I finished the book Under the Dome and was honestly a little surprised/disapointed with the ending. Don't get me wrong, It's still a good ending, I just felt it wasn't as action-packed as it should have been, especially with every suspenceful and jaw dropping moment leading up to it.
To tie up all the theories I made throughout the book, each was in a way important. Big Jim wasn't behind the dome, but he was planning to totally take over Chester's Mill. Chef wasn't responcible for the dome, but he played a pretty big roll leading up to the ending. And the aliens, well, they were the ending.
Speaking of Chef, even though he wasn't responcible for the dome, he was responcible for the wipout of the town, finishing off everyone except the main characters, good and bad, who were not already dead. When Cheif Randolph and some officers went to take the remaining propane tanks from Chef's meth lab, Andy Sanders and Chef attacked shooting the teen cops and Cheif Randolph(this was planned to happen by Big Jim) and then let loose his secret weapon stashed in his garage. "Andy and Chef were driven sideways by the bullets, but before they were torn asunder, their joined hands pushed the white button marked OPEN" pg. 981 This lead to 10,000 gallons of propane exploding. "Then, four miles distant, a brilliant white spark flicks the hazy sky, like a stroke of lightning that goes up instead of down. A moment later, a titanic explosion hammers a hole straight through the center of the day. A red ball of fire blots out first the WCIK tower, then the trees behind it, and then the whole horizon as it spreads north and south."pg. 981 This is the description of the propane exploding. As a result of this, Most of the town folk were incinerated or killed in the mad rush at visitors day trying to escape their fate.
The exciting next few pages describe in detail what happens as fifteen minutes of horror spread out into what feels like ages. It was hard reading about all the deaths and the suffering of the survivors. Thick smoke filled tha air, slowly suffocating everyone under the dome. They would have all died if Julia hadn't thought up a last resort idea: to beg the alein children to let them go. I was thinking "wait...this is how this thing gets solved? Really?" I guess you would have to tie in the aleins somehow, but with everything leading up to the end being so exciting it was kind of a downer that Julia would just end up talking to the alein kids. It took some effort to convince them, and the conflict was nice during that part.Also, it was a hard treck to get to the little black box controlling the dome. However, once Julia miraculously convinced one of the leather head kids to free them, I felt the sweet sensation of "Finally! It's over!" I felt like I had been there those last couple chapters, which was to me a bit impressive since it's not a feeling you get in every book. Even though the ending wasn't as action-y as I had hoped, It was still detailed and overall good.
I reccomend young adults to read this amazing book, it is EXTREMELY different from the popular TV show and so descriptive it makes you feel as if you are trapped under the dome as well.
