Can we Survive the Dome?

 

So today I’m talking about Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson. I’ve read a couple of other books by Jackson and enjoyed them, which is why I didn’t really hesitate to read this one either.

The blurb says that today’s the day everything changes. Jamal Lawson just wanted to be a part of something. As an aspiring journalist, he packs up his camera and heads to Baltimore to document a rally protesting police brutality after another black man is murdered. But before the protest even begins, the city implements a new safety protocol: the Dome. The Dome surrounds the city, forcing those inside it to subscribe to a total militarised shutdown. No one can get in or out. Alone and in a strange place, Jamal doesn’t know where to turn… until he meets hacker Marco, who knows more than he lets on, and Catherine, an AWOL basic training graduate, whose parents helped build the initial plans for the Dome. As unrest in Baltimore grows throughout the days-long lockdown, Jamal, Marco, and Catherine take the fight directly to the chief of police. But the city is corrupt from the inside out, and it’s going to take everything they have to survive.

Also the book gives a content warning, so I’ll relay it. The book contains death, police violence, and slurs towards black and brown minorities.

We open on a prologue with one Governor Ambrose, who has created the Dome as a method to try and eliminate crime on her path to presidency. We then cut to six months later where main character Jamal is getting ready to head out to try and capture the protests again police brutality, partly in hopes it’ll bolster his college application. One immediate thing that I read that hit me was Jamal’s mother telling him to come back to her. Then the next bit that pops up that hurt was that it was actually Jamal’s mother that warns him that the dome is coming, although he only hears partially over the phone as she tells him. I will say, and I don’t know why but, I was expecting a literal glass dome. I hear dome and that’s where my brain goes. It wasn’t a literal glass dome – it was more like a forcefield that stopped people and electronics from getting out. And while Jamal just wanted to capture the protests that were going on in the city, he ended up meeting Marco, who was in this elite hacker group, Nemesis, who had a plan, or the drive, to try and take the dome down.

Early in the book, you see Jamal getting captured by the police and thrown into this abandoned prison. I say abandoned, it was commandeered by the police for use under the dome. But coming from the UK, where the police are barely armed – especially compared to that of the US – but also with me, being white, it was insane seeing just how brutal the police were. Although, again, with me being from the UK, I’ve only seen what has appeared on the media, it blows the mind what the American police force are allowed to get away with. Not only that, what the police in general are allowed, and able, to get away with all due to the racism and hatred that is so deeply rooted in these big pillars of society. You know, the people who are supposed to keep us safe?

Jamal’s personality. There are little bits you see from the off. He’s narrating how the drive to Baltimore was shorter than he thought, and his reasoning was, “Thank you, speeding.” And it made me chuckle. I’m also glad he wasn’t a trusting person. I realise the situation that he has been thrust into is insane, but he was just so wildly against trusting Marco, and seemingly anyone. But given just how wild the situation he was in, and the fact he was just trying to survive, that made him a lot more realistic and adaptable to what was going on. At the same time however, now that I’ve read the book, and maybe this is just me, but I don’t really remember much else. I remember his confidence, and that he was a journalist, but I’m struggling to remember other bits.

There’s a moment where you see the Governor from the prologue on the news talking about the dome. The whole thing is just police brutality. But you see on the news that the Governor is like, “Lol don’t worry about the dome, we’re just trying to make the city safe, and everyone is being cared for.” And don’t get me wrong, what I’m about to say is the most basic commentary you’ll have ever heard, but it was very eye roll. She basically said that padding statement that gets sent out to the people who aren’t really paying attention to what’s going on, as it doesn’t concern them, so they’ll hear that and be like, “Oh, well, they’re sorting it out and it’ll be okay.”

Now, there is a romance between Jamal and Marco, but the thing I appreciated about it was that it never really got that deep. I know this sounds a little weird, but I mean it in the sense that in the context of the book, of course it’s going to be quite shallow. The characters are in this situation where they don’t really have the time to be sitting down and having cutesy little chats to get to know each other – although, don’t get me wrong, one thing I would have liked was those slower moments to make me think that there might be a moment where they could be safe. There’s a bit in the book where the two of them end up in this seedy little motel, and I feel like that could have been an opportunity for one of those slow moments of calm where they could have gotten closer. I also think, as an aside, had we managed to have some of those slower moments in the book, we could have gotten to know Marco and Catherine more as characters.

I think that might be the first point I’ve mentioned Catherine in this post, and that’s because even though she’s one of the three prominent characters, I feel like she was featured the least. And other than the fact she had special, it was either military or army, training, the only thing I remember about her was that her parents were responsible in helping the creation of the dome. And when I say, “I remember”, I mean they were the only specific details I remember about her. I do remember her being this kick-ass, takes no crap, kind of character. Out of the three of Jamal, Marco, and Catherine, she was the tank, that’s how I can describe her. Marco would have been the rogue, the one who causes status problems and lowers stats, and Jamal was the warrior.

Now just to return to the slower moments for a second, I think because this book was missing those moments it made when the action was happening towards the end seem almost like it was all coming a little too fast for me, personally. The best way I can describe this without giving any spoilers was that the characters wanted to do these big things, and then they’d manage to just quickly do them. That’s fine, but I like to wander a little bit. Not so much that it impedes the pace, but just enough so that things can build up, contextually. I add contextually, because the book definitely did build up towards the end, what with the police’s brutality growing as Jamal, Marco, and Catherine resisted, but I didn’t think it always built up towards the goal of taking down the dome itself (like the physical dome, not the concept of the dome, rooted in the systemic racism). And since I’ve mentioned it, I definitely enjoyed the final act of the book when the final stand is happening and you get to see all these fragmented pieces that you’ve seen and have had mentioned throughout finally slot together and work perfectly as one.

And I do have one little nitpick-y thing in the fact I noticed an instance where I think Jamal’s name was used in place of Marco’s. I’m cursing myself for not writing down the page number, but I remember it happening on a left-hand page, right at the top of the page, because I had to physically stop reading and be like, “Jamal?”. Because the whole thing didn’t read right and I had to go back to the page before to restart the sentence to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind, and I wasn’t.

Overall, there were definitely parts of this book I liked, but at the same time there were bits I didn’t. I loved the raw power in the characters, that they were able to just stand up and overturn things wrong. But then the bits I didn’t enjoy so much were in the finer details, like how I didn’t know much about Catherine, or that I just wanted to spend more time getting to know the characters. I’m definitely keeping this book on my shelf, but I’m not sure how fast it’ll be for me to re-read it.

Okay, bye!