A NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2019 SELECTION From #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King, the most riveting and unforgettable story of kids confronting evil since It. 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 … 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.
As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.
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I didn’t mean to read The Institute so fast. I meant to make it last, but with King, that’s usually impossible.
I was eager to read this book because it’s vintage King. There’s a good whiff of Firestarter in the book simply because of setting and subject matter, but the story is handled quite differently. In Firestarter, certain bad guys, like Rainbird, really stood out to me, but here, they’re more of a troop, but each is well drawn and memorable in true King style. The kids are well-drawn as well and very easy to tell apart.
What The Institute has in common with the novel, It, is simply that it features a group of kids drawn together to fight for themselves. These kids are misfits for the most part and this plays out in wonderful ways. Our primary hero is a super-intelligent boy named Luke.
When I was near the half-way point in the book I was beginning to wonder if things were going to get more interesting. (Not that it wasn’t interesting, but I wanted a change of scenery.) There’s no need to worry. There’s more. Lots more.
The book explodes into a long climax mid-way and all the details carefully planted in the first half come into play. It becomes impossible to set the book down. And it all leads to a terrific and satisfying ending.
The Institute is going to make a terrific movie one day. I can’t wait to see it.
This is a great Stephen King book for beginners, it was my 3rd Stephen King book and definitely made me want to read more of his books. It isn’t as scary or as gory as most of his book and kids from 14 should be able to read it. I love The Institute and think it is a must-read for any Stephen King, horror, supernatural and thriller fans.
First of all, it doesn’t really matter what I have to say about Stephen King’s novel, The Institute. King is an established author with an established following. Some consider him to be the voice of Modern American horror. This book was destined for the bestseller lists before it was a twinkle in Mr. King’s eye.
And I’m a fan. I grew up on Stephen King. His work influenced my own work in that I found a passion to write about, well…horrible things. But here I am, a huge fan of King’s early works, that have gone on to become iconic horror movies, and I’m only giving The Institute a 3–okay, 3.5 but not quite a 4.
I like it. It was a fine story. Some reviewers have–and will want to make comparisons to the TV series Stranger Things, but let’s face it. Stranger Things is a homage to King’s work, so you can’t really go about saying, “Hey, he’s just trying to ride the coat tails of Stranger Things with this one.”
What I am going to do is categorize this story as Mainstream Horror. There are truly better horror stories out there right now with a much harder edge to them. I’ve reviewed a few. And as mainstream horror that will appeal to the masses, this book is fine. It’s about a kid with special powers who gets abducted by a secret government organization, to be referred to as The Institute, then is forced to undergo horrible experimentations in order to be used for global political reasons. There are other kids forced to undergo the same treatment, but our MC Luke has a goal–to find a way out.
I admire King’s underlying message here–that kids are our future and we need to trust their capacity to change the world for the better on their own, not use and abuse them because of our own fears. Something like that. It’s a great theme.
But too much of the story felt too familiar to me, with King relying on tropes and characterizations that are so common in his older works that here they feel like a recycling of old material. I enjoyed reading it. If you’re a sporadic reader of King’s work, you might enjoy it too. But I wasn’t riveted. Like I mentioned, this horror story with scifi elements is on the mild side of the horror salsa spectrum.
A tier. Solid A. Right up there with some of the best SK books. Amazing characters, King writes kid survival stories really well. An absolute page turner I could not put this book down. Very interesting premise. Some absolutely epic action packed scenes.
At the end, when I could see what was coming, I jumped up off the couch and punched my fist in the air, cheering on the main character. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Stephen King is a renowned story teller best known for his horror and paranormal mysteries. His 2019 book The Institute is a rollicking read, tending towards the young adult thriller mystery. Beginning with a resigned police detective who initially takes a job as a Night Knocker, the narrative then switches to twelve-year-old Luke Ellis. Having been abducted and taken to a secret research institute with other children, danger is ever present. Another classic King tale about young gifted children caught up in an experiment with cruelty used to ensure compliance. Overall a four-star rating thriller, which won’t disappoint.
Truly enjoyed this book! The second half was so engrossing, I had a hard time putting it down because I simply HAD to find out what happened next. One of King’s best.
Loved this book. I read in 2 days. Frankly I was getting tired of Steven King”s books. They had become drawn out and boring. I must say that this one kept me interested right off the bat and kept me reading until the end without skipping and skimming pages. It will get you thinking….
577 pages
5 stars
Nobody can get into the minds of children quite like Stephen King.
Twelve-year old Luke Ellis finds himself incarcerated in “The Institute” set in the wilds of Maine. The room he wakes up in is just like his bedroom at home – except there is no window. There are several other children there from very young to teenagers.
Luke has landed in a nightmare.
The children all have one thing in common. They either have TK (telekinesis) or TP (telepathic) powers. And they are guinea pigs for a cadre of sadistic doctors, technicians, wardens and others. All of the children are horribly abused – and some die.
Luke wants out. He is desperate to get out. But how? No one has ever escaped, at least not alive.
This is the story of Luke and his friends. Can they triumph over evil?
Hats off to Mr. King. His intuition about the thoughts of children are right on. This aspect of his books has always been one of my favorite parts of his writing. I have been an avid fan of his for years (and years – oh gosh has it been that long?), and will continue to follow him for as long as he chooses to write.
I do not read King any longer.
I generally enjoy Stephen King’s books, but occasionally there is one that sticks with me and I keep thinking about even months after I’ve read it. This is one of those books. It sucked me in immediately and I cared about those kids from the start. I think this is one of his best.
I’ve been a Stephen King fan since I read Salem’s Lot, well before it was turned into a two-part TV series. I’ve avidly followed his work until about fifteen years ago. Not sure why I chose ‘The Institute’ to jump back in . . . nevertheless, I must admit, I have mixed feelings after reading it. I’ve always enjoyed how King expertly and unhurriedly unfolds the plot in his books, often capturing the unpredictability and randomness of life and how he gives his characters certain quirks—a King-type uniqueness and flowing dialogue. This was expertly displayed in ‘The Institute.’ I also enjoyed the concept and how it ties in a bit of history to add to its realism. The Institute contains many of King’s staples that I love: children struggling in an adult world where there is little to no concern for their safety, kids overcoming fears, elements of telekinesis and telepathy, the power of unity, overcoming physical and social differences on their journey, and as usual, at its core, it is a story of survival. Reading, ‘The Institute,’ requires patience. I felt the pace slow, but although the ending is entertaining and includes a clever revelation, I felt the story took too long to get to it. Regardless, I am and will forever be a fan.
So this is what it feels like to finish reading a Stephen King book?
Tired yet energized.
Saddened yet beyond happy.
Honestly, all I can say is that this book is truly a masterpiece; a work of art! They should hang this book up in a museum next to Picasso paintings because this book is that good!
There are so many elements to this book. It is not only a truly terrifying book, but it is heartwarming too. It has dynamic characters that were not only likable but showed strength that is so rare nowadays where we can get anything at the click of a button, a thought-provoking plot that you never really know where it is going to go and the atmosphere was carefully written to absolute perfection.
I know they say a that even when a book is published, there can always be add-ons or something to make it better, but when it comes to this book I think they are flat pout liars and I don’t care what they say! That saying means nothing when it comes to this book!
Stephen King is not only the king of horror, but in my opinion, he’s the king of story-telling because King can tell a story like no other!!!! Recommended to anyone who has a soul and can read!
This book was amazing from start to finish. It perfectly captured the world through the eyes of a mature youngster, caught up in a scheme much larger than himself. This book easily could have gone off the rails because of the kids’ strange abilities, but King kept it believable and entertaining. Highly recommended!
Since I love writing about people with mutant / superhero powers, (especially psychics / telekinetics) I couldn’t resist picking this one up by Stephen King. This could have been a kind of cliched military installation for the “freaks” of the world kind of story, but since it’s SK, it’s done in that SK way, and everything about it feels fresh and freakishly realistic. There’s a real darkness to the ideas around this, which I can’t really get into because of spoilers, but the way these kids are being used is totally horrific and yet also poses interesting moral / ethical questions, in terms of what the adults at least tell themselves they are doing. Being SK, the characters of course are amazing and feel completely three-dimensional, and you really get into their dread and the difficulty of their situation (esp the kids). I really enjoyed this book overall, and thought it was extremely well done, but yeah, there’s a real grim aspect to some of the questions raised and even the way the powers themselves function. Definitely worth a read!
Although the content of this well-written book was different than I anticipated, I really enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of the feeling tones found in Ender’s Game, The Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies, Divergent, and Patterson’s Maximum Ride. In this case, after Luke Ellis is kidnapped for his “special powers” and taken to the Institute, his life changes forever. As he discovers his “talents” (which have always been present), he never stops questioning the inhumanity of those around him, the adults in charge, and what they’re trying to accomplish. King deftly weaves the lives of secondary characters together, along with a somewhat parallel story and adult introduced at the beginning that comes together at the end in a masterful and unexpected way.
I haven’t read a Stephen King book that I really liked for quite some time. The Institute brings back memories of Stephen King’s best writings. We start with 12-year old Luke Ellis being kidnapped in the middle of the night, and he is taken to The Institute. He wakes in a room that looks like his room, but it is not. He soon meets other children who were also kidnapped, and all of the kidnapped kids have special telekinesis and/or telepathy talents. The Institute has its own terrifying ways to enhance and extract these talents from the children, and once their usefulness is exhausted, they are moved to the “Back Half” never to be heard from again. Luke’s superior intelligence matched with an even younger boy named Avery with strong powers soon become a force for The Institute’s staff to deal with. A parallel story of Tim Jamesson is also given to us, an ex-cop who intends to travel, ending up right where he needs to be as the story progresses. The children came off as braver than I would expect children to be, but with their powers and intelligence, who knows? I stayed up way too late reading this book–I couldn’t put it down. And it stayed on my mind long after I was able to pause reading.
Stephen King still reigns by his namesake. Great book, though feels a little timeworn with some of his previous character lines of psychic characters and loners. That aside, it’s a great book, in turns terrifying, thrilling, and satisfying.
For a full review please visit https://tinyurl.com/y2q2ry59.
Luke Ellis is only 12 years old but is about to start MIT. He not only is extremely intelligent but also has some extrasensory attributes. He is abducted from his home in MN and ends up in the Institute in ME with other young children similar to him in capabilities. They are gathered here to be used against their wills for nefarious purposes. A very long story but an interesting read.