The Institute - Stephen King

The Institute – Stephen King

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 Review of The Institute

It has been a LOOOONG time since I read anything by Stephen King, one of the go-to authors of my teenage years. The last thing I read was 11/22/63 and that was a good few years ago. I am going to have to go through all of his books from the last decade. This one was great!

There is a facility in the middle of nowhere. The Institute. In it, there are a group of children. Stolen from their families because of their special abilities, they are cruelly forced into obeying the caretakers or the consequences are dire. No-one has ever escaped the institute. Until now.

Well, can I just say this narrator was EXCELLENT! What an awesome job he did! Every single character had their own unique voice, tone, PITCH even! He did SUCH A GOOD JOB with the female characters. One of my absolute pet peeves with audiobooks is narrators who can’t do different characters but this one blew it out of the water! With the older characters, for instance, younger characters, male AND female! Each one was so different! One of the best narrators I have listened to! Probably still not as great as Ray Porter – but still amazing!

It had King’s typical slightly long-winded scene-setting, which did get a bit slow at times. But the character development is superb. The storyline is absolutely captivating and I had a lot of trouble turning it off and going to sleep!

He did a lot better than other authors I have read focusing on children. I’ve read a few books lately with children in them and I rolled my eyes at how awfully they are portrayed. But in this one it wasn’t so bad. I mean Luke is supposed to be a genius and comes across a little annoying at times and I am not sure if that is how a kid, even a super smart one, would react to different circumstances.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the way the characters were made to develop their powers. At times I really felt for these kids and their circumstances. I really wanted to punch the caretakers. King does such a good job getting you to invest in the characters and slowly getting you into the grip of the storyline.

I didn’t even mind the ending which has divided quite a few people! Above all, a solid listen for me! I devoured it. I didn’t LOVE it. It didn’t move me enough for a 5-star rating. But, it is a solid 4.

(4 / 5)