The Bog Wife and the Dome

In this episode, Andrea explores Southern Gothic horror in her review of The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister. Elizabeth remembers why she loves Stephen King in her recap of Under the Dome. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello. Welcome to Bookshop Bombshells. I'm Andrea. I'm Elizabeth. And this is a podcast where we each read a book and then we tell you about it.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

And we try not to spoil it. So if you want to read it, you can just start anew without knowing the ending. So I did talk to my brother um recently, and he was saying it was frustrating that we don't like we like get them all like riled up about the book and then we just like stop telling it.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

You're supposed to read it. And he was like, he was like, I don't have time to read. But um audiobook it then. So Andrea got me uh a dungeon crawler Carl t-shirt. I did that's like my new favorite t-shirt. It's super cute. Um it has like Mongo on it and Princess Donut, of course, um, which if you guys don't know, Mongo is her pet that she has now. Um but I wore it to go visit because it's also like a really comfy shirt. Like it's like and soft. Like that's like my favorite kind of t-shirt. Um and so I was I went to go visit my brother and I I showed him my shirt. I was like, oh, it's his book, Dentor Carl or Carl. He's like, of course, making fun of how I say it because you're just like Dentor Crawl Carl. Um but he started reading it and or he started listening to it, I think. Um, because he's got two kids, so he's like it's a lot. I don't have time for that. Um, but he like loves it so far. So I'm like so excited that I'm gonna have someone to talk to about it. I know I need to read it. It's okay. Uh they're long books too. Yeah. I enjoy reading them though. Like, I I haven't done any of the audiobooks on those.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Um well that's that's why I haven't tried like I could do like a free trial of an audiobook streaming service for like 30 days and listen to it, but like, I don't want to do that, I want to read it. Yeah. Um my sister finally finished the uh Southern.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Oh, what did she think?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Uh she loved it actually. Oh good. Yeah, she thought it was really good. She was like, I was at the hardest point in the book when I needed to like set it down for a little while, but she picked it back up and she was like, it was a great book. And great recommendations.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

She texted me where she stopped, and I was like, She honestly made it through the worst part already.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Like, I think she needed to recover from it.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

I didn't want to say it was smooth sailing from there, but um, but like the bad stuff had already happened. She really liked it. Yeah. Good, good. Yeah, yeah, I liked it too. Um, okay. Uh Andrea, I think it is your turn to go first this week.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

I believe you are correct. So I read a book this week called The Bogwife. And it is by I gotta get my. I think I've heard of I'll show you the cover. I just forgot to pull it up before you got over here. I was like, I feel like this is familiar, but it's by Kay Cronister. It came out in like 2004. It's like a maybe I haven't heard it. Southern Gothic. It's in West Virginia, so it's very Appalachian. That sounds cool. And uh the cover. It's it's okay. You don't have to worry about it. Don't worry, you guys can see it. Nobody else can see it either. Yeah, you guys look it up. Um it was okay. Like, I enjoyed reading it. Um I don't think I've read a book that was like this one. So uh basically, like you start reading, and there's five siblings in the story. There's Nora, Winna, Percy, Ida, and Charlie. And they're talking about this memory from when they were all still pretty young of their father on winter nights telling them the history of the Hadley Compact. Um They're the Hadsley family, of course. It's a compact. Uh like a agreement. Oh, okay. Okay. Um kind of it's so the way he like always intros his story is like our ways are noble. Our ways are ancient or sorry, our ways are noble, they are ancient. Always the bog has belonged to us and we to it. So they live on a bog. Oh cool. It's like a house on the bog. Yeah. Um where is this again? West Virginia. West Virginia, okay. Uh he tells the story about the first father being thrown into the myrrh or bog, I guess. Um I was like, why do we keep calling them bog different things? Uh, because I don't know what the words were. Yeah, it's like, oh, it's a bug. Um basically he was like was um got in trouble for transgressions that he actually was not guilty of. Um, so they like threw him in the bog, but then he like rose out of the bog with this woman. Um, and it was uh the woman was gonna become his wife. So that was like the compact between the Hasley family and the bog. Okay. So she's a bog wife. Okay. Yeah. So the firstborn son has to like marry a bog wife. Okay. So it's important. Okay. They're not allowed to marry anybody else. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Um sounds like that might be a problem later.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

They also have to like take care of the bog, so they're their custodian, basically. Um so when you're reading the book, it splits off between all of the siblings um and their narrative kind of thing. Um, and it it follows all of them kind of consecutively throughout the different seasons of the year. Um so like the first person, it's in Nora's narrative, and she's the baby basically of the bunch. I think she's like 22 at this point in the story, though. Um she is like walking with her brother Percy in the bog, and he's like compulsively pulling out these like orange mushrooms that are growing in the bog's swell, basically. Uh so he's doing it like like he's calling them trespassers. So he's like, These trespassers are in the bog, this is bad, like we have to get it out because it'll hurt the bog. And um that we find out in in her narrative that there's a lot of family resentment between the siblings too. So, like Percy is the second oldest, like he's not their firstborn son. Um, Charlie is, but he's doing all of Charlie's like chores and like taking care of the bog he's supposed to be though. And then um sorry, I'm out of breath. My allergies have been bad. Yeah, it's been bad, yeah. So, and then um like Ida, Risen's both both of them because they're always upsetting their dad, who's currently dying of stomach cancer. Um, he doesn't sound like a very nice guy. Oh really? Yeah, but maybe not all. Um it's still sound but it's complicated. Um, so Percy, Nora, Charlie, and Ida all group together in their father's room and he's requesting that um somebody needs to convince their sister when to return because they all have to be here for the exchange, which is basically like when they die, they have to like send his body out to the bog because the bog like takes that body and then apparently creates like a wife out of like it's a trade-off basically. Uh so then uh he shoes them all the way except for Nora, and he's like, I need you to change my will. Um, so the will originally said um everything to Charles, and then he was like, I want you to tear that up, get rid of it, and then write uh everything to the eldest living son.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Ooh, living.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Yes. Um, and so she does that, and then she comes out and they all decide that like Nora was Wina's favorite, so she's gonna have to be the one to like mail a letter out to be like, hey, you need to come back for the burry ritual. The burial burial. Uh so she said, Oklahomann-ness. I think I gave up on that. I just it's hard to say things. Yeah. Um, so then the next kind of person's narrative is Percy, and he's summoned into his father's room, and his dad's like, You have to kill Charlie. Um, so that you'll be the one to tend to the bog and marry the bog wife. And he's like, Whoa, what? And he's like, You have to do it. I don't care how you do it, it doesn't have to be violent. And Charlie's like, like, that like that's my brother. How do you um like how do you not make it violent? It's still murder. Uh we do find out that Charlie was in like this weird freak accident a while back where this big ass hemlock tree fell through their house and like crushed his pelvis. So uh that's why he hasn't been doing the like chores and stuff, is because he's always in a lot of pain. Okay. Um and then like we figure out that Charlie's got really bad anxiety about the whole marrying the bog wife situation. Uh he's like gotta go out there naked and follow these like dousing rods to lead him to his bog wife, and then like his dad like psyched him out about like consummating the marriage with this bog wife and like having to tell her how to um uh he has to teach the bog wife how to speak English and stuff like that too. So uh is the bog wife at least like hot. Or is she like like I picture her like the little girl from the ring or something that she's just that's not actually covered similar to how I a mix of that and like not in the I don't think it actually ever tells you what she looks like. Like really, um, it describes their mom, but their mom actually had like went missing 11 years ago, like under suspension.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Their mom is the previous bog wife, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Okay, um she suspiciously went missing. Okay, um oh, but Charlie's also very nervous because that tree didn't mess up his pelvis. It's he's got weird testicles now, like they broke, and he's like, I don't even think I can have kids with these. So uh weird testicles, which is not funny for him. That's funny to think about. We've talked about it quite extensively at one point in the book, and I was just like, bless your heart. Um, so when Wina comes along, we'll switch over now. Um she has been keeping a secret from all of her siblings and families. Um, she had ran off to Illinois and got married, which is against the bog rules. Um, and she hasn't told them anything about that, but she's like came back home and since she got to experience like the real world outside of the bog, like they all nobody like Charlie's the only one that could leave to like go to Walmart in the town close by to like get groceries and stuff. So um nobody else really knows how it works outside of their bog property. Um so so she's trying to figure out how to get them all out because she was like, This is wrong, this place is filthy, like there's a hole in the ceiling from where that tree Dunan hit Charlie. Uh and like it's it's gro like it's molding, yeah, is bog is boggy out here. Um, so um she's kind of like trying to figure out how to convince everybody because like they all kind of fight and bicker a lot. Um so slowly you kind of realize that the ancient Hadsley story has some leaks in it and they might be lies. So the siblings are now like falling more into like this obsession with it or this like chaos of it being false their whole lives, too. There's like two separate sides to it. So um the bog is also trying to die basically. So it's this whole like chaotic dynamic of all of it swirling together, and then you figure out what happens and where the resolve is and all of that kind of thing. So that's this room. I'm not gonna tell you anymore. Yeah, don't tell me about that.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

I could like what would you rate it? Because you you kind of seemed like you were super into it, but then you tell me the story, and that sounds really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

It's an interesting story. I I would give it like a 3.5. Oh, really? Yeah, which is pretty close to what it was on Goodreads, too. Um, I think they gave it, I wrote it down this time. It was a 3.58 on Goodreads. So like I enjoyed it. I was not like I wanted to know what happened, so it wasn't it wasn't boring by any means. But um I just I I just had hold up on some of the the writing, I guess. Like she doesn't write terribly, it's just not poorly written, it's pretty well written, but it just some of the things that kind of seemed to drag on a little bit, or then it would speed up. It was just like the pace of the couldn't find its pace. Yeah. Okay. But I like I said, I didn't I did not hate it. It was kind of a cool story, but it sounds really interesting.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yeah. I like the idea of a bog wife. I don't know why, I just thought that sounds like creepy and gross.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

It does sound creepy and gross.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

And but cool at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Uh you have to like spit in her mouth to give her life though, underneath the bog. You have to like go in the bog and moisten her mouth with yours. Oh, grass. You could make out with her in the bog, I guess. I don't know. I'm just like be into her mouth. Like, that's what I pictured. I was just like, that's disgusting. But um, but like, yeah, I was like, it was good. Yeah. Yeah.

unknown 14:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

It was a light read, if you need. Okay. Yeah. So how many, how many pages? It was only like 320, maybe. Oh, that's not bad. So no.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Not too bad. So mine, let me I've been hiding it from you because I knew you'd recognize it as soon as I pulled it out. I did. Oh, I've been needing to read that. Under the dome, talked this book up by Stephen King. It is 1,000 seven 1,072 pages. Yay. This thing is like a couple pounds.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

It looks like a textbook.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Yeah. Which I actually got this copy. Um, it's like a hardback copy. I got it from um like an antique shop. Oh, that's cool. Uh probably by her house, which I saw it there, and that's what made me. I actually didn't buy it at the time. Um, but I was like, oh, I love that book. Um, I need to do that for the podcast one time, and then I found it on Libby on audiobook because it still took me forever to read to finish it on audiobook.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Well, it's what? How many hours of audiobook is it?

SPEAKER_02 15:51

36 or something. It's it's a lot. Um, but it's so good. Um, so yeah, Under the Dome, Stephen King. I really like Stephen King. I got into him um when I used to do, I had like a data entry job, um, and it was just so much like mindless work. And I think I started off, I think I started off as a temp, and I was doing just like filing all day. And so they were like, you can listen to headphones if you want. Um, so I would just get audiobooks, and the problem is a lot of audiobooks aren't at least back then, I would like listen to a book, and it was like a day. I like listen to a book in a day because it's an eight-hour day. Um, so I was like, I need some longer books, and so I started uh listening to Stephen King books. Um all along. Oh yeah, there's quite a few really long chunkers. Um but yeah, so um so yeah, this was one that there was a TV show, I don't remember what year, but there was a TV show that came out, and I think I actually tried watching the TV show. I don't remember if I tried to watch it before or after I initially read the book. Um, but the TV show sucked.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

So you're not the only one who has tried to get me to read this book. Oh who else? Uh there was so uh at the bar I used to not many, many names. At the bar that I used to go to all the time in my twenties, one of the bartenders, like we were just like we both loved reading. So we'd talk about books all the time, and that was one of the books that she was like, You've got to read it so good. I I actually think your husband really liked this book. I told him that you might have a recommendation for him.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Especially since it sounds like he's running out of books. Like this book will take him quite a while to get through. Um if he's listening to books like on his community and stuff. So um, I think he might like this. Uh so I do have some trigger warnings again. Okay. Um, there's the good old rape is back. So we got rape, sexual assault, um, murder. Hi, um you know you know that like website like does the dogdy.com. Yes. The dog dies, two dogs, a couple dogs die.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Um how dare you, Stephen.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

And then I feel bad putting this last, but a couple uh some children die too. Okay. Um so yeah, so so Stephen King, uh, my husband has just started reading his on-writing book, like his Oh yeah, how to how to write. Yeah, how to write. Uh, and he was laughing because there's a part where he talks about um like basically picking and choosing what you put in the book and like only including things that are like essential. And it's like hard to understand that when you have like a thousand-page book, like how can everything in this book be essential? But I honestly feel like and I when I bought this book, there were some like pretty cute old men at the antique shop that were just like, Oh, we love Stephen King, and and they were talking about um just like yeah, he'll he'll spend three pages explaining something that a lot of people will just do in like one paragraph. And in my personal opinion, those three pages set the tone and like develop those. Oh, yeah, it's it's those three pages are important pages. Like I'm on Stephen King's side here. Like, like those three pages, like you know e every character, you like know them, you know exactly what's going on in their head, you know exactly like like it's and I my favorite types of books are like character development. Like I love a good I don't know Well, because you want to know the character, I want to like feel like I know them. Um and this book does a really great job of that.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Do you know? I I have read a Stephen King book. What's your Stephen King book? Through the Eyes of the Dragon.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

It was like Oh yeah, which I honestly haven't read.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

It's like a fairy tale instead of a horror novel.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

He wrote it. For his daughter, I think.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

I've been trying to decide where this would be at the bookstore. I know where we shelved it. Was it sci-fi or we kept authors together?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

We kept all the authors together, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Um that's kind of because I would probably say this is a little more sci-fi.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Um horror, there's I mean, there's horror aspects of it, but definitely sci-fi.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Well, tell me about the story.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

So a cool thing about the book is it's broken up um into like parts. Uh so and the parts have like really cool titles, they're like fun. Um, and then the kind of like it's like sort of jumps back and forth between characters a lot.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Um, so I don't know if that's gonna make this summary like sound really I just had to do that crazy, but yeah. Um so it starts off. The first part is called the airplane and the woodchuck. Um so we find Claudette Sanders. Uh she's taking a flying lesson with this guy named Chuck Thompson, um, and they're flying over their town, which is uh called Chester's Mill. Um suddenly all the needles on the control panel drop dead. Claudette is basically just gets out like a what the hell? Um Chuck never gets to see the control panel. All he sees is the nose of the plane crumples towards him. There wasn't time to panic. The plane explodes over Route 119 and rains fire on the countryside. So this is all this is October 21st. Oh my lord. Oh my lord. It starts off good too. Like it starts off, and honestly, like a whole thousand pages. Like, I'm just like zooming through. Yeah, it's great. Um so next we meet Barbie. Um, he's kind of like our protagonist. I love that they call him Barbie, but his actual name is Dale Barbara. Um he's on his way out of town, he's walking. He had just gotten into a fight in the parking lot of Dippers, which I think is like a grocery store, the night before. And he's like new to town. People are being assholes to him because it's like a small town. And they don't like him. And so he's just like, screw this, I'm out. So he's leaving town on foot. He doesn't have a car. This hot blonde drives by in a Ford pick-me-up, which I guess that's what they she uh that's what he calls it, is a pick-me-up. I assume that's a pickup truck. I've never heard it called a pick-me-up before.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Is she gonna pick him up?

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Uh she thinks about it. Oh. She likes hits the brakes. I think I think he's cute. Uh they don't really like describe him too much, but I think he's he's cute. He's like probably like mid-ish to late 20s. Okay. Um she thinks about it, she hits the brakes, she kind of starts to like, you know, slow down. Um he starts to like, you know, be like, oh yeah, you know, he like got he had his thumb out, so he's like, hey, what's up? Give me your ride. Um, but she changes her mind at the last minute and just like drives off. Oh I don't know, I wouldn't pick up a random guy I didn't know on the side of the road. So maybe she has like this thought of like, maybe I shouldn't. He's gonna get me. Yeah. Even the cute ones can be psychopaths. Um and so uh so that it's so like it's written so well. Stephen King's such a great author. Um, so you're like totally enthralled the whole time. And he like gives you all these like like uh what's it called?

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Not precursor, but um oh like uh I was gonna say precursor, yeah. But uh you know, like foreshadowing.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

He gives you like all these foreshadowings. Um so uh he's like Barbie will think of this moment often, like he almost made it out. Um or maybe if she had stopped, the stop would have taken too long. The speed limit on 119 is 50 miles per hour, and he always thinks of that plane. So like so you're like you you're like piecing together what's sort of going on. They haven't told you exactly what's happening. You're just sort of getting a point of view, too, and it's all in this one day. Um so Barbie continues to walk down the highway, uh, the plane flies over him. Simultaneously, he sees this like woodchuck on the side of the road. It's whole, and then all of a sudden it's in two pieces, and like at the same time, the plane explodes.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

That's insane.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Okay, so the next part is called Junior and Angie. Um, so we meet Junior. Uh, he is one of the guys that Barbie got into a fight with the night before uh in the Dipper's parking lot. Um he's 21, he's a frat boy who just recently got kicked out of school. He is an asshole. Like, that's the other thing, is like Stephen King, I don't know what kind of person he is, but like he writes an asshole so well that I'm like, you have to have it in you or somewhere in you. Yeah. Like he just like those those are the best. They're like the best characters. Legitimate assholes. Yeah, you're just like, oh man, this guy is such a piece of shit. Like, oh but you're like you're just like you're like into it. You're like, yeah, this guy's awful. Um so he just got kicked out of school. He is the son of Jim Rennie Sr., who is a used car salesman. Um he's also the the second town selectman, so it's like, I don't know, they're like uh city council or whatever. Um he suffers from debilitating migraines. And I had quote, and they make him feel like one mean motherfucker. So he's heading over to Angie McCain's house. He needs to talk to her. Um, he's hoping that I have a lot of quotes in here because Stephen King like says it best. Like I feel like I can't even paraphrase it. Um so he's hoping that uh making Angie feel worse might make him feel better. Um so he rings the doorbell, Angie's in the shower. She thinks that it's her ex-boyfriend Frankie. Um, and she thinks that like her and Frankie are getting back together. So she's like, it's obviously Frankie. He's like coming over, we're gonna make up, we're gonna have sex, you know, that sort of thing. Um she opens the door, she's like still in her robe.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

She's disappointed.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Oh yeah, very disappointed. So it's not Frankie, it's Junior, and he looks pissed. Um before she can even be like, Junior, what the hell are you doing here? Um, he just like slaps her across the face, like hard. Yeah. She stumbles back. Like, I'm telling you, this this like starts off strong, goes strong.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

The entire entire time.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Um she stumbles back, her mouth's bleeding. Um dang. Yeah. He uh so Junior like hears like his mother's voice in his head, so he's always had anger problems. Um his mother's voice in his head is telling him, like, don't let your anger get out of control. But like her robe opens up and it just like pisses him off.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Bang.

unknown 27:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Bang. Um and and this is like what's cool about Stephen K. He's such a good writer. I'm sorry, I'm gonna keep saying that because it is just like so good. Um because he like just he'll just like put this in here just like really like really quick. He'll be like, Junior Rennie, who didn't know he had a brain tumor, just like snaps. Oh, yeah. So his migraines, not just migraines, it's a brain tumor. And they're driving him like slowly insane. Yeah. So um Angie sees the anger like bulging in his eyes. Um, so she's just like, oh crap, like I gotta go run, call the police. She like turns to run, she barely makes it two steps, grabs her by the hair, um, and starts just like beating the shit out of her.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Dang! Boom.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah. He gets her in her kitchen, slams her against the fridge. When she's on the ground, he like slams her head into the tile. Um, she starts like having a seizure, like she starts like convulsing. Yeah. And um, so he strangles her because you know, that's what you do, apparently.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

That's uh that's an intense bit of uh And it's just like this is like so early in the book.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

We're on page four. Yeah, so early in the book. Um so far off, there's like a boom. Um, and then he hears the chiming noise that a computer makes when the electricity goes off and switch over switches over to the battery battery. So you're kind of understanding like all this is happening simultaneously. Because so the boom was the plane, you know, whatever. Yeah. Um so Junior, of course, is caught up in his own stuff. He doesn't know anything else is happening. He decides, like, after he's you know, he like kind of like wakes up from his like delirium of like anger.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Um and just like is like, oh crap, like, did I just do that? Did I just like kill her? Um and you know, he's not like upset about it. Like it's not like that.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

He's like, huh.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

He's like, he's like, oh dang, I can't believe I did that. Um and so he decides he's just like I'm never gonna be able to get away with this. I guess I'll just kill myself. Oh my lord.

unknown 29:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Um, so he just like leaves Angie's house, was like has this whole big plan of like, I'm just gonna go kill myself, I'll be fine. Um, but he like crosses the town common and a man like grabs him by the arm. It's just like, what's going on? What's going on? The like town whistle, I guess, is like going off. Um so you know, obviously it's like he's like things change for him because you'll see.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Um, I don't know if you'll see because I'm not gonna go that far into it. I probably will. But yeah, but things, but thing yeah, things change. Uh the world changes, obviously. Um, for them in the mill is what they call it. The mill, Chester's Mill. Um, so meanwhile, cars keep just like wrecking on the highway, running into this like invisible, impenetrable field. Um, a news helicopter covering the plane crash um also explodes. So, and that one was like on the outs outside. Is this due to the dome? Yes, this is a dome. So they don't call it a dome for a while, but yeah, it's a dome.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

It ends up being called a dome.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Yes, it's a dome. And it just appears out of nowhere. That's not you can't see it. It's killing people like right off the bat. Um, so the next part is called cluster mug. Um, so we meet Jim Rennie, who is Junior's father. They call him Big Jim. Um, and he's like super religious in in like almost like the worst way. Like he uses it as this like protective shield, but he's like the biggest king asshole of them all.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Um he's tiny assholes, dad. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

And he he doesn't curse or anything, so it's like cluster mug is clusterfuck, and you know, like he says like cotton pickin' a lot, and he um he'll say like that rhymes with witch, like that sort of thing. Um, but he's just like the king of the worst. Um so he just like pulls up on the scene of the plane crash, like basically everyone's just like, what the heck happened? They're trying to figure out there's like body parts everywhere everywhere from this plane crash, too. Um so Barbara had so him and this guy on the other side of the dome basically had interacted, like um, and they're like kind of doing this like walk around the dome to like try to figure out how far it goes. Um and Barbara ends up like running to like other townspeople and he's like, Do you have a cell phone? Like, call the Air National Guard, like tell them what's happening. Like, we need to get like a no-fly zone, like put up over the dome. Yeah, we've already lost the plane, we've lost the helicopter, like we need to like stop this. Um and so this guy Ernie Calvert was the one with the cell phone. He's like, got the Air National Guard on the phone. They're like transferring him over to like Homeland Security, and like Jim Rennie pulls up and he's like, Hey Jim, like kind of like loops him in because he's like the town second selectman, the second town selectman. He's like, I got him on the phone. And he's like, Why would you call them for gosh sakes? Um, and he's like, What in the cotton picking for? Uh what in the cotton picking devil for? Uh which yeah, he loves to say cotton picking. Um so Ernie tells him, like, that mate, that guy, Dale Barbara, told me to, and like Jim Rennie does not like someone else trying to take charge.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Like, well, he weren't there yet.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But like someone's trying to like tell people in his town what to do. That's my job. That's my job. Um, so he tells Ernie that he's been misinformed, and he like takes the phone from him just as Homeland Security is getting on the line. Um, he tells Homeland Security that so it was very confusing. Like a lot of people didn't really know. I mean, obviously, not like, oh, there's a dome off the phone.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

I'm sure it's not, it's clear. I was like, Yeah, it's it's completely invisible.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Well, and what happened was a a plane hit it and a car crashed into it. I get I don't know, Andrew, I can see my hands. Simultaneously, yeah, they're like on one side direction. Yeah, there's like a plane on one side, a car on the other. So a lot of people initially thought the plane was flying too low and hit the truck. And so that's what Jim Big Jim is telling Homeland Security, and he's like, this is a local matter, we have it under control. It was just this one plane and this one truck. Um, and so they like hang up on Homeland Security. Which they don't even know. Like, um, so uh so like you know, Bing Jim's trying to take control of everything, obviously. And then finally, uh his name is Howard Duke Perkins, so they all call him Duke. He's the local police chief. Um, he shows up on the scene. Um, I I'm not gonna so just just you know, he has a pacemaker. Um so there were uh another couple other officers that are already on the scene. One is Jackie Weddington, who she actually like broke her nose like walking up to the dome. Oh no. Because you like literally can't see it. So she just like hits the dome, breaks her nose. Um, she's like kind of catching Duke up on what's going on. She said that she felt like a weird buzz, like right before she got to the dome. Um, but like it passed, and then all of a sudden it's just like right there. And um how weird. How strange. Yes, so strange. So um Rennie tells like or Duke tells Rennie and all the other people to like get back. They're trying to like set up a perimeter, even though they don't really know what the perimeter is yet. And Duke is like trying to like basically figure out where this barrier is. So he's like walking up, um, like with his hand in front of him, um, so he won't bang his face. Uh fair. Um and he starts to feel the buzz that like Jackie was describing. Um, but it doesn't pass. Uh his last thought was what his wife yelled at him that morning.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Oh no, take care of your pacemaker. With the pacemaker.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

And then it explodes in his chest. He tried to speak his wife's name and failed, but he saw her face clearly in his mind. She was smiling, then darkness. And I'm gonna stop there, because like I I I it's such a good, it's such a good start. Like the first part of the book is just like everyone's experience on like what they call like Dome Day. Yeah. And then like literally shit hits the fan. Like it's just like I wanna read it. It gets really bad. Um, but the character development is so good. Like every character, like there's this one, so like the whole like three pages for one paragraph thing, like, there's this one part where like Stephen King goes into this whole tangent about girls' basketball and why the girls, like the high school girls basketball team is so much more than the men's girls basketball or the men's basketball team, because like girls are better at this and that and that. And he do he does this like whole tangent just to explain about the notion of like Jim's feeling it, like like you know, like when you're on fire, like you're just like he's feeling it. He like spends three pages probably describing this notion of feeling it, and like to me, like it's worth it.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Like if you can portray that, though.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Yeah, like it's like you you you understand these characters to like their core, and it's so it's so good. It's a really good book. I love the ending. Okay, um, like I think I don't remember, I really only watched like maybe a couple episodes of the show. I just remember it not being very good. Um, but I really liked the explanation of the dome. You do obviously find out. I I loved how he did it. So cool. Yeah, so that's under the dome. Oh, and uh Goodreads gave it a 3.93. I feel like that's fair. It is long. Um I think personally I would score it higher. Um, because like I said, I really like character development. I really like really like a good asshole, like a good well-written asshole, you know. That's fair, yeah. Um, uh if you didn't catch on, Dale Barbara is actually Captain Dale Barbara, and so he is um he was in the army. Um he's like, I don't know how army works, but he's like retired. Um but yeah, so he's like uh they they he's what is it whenever they're like they like bring him back, like I can't remember what it's called, but I know what you're talking about. He's like, I thought I was out and they brought me back in.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Wrangled me right back. Yeah. Um that sounds really cool, actually.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

It's really good. It starts off really strong, which I really like in a book. Um, I don't like a slow start because I don't know, like it's sometimes like if I pick up a book, I'm I only have like, you know, 20, 30 minutes, and if I'm not hooked, I may not pick it up again.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Well, and if I so I ha I remember listening to the um I think I listened to like the first 15 minutes of the audiobook and the narration was really good on the audio box.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

Oh yeah, it is really good. Uh I should have mentioned that too.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

I didn't get to finish it because like I I I got 15 minutes in and um I think I realized that I wasn't gonna finish it in the time I had to check it out and there was people waiting for it and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

So yeah, he does a really good Jim Rennie, like the cut and pick and like he does like really good accents. I really like it. Yeah, um, I really liked the narrator. Definitely it just kind of feels like you're what the show should have been, like you're just like watching the show. Nice. Which I think um who's I probably shouldn't have even brought this up because I don't know anybody's names. Um but Breaking Bad brother-in-law. Did you ever watch Breaking Bad? Okay, then it won't it's not gonna help on canvas. I think he was Jim Rennie in the show. Um for anyone who has watched who maybe cares and knows names. Um the minerals guy. Uh yeah, yeah. So I I highly recommend. I highly recommend the audiobook because I mean who has time to read a thousand page book, but you know, maybe you do.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Um, it's just sitting around reading reading time, you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Yeah, you know. It's your marathon book. Maybe it'll take you a couple months to read. Or maybe you're a crazy reader. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

You could be speed read marathon fanatic here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

I don't read that fast. But audiobook was great. So if you just like need something to listen to on your way to work or whatever, like I highly recommend.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

I can probably get that now that I have a longer drive to work. Yeah. We try to re-listen to it.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Yeah. Or just doing chores. I like listening to books when I do chores.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

Yeah, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

I don't like I don't like silence.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

I usually play my uh my uh what is it? It's like a police radio so I can hear the police scanner. The what's not trying to do that to myself. Sometimes it gets real exciting. I've heard like a police chase on there. Oh really.

SPEAKER_02 41:20

Uh I don't need to know about I don't I don't need to know what's going on around around.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

It's my Sunday tour. Yeah. Listening. All right. Okay. So we read this week The Bog Wife by Kay Cronister.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

And Under the Dome by Stephen King.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

So thank you for listening. Yeah, thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Um, just keep reading and we'll see you in two weeks. We'll see you in two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

Bye. Bye.