Title: The Institute
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Thriller, Science Fiction
Published: 2019
Publisher: Scribner
Source: Hardcover
Length: 561 Pages
Goodreads Synopsis:
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.
My Rating: 4
This book has been on my TBR for years. My partner purchased it for me as a Christmas gift the same year it was published in 2019, and it’s taken me this long to get around to reading it. I’m annoyed at myself for having left it on my TBR for so long. I enjoyed this one. It differed from other Stephen King books I’ve read. This one is from the perspective of a child, Luke Ellis for most of the book. Some sections are from the perspective of Tim, a former police officer we meet at the start of the book, which honestly had me confused, like, is this the right book? The confusion went away a bit once I got to the next part and we meet Luke. So, then it’s okay. How does that first bit tie into all of this? It’s Stephen King; we’ll get there and things will make sense, hopefully.
Luke Ellis is just a normal kid, albeit highly intelligent, and on the verge of looking at going into college-level courses because nothing in an elementary school is challenging enough for him. He still hangs out with kids his own age and has a fairly normal childhood in that regard. There’s just one more thing about him. Occasionally, things around him move without being touched, like an empty pizza pan flying off a table with just a thought. This ability makes him a target. In the middle of the night, a team of people entered his home, murdered his parents and abducted him.
He meets other kids with similar abilities at varying strengths who help him acclimatize to his new reality. A reality he meets with resistance as much as possible. These adults that keep them here have no qualms about using physical violence on kids to keep them in line. This was the part of the story I struggled with the most: how readily these adults would turn to violence against kids. Which is an unfortunate reality we live with. Strip away all the fantasy and sci-fi elements of this story and you’re reading an entirely different story all together, something closer to reality. These adults have a cause, after all, a reason for doing all of this. As if that makes it okay. Whatever helps them sleep at night.
Once Luke has settled into his new environment, as much as one can expect, he takes on the role of helping the kids who come after him, especially Avery, who is probably the most likeable character in the entire book.
Sometimes the story felt like it dragged though, like we were spending too much time building up to something, with extra anecdotal elements that weren’t necessary before any real action occurred. It sped up around the second half of the book, which was good. Things were finally moving, and we were getting answers. The ending of the story was satisfactory.
Influences from his past works that involved telepathy and telekinetic characters from stories like Carrie were present. There was even a direct reference to the twin ghosts from The Shining in there.
I think this is one worth reading though for people new and old fans alike.
Have you read this book?
What were your thoughts on it?
Are there any books you would recommend for me to read based on this book review?
Leave a comment below and let me know.
Happy Reading!
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