familiarity with him until a year ago were the movies like 'It', 'Cujo', and 'Carrie'. So the high school me, who was afraid of things that went bump in the night, had written him off.

Last year on a long road trip I stopped for an audiobook and the pickings were slim, so I grabbed 'The Girl who Loved Tom Green". I didn't know it was classified as YA, but I kinda liked it. So when I spotted Under the Dome on the shelves last year, I had to buy it.

This book was a monster. It became my personal mission to finish it, even with my relatively short attention span. Once I got going though, I found myself really enjoying it. The general story line was interesting. I hadn't read anything with even a similar premise so that got my attention right away. I immediately wanted to know what the dome was, and how they would make it go away. 

The sheer number of characters in this novel is impressive. It isn't a surprise to me to find that it was over a span of two years that King wrote this novel. In that same vein, I would liked to have seen more character development in the primary players. 

It was amazing to me when I finally put the book down that the entire 1072 pages of this novel only covered a span of about a week. It took me a total of 4 weeks to read it. I read for two weeks and put it down for a while, read for another week and sat it down for a few, then finished it in another week. (As previously mentioned, I have a relatively short attention span.)

All in all I enjoyed the book. For anyone who enjoys lengthy novels with a lot of players, this would be one for you. I give it 4 out of 5 cups.

This novel contained some graphic scenes of violence, not recommended for anyone under the age of 18.

You can read more of my opinions on goodreads, but be aware that review contains spoilers!