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.
more
It’s great- good characters, suspenseful, powerful language. I highly recommend it.
How Stephen King can produce so many stories that make pages and time fly is beyond me but he did it again with this story. This disturbing yet almost believable book had me in the edge of my seat. Descriptions of the scenes and characters is so vivid that when I closed the book it felt like I’d watched a movie. Brilliant!
The beginning was slow moving for me. I was struggling till about 2/3 of the way in when the action hit. Once it did, I was on the edge of my seat and needed to know what happened. Luke was such a strong character and I loved him. I was wondering how the beginning of the book came into play with the kids in the Institute but I felt that it came together seamlessly. The idea of gifted people fascinates me and I really enjoyed reading about what could be possible using our minds. The characters were complex, but there were a few things that were a bit far fetched that I just had to look over for the sake of the story.
As twelve-year-old Luke Ellis sleeps in his suburban bedroom, his home is broken into. The intruders kill his parents and kidnap him. He wakes up in a room that looks almost identical to his room, except that there is no window. There are clothes identical to his clothes. Even his shoes, although not scuffed up, are the same. But, when he leaves his room, he finds himself in a cinder block hallway. There are other kids, too, each with their own bedrooms that resemble the ones they had at home. He soon discovers that all of the children share one thing: special powers. They are all either telekinetic or possess telepathy to varying degrees. Before long, Luke learns from the other children about the tests and shots he will be expected to undergo.
This is an amazing ride! Luke and the other characters are so extraordinarily developed, as is usual for King’s stories, that you forget that you haven’t actually met them. The plot is ingenious and horrific. It is all woven together into such a fantastic yet believable tale! You cannot miss this one!
About a boy with minor telekinetic powers who is kidnapped by a government agency. After they murder his parents, they take him to a top-secret facility, where he and other kids have to relearn social norms while cooperating to survive. Classic fish out of water story. Really liked the beginning and middle. It was the ending I wasn’t as fond of. Still gave it a 4 out of 5, because considering the sheer pace at which I consumed it, it must not have been too bad.
Love this book.
A little long at 600 pages, but a very entertaining story
I was hooked on this book from page 1. I was reading the book all the time as I couldn’t put it down. SK’s style of writing is easy to read and the storyline keeps one on the edge of their seat. I can’t recommend this book highly enough! 🙂
The narration and character work are as sublime as anything King writes. The plot does get a little long in the tooth toward the end, but again, nothing we haven’t come to expect from the master of horror. Well worth the read.
King certainly has honed writing skills. However, the central subject matter seems derivative of other recent series/programs, etc., and various scenes seem knock-offs of other situations we are all too familiar with such as the gunfight at the OK Corral. There is an unusually large amount of the book that addresses the ongoing torture of children, and that is a central theme, which in my opinion would have been more effective and horrifying if more hinted at rather than so many pages devoted to the various acts and details. This book started out strong but after the halfway point devolved such that I could barely finish it.
The Institute read just like old-school King, which felt like home because I spent my teens and twenties devouring everything Stephen King or Richard Bachman produced. However it was also missing something, but I’ll be damned to Castle Rock if I can figure out what that is. Regardless it was a solid adventure, and I’m glad to have had the chance to read it.
My second favorite Stephen King novel, being that THE SHINING is my all time favorite so far.
What I loved? This was vintage Stephen King with characters so well-written and real I felt I could reach out and touch them, atrocities beyond description yet described in detail, and kids who talk, think and act like adults.
What I didn’t love? I listened to this on Audible last week and it was 600 pages of child torture that was simply relentless, just so dark. I know to expect this from King but I just felt heavier and heavier as I listened. It wasn’t titillating and scary as much as horrific and depressing.
This has got to be one of the best I have ever read by Stephen King. I have read just about all of his. I look forward to a few years passing to I can read it again.
I couldn’t put this book down. Good verses evil. Adult verses child. But by the end u don’t know if the rights out weigh the wrongs or not. Very intriguing. A look into the messed up world in the eyes of Stephen King.
I would recommend this book to adults,it gives u insight of a gifted child as well what a child is thinking
Wow, truly classic Stephen King! What a ride….loved this book!
Old school Stephen King. Loved it
In the middle of the night a young boy is kidnapped from his home and his parents are killed in their sleep. When he wakes up he’s in a room that looks like his but there’s no window and small personal touches are no longer there. He finds other kids there and discovers that all of them have something in common, they’re all psychic, They’re either telepathic or have telekinesis in carrying degrees. They’re in some kind of facility that does testing on the kids and eventually moves them from the front half to the back half where things are not as “nice”. But Luke Ellis is different than the others. He’s also highly intelligent and with the help of another young boy brought in who’s off the charts as far as being telepathic a plan is formed to escape and save as many of the kids as possible.
I am an avid Stephen King fan and haven’t really found a book of his that I didn’t like. The Institute is no exception. I was drawn in from the beginning and kept enthralled until the end. Stephen King has a style of writing that pulls you into the story. You find yourself cheering the good guys on and hoping the bad guys get their come-uppance. Fate is here as characters from the beginning are there at the end and who play a large part in bringing down the bad guys. I highly recommend this book and not just to those who love Stephen King.
Stephen King is my very favorite author. I have read all of his books from the beginning. His style has changed from real her to the horror that is every day life in America with a pound of the Supernatural. I love the characters and was rooting for them the whole time. Best part is he left open an option for a sequel!