I finished reading Stephen King’s UNDER THE DOME last week. At more than 1000 pages, I was engrossed in the story, with the same cast of characters, for quite some time. Luckily, I enjoyed it.
But, after all that time invested, I wanted a really, really good ending. Unfortunately, I thought it fell a little short.
Without trying to give anything away, the book opens with a highly implausible event. So I guess I wasn’t that surprised to have an ending which bordered on a deus et machina. Although to be fair, after the precipitating event, I’m not sure how he could have wrapped things up without pulling something out of his nether regions.
Anyway, like I said, I enjoyed the book. But I would have enjoyed it more with a different ending.
What book have you read where the ending left you a little flat? Did that stop you from reading that author’s next book?
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6 comments:
Alan - Sorry to hear that you were disappointed in the end of Under the Dome. Especially after that many pages. That's actually happened to me, too, more than once and it always makes me feel, well, a little cheated, even if the author is someone whose work I like. When that happens to me, though I think of it as a good lesson for a writer...
That's a lot of time invested in a book...I think I'd want more of a payoff, too. Yes, it's happened to me before as a reader. And, actually, as a moviegoer, too.
I enjoyed the "Under the Dome," too, and was a bit disappointed in the ending, but relieved it finally ended! I also read a recent Jodi Picoult book where I was disappointed in the ending. However, I’ll read both authors again because I enjoy their style and l’m not sure any other endings would have been satisfactory.
Margot - Maybe I should stick to thinner books.
Elizabeth - Don't even get me started on movies!
Jane - Yeah, I'm not sure how King could have ended it any differen/better. I guess that's what you get when you put an entire town under an impenetrable, invisible dome.
I think I was one of the few people who didn't like "The Five People You Meet In Heaven." I thought the book started out great, then about halfway or so turned sappy and predictable and made me groan all the way to the end.
'Under the Dome' was engrossing, but there were a few days I tossed it aside with a groan. The good guys were all SO stupid! The whole plot was propelled along by their stupidity, so I wasn't surprised dues ex machina was the only way they'd get out of that mess. Still, couldn't there have been some in person confrontation with the bad guy? Argh... After that I went and re-read my 1928 copy of Alexander the Great: A Romantic Biography, which was far more nuanced and entertaining.
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