Under the Dome Read Along: Week One Questions

We are now a week into reading this huge book together, and I'm nearly done with week two's assignment! That's right, it's not easy to put down and stop reading. I had a feeling it would be this way! This group read is part of our RIP VI Challenge (details about the challenge found here on Carl's blog.)

Up to this point in our reading, we are a couple of days into a strange event that's occurred in this small town called Chester Mills. One Saturday afternoon, suddenly there's a barrier all around the town. At this point, the reality of the situation has not hit home, I don't think. The government has stepped in to intervene and call the shots, but it looks like there's not much that can be done. Meanwhile, we are getting a little clue about who the players are inside that may make or break this crazy situation.

Jenny from Alternate Readality has come up with questions for this first section, which brings us to about page 210 or so out of 1020 pages total. Here are my answers and thoughts, complete with mild spoilers:


Wow, we are being introduced to a lot of characters, some that aren't even making it. Are you having a hard time keeping everyone straight? 

MANY that aren't making it! Wow, will there be anybody left once this is over? I guess that remains to be seen, huh. I am having no problem at all keeping everyone straight, in fact, it's been very easy and I'm not sure why. Probably the awesome writing going on here that gives all these people such different personalities. The only thing that I forget sometimes is who is related to whom, but even now, a few more pages in, that is becoming all straight too. But my question is, can you believe how many messed up people there are? I mean, how many are just "normal"? Not many. Is the real world like this? Are most people totally wacko?

It's early in, but any predictions on what the Dome is or where it came from? Were you surprised at the idea of someone inside the town being responsible?

I seriously have no idea on this one, but you know I'm terrible at predicting. Is it some sort of alien thing? I don't think it's a government thing. And no, I wasn't that surprised that it could be an inside job. Unless I think about an alien being inside. That's a little creepy. But, hey, something WEIRD is going on. Something to do with the Great Pumpkin!!!

Is the Science of the Dome and the science being used to test it interesting to you, or are you more character driven and could care less about what can and cannot get through the dome or how deep under ground it goes etc?

Even though I tend to be mostly interested in character driven stories, I'm still finding the science stuff and the investigation and all that very intriguing. I didn't even think about this thing going under ground until they mentioned it. Funny, huh... because otherwise they could just dig out, duh.

Who do you think will prove to be the bigger threat inside the Dome: Jim Rennie or his son Junior? Or someone else entirely? 

Jim Rennie is the one that is scaring me the most at this point. I mean, Junior is disgusting, and I hope he gets what's coming to him, but his dad? He is making me nervous and anything that anyone else thinks of to help keep sanity in place, this guy will mess up and make sure things go completely bonkers. He makes me crazy. I haven't thought of anyone else that might be such a threat. Maybe that one, guy, but wait, I think he shows up in next week's reading! :)  

Do you think, so far, King has realistically described what would happen if this happened in reality?

I think yes, very much. (Except for all the messed up people mentioned above, 'cause I'm not sure people in a small community are THAT messed up. Know what I mean?) But yeah, I do think that some would want to take control, and others would be better for taking control, but not want to. One thing I think that seems strange is that the people shut out on the other side don't seem to be trying to hard to make contact... or are they just not playing that part up much? 

Those of you participating, please share your link in comments here or over at Jenny's. We look forward to hearing what you think so far!