After many months I have finished Under the Dome. And my how my opinion changed throughout. 
 Initially I thought it was rather grotesque, especially when you meet Junior, but eventually I came to love and cheer and root for so many characters that it got me through all the horribleness of what occurs. 
 Stephen King does a marvelous job giving a realistic look of what would happen if an impenetrable dome appeared over a small hick town. I could tell a great deal of research went into the novel, as he incorporates all sorts of medical bits about post-mortem/autopsy-like scenarios. 
 He also covers a lot of his tracks, which I found impressive. I noticed he added a bunch of unobtrusive afterthoughts in the characters' dialogue, as to cover any tracks that cause the reader to go, Wait a second...couldn't the character have done this instead? But then he tells the reader why because of such-and-such a reason, which was really impressive in my book. Because nothing could have killed the novel more than inexplicable plot holes. 
 All in all, read this book if you like Stephen King and you can put up with sick, gross, inhumane characters. And I also recommend keeping a notebook, because you might get lost due to the sheer amount of characters in the novel. There must be about 50+ important characters.