An epic sized door stop of a book. When it came out, there was a controversy since a central plot was similar to the one in the Simpsons the Movie which had just come out. The author had to clarify that he had written this many years before and was doing redrafting and publishing and that he had not been influenced by the movie plot.
For all this, the book starts so beautifully and holds your total interest almost from the first page till nearly the end. (Why nearly the end and not the end? Read on, and I will explain).
Also it is no secret that I like this author and therefore have reviewed many of his stories earlier. (For a sample, see Revival or Lisey’s Story).
Let us dive into the story right away.
Claudette Sanders, wife of townsman Andy, is fond of flying. After learning to fly, she wants to buy a plane. Her plane explodes suddenly and a woodchuck dies, cut in two. Why?
Barbie (Dale Barbara) is a chef in Sweetbriar Rose and has had it with the town when he was beat up in the parking lot. He almost makes it out of town but a girl who he asked for a lift never stops. He is the one walking on the road when he sees the plane explode. A bullying boy beats him up in the parking lot of the restaurant where he works as a chef.
Angie McCain, another employee in Sweetbriar Rose is in love with Frankie but Junior Rennie son of the owner of Rennie’s Used Cars, comes to her house in a rage induced by a brain tumour that was not diagnosed yet and batters her. When she gets seizure in the middle of the attack, he panics. And chokes her to death.
A few people get cut off by the invisible barrier as it comes down. Some died and some lost their limbs. Birds hit it and died all along the perimeter. People are beginning to realize that something truly weird is happening.
Billy and Wanda hit the invisible barrier while arguing and driving an old jalopy. Elsa and Nora rush to their help. Billy is dead’; Wanda injured mightily. And subsequently Nora crashes into it and dies. The Sheriff, nearing retirement goes to investigate, overruling the Second Alderman, the bumbling Rennie senior but dies when his pacemaker explodes.
Junior goes back to Angie’s house to cleanup but Dodee the drug addled daughter of Andy and Claudette goes to see Angie when he is in the house. She is killed too, and Junior is very afraid he will be arrested, but is made a part of the reserve police instead!
We learn that Barbie is Captain Barbara and was ex army, where he was great at finding hidden explosives, and he is now requested by an ex colleague to see if the source of the dome could be from within the city.
Meanwhile Junior and his partner rough up the town, abusing citizens. Looks like Barbie was a Captain in the army and the federal government promotes him to a Colonel and puts his in charge of Chester Mill.
Rory Dinsmore, a mechanical minded kid, waits until the town has congregated for a protest demonstration (near the dome) as well as a prayer meeting also near the dome. The local shopkeeper sees the chance to sell hardly moving and old weiners in hot dogs and make a killing. Joe goes in his father’s ATV and shoots at the dome, hoping to shatter it but the bullet ricochets and enters his brain through his eyes, sending him to a grossly understaffed hospital. An old and retired doc Doctor Haskell is brought out of retirement to tend to people and after losing Rory despite a fight, he himself dies shortly after.
Barbie gains the trust of the Police Chief’s wife.
Brilliant depictions of how Big Rennie has been making money on the side and how he learns to his chagrin that Barbie is now the boss.
But Rennie rejects the whole notion, including the fickle President whom he did not vote for. When the priest has doubts about the illegal meth operation, Rennie kills him and is witnessed by Rennie Jr, who now has a hold on dear old dad.
When the missile strike totally fails to even cause a crack in the dome, Barbie realizes that he is in trouble from Big Jim. In the meanwhile he finds that Propane is disappearing and tries to see if it is stored in the city hall controlled by Big Jim.
The story really looks like turning supernatural when boys seem to get seizures and all of them talk about “pink stars falling”. But you quickly realize it is the dome and smog which caused the effect.
Meanwhile Piper rescues a raped Shawna and is enraged to find that the rookie cops are responsible. Her (earlier life) suppressed rage takes over and in her confrontation with them, the dog gets killed by the cops.
They try to frame Barbie for murders to eliminate him from the scene. In the meanwhile an ill thought out plan to close the grocery store in town provokes a riot.
Barbara is arrested while helping Rusty tend to riot victims and Rusty is scandalized. He argues with Linda, a police officer who came to arrest him. Barbie is brutalized in the cell with mace and punches.
Randy is brought to the morgue secretly by Linda and Julia to examine the alleged victims of Barbie. He realizes that the reverend and Brenda have been killed by Big Rennie but is powerless to expose him.
Shawna kills Ginny and Frank who were part of raping her, right there at the hospital. Ginnie was there with her jaw smashed by a stone during supermarket riot and Frank had come to visit her.
Phil Bushey consoles a depressed Andy Sanders by introducing him to meth.
Finally Linda and Jackie agree to spring Barbie. Send him a message in the cereal.
Meanwhile Colonel has a tiff with Big Jim and he disobeys the President’s order to abdicate. Fires Jackie when he learns that she is the ‘favoured’ person to take over the city administration.
Rusty goes with Jeff and the boys plus the grocery shop owner and finds the instrument. He cannot destroy it, and even his aluminium padded cloak burns up on impact, leaving no traces. He realizes that this seems to be some alien technology. Swears the others to secrecy.
Meanwhile Rennie gets admitted to the infirmary with arrhythmia at the same time that his son gets admitted with severe red eye and apparent loss of realization of his surroundings.
Col Cox steps up the pressure by creating a media circus of relatives outside the dome meeting those inside, and requesting Rennie to attend and answer questions about the alleged meth lab and imprisonment of Barbie.
Rusty unwisely confronts Rennie in the hospital and gets thrown in jail, after his hand is crushed, for his pains – into the same cell as Barbie.
Meanwhile, Andrea gets the Big Rennie secrets in a document meant for Julia and hides it, reading it all. The good guys plot the rescue of Barbie and Rusty.
Rennie plans to send his minions to kill Andy and the Chef while the town is distracted with the meeting, and coincidentally, Barbie’s rescue is planned at the same time, as well as the plot by Junior to kill Barbie all thinking that they can use the distraction of the meeting for their own purposes.
Andi resolves to shoot Big Rennie in a meeting in front of the entire town. All of those come together wonderfully in an explosive few chapters, way before the book ends. Junior’s end and Barbie’s escape are nice to read.
The group slowly congregates beyond the radiation zone.
The Chef and Andy, when Big Rennie’s team comes to take away their propane, are killed but unleash such a terror into the Dome that in the resulting fire and lack of oxygen, almost all of the townspeople are killed.
Finally his deputy turns on Big Rennie with a gun. He falls for the wily Big Rennie’s prayer routine and gets killed instead. At a crucial moment, Big Jim’s heart and lack of air cleaning propane puts paid to Big Jim himself/
When all of the handful of survivors start dying one by one Julia gets an idea to resolve the issue.
The ending is sort of disappointing but I guess it is kind of logical and perhaps the only solution to the problem. Still it sounds and feels inadequate to me. Brilliantly narrated, of course.
Nice story, the rocket speed of the story is maintained almost until the end – now you know the reason for the ‘almost’. Satisfying read.
8 / 10
– – Krishna
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