March so far has been devoted to King’s March, and I am reading Under the Dome by Stephen King as part of this challenge. I am about a quarter of the way into this book and there’s been so much blood spilt already. This is not a conventional horror story but the violence/gore in this book is pretty explicit.
The blood shedding starts from page 4 of the book itself!
The man stopped. The chuck realized he had been spotted. To his right and just ahead was a fallen birch. He would hide under there, wait for the man to go by, then investigate for any tasty—
The chuck got that far in his thoughts—and another three waddling steps—although he had been cut in two. Then he fell apart on the edge of the road. Blood squirted and pumped; guts tumbled into the dirt; his rear legs kicked rapidly twice, then stopped.
His last thought before the darkness that comes to us all, chucks and humans alike: What happened?
A few additional details are then provided:
Then two things happened almost simultaneously.
The first was the woodchuck. It was whole, then it was in two pieces. Both were twitching and bleeding. Barbie stopped, mouth hanging open on the sudden lax hinge of his lower jaw. It was as if an invisible guillotine blade had dropped. And that was when, directly above the severed woodchuck, the little plane exploded.
More gore:
There was no time to see more. No time for anything. The Seneca exploded over Route 119 and rained fire on the countryside. It also rained body parts. A smoking forearm—Claudette’s—landed with a thump beside the neatly divided woodchuck.
And then a little later:
He ran toward the side of the road, meaning to skirt the main firefall.
“What happened?” he cried. “What in the blue fu–“Then he struck something. Hard. There was nothing there, but Barbie saw the guys nose snap to the side as it broke. The man rebounded from the nothing, bleeding from the mouth, nose, and forehead.
~ Under the Dome by Stephen King
Pretty grisly stuff, eh?
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Have you seen the TV series? The trailer makes it look gorier, which I didn’t even think was possible, with the cow and the… (you have to see it.)
@priyatabularasa:disqus no I haven’t seen the series nor the trailer. I can imagine it must be gory. Which channel is it on?
No, I just saw the trailer on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Y5YeYrqUk
Apparently, it’s supposed to be great, because King’s one of the producers himself! There’s a season 2 coming out soon, so you can imagine. I don’t know about the channel, it’s not being aired here in India, anyway.
I enjoy Stephen King’s writing, but this one sounds way too gory for me!
My Teaser is from MILLSTONE.
@sandranachlinger:disqus Actually only some bits are gory and I highlighted them here, but the rest of the book is pretty mild. It’s not really horror.
Oh yes very grisly, I have to admit I haven’t read any Stephen King novels and I really should try at least one!
@disqus_mUBrEiIQ5D:disqus There’s a Stephen King readalong going on this month in case you are interested 🙂
@disqus_mUBrEiIQ5D:disqus There is a Stephen King readalong this month in case you are interested 🙂
What a teaser!! Happy reading!
Here is my teaser post
I love King but yes this sounds gory!! Thanks for sharing 🙂 http://bookloverslife.blogspot.ie/2014/03/teaser-tuesday-27.html
I was just thinking I haven’t read a King novel in quite sometime, but by the way my tummy is turning now – it still may be awhile! Thanks for sharing though! Here is mine:
http://mydogearedpurpose.com/2014/03/18/teaser-tuesday-march-18th/
Grisly, but as always, good writing, from Stephen King.
@disqus_RIE09TMPa9:disqus oh, yes. He is really visceral 🙂
I haven’t read a Stephen King since I was in my early twenties. Blood and gore…hmmm.
Here’s my teaser http://www.lovebitessilkties.co.uk/2014/03/teasertuesday-auctioned-to-protect-by.html
Kay @ Love
Bites and Silk Ties
@lovebitesandsilk:disqus I loved Stephen King during my twenties. He rocked! His later books did not work as much for me, but so far Under the Dome is top-class.
Lots of blood shed.. I think I will not enjoy…
@manjulikapramod:disqus maybe not. But I promise you, the book is not all gore, the plot and story so far (midway into the book) is holding up pretty well.