Under the Dome in Baltimore County Public Library Summer Reading BCPL SRC

Jan 07, 2021 Devon rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-books, adaptations-to-watch, 2021

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am giving this 3 stars... but in reality, I am very torn.

I had one major issue with this book- the disgustingness that is humanity. It drives me insane when you have this really awesome external threat (the dome, zombies, etc) that all of humanity should be able to unite against, but instead, that external threat is only a backdrop to people being terrible. I had the same issue with The Walking Dead... I loved it when people were working to overcome the issue of the zombies... I loved seeing I am giving this 3 stars... but in reality, I am very torn.

I had one major issue with this book- the disgustingness that is humanity. It drives me insane when you have this really awesome external threat (the dome, zombies, etc) that all of humanity should be able to unite against, but instead, that external threat is only a backdrop to people being terrible. I had the same issue with The Walking Dead... I loved it when people were working to overcome the issue of the zombies... I loved seeing the solutions they came up with for this supernatural problem... but when the zombies were overshadowed by terrible people, I just could not do it anymore. I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more if it was more about overcoming and surviving the dome as a group, and less about how people can take a bad situation and make it worse.

Not only were the humans in this book completely vile and disgusting, but I also could not stand their manipulation of the normal townsfolk. There is nothing that bothers me more than liars. It hurts my soul to know that something is a lie and hear it spread. Even stupid tiny white lies or exaggerations- it drives me insane when I hear my husband exaggerate or alter slightly what really happened when he is talking about something that happened. I become physically uncomfortable when it is something more extreme- like the lying and hypocrisy that is within this book. I had to stop listening at points to calm down. I could not stand every single thing about Jim Rennie. Not only was he a terrible person, but he then manipulated people into thinking that he was some saint and that the decent people of the town were the bad ones. I just could not stand it.

Not only were many of the characters in this book bad people and liars, but it was REALLY bad. Normally I am pretty okay with reading about violence, murder, etc.... but the gang rape of Sam Bushy was too much. I had to put the book down for the day after that. Plus the fact that that group attacked Barbie for supposedly raping Angie (yet another lie) and then they gang rape this girl. That made it even worse for me. AND the fact that a WOMAN watched and cheered on the rape of another woman. There is nothing more vile than that. I hate to say it, but Georgia deserved what she got.

After recapping how upset this book made me throughout it, I am tempted to move my rating down to 2 stars...
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