The Institute

This is my first King's book and I need to say the beginning of it was confusing, but most books are. I just needed time to realize what the history was going about. I needed to empathise with Tim, character I wasn't able to understand at the beginning, but I loved at the end.
I started enjoying the book with the appearance of Luke Ellis, his kidnaping and the abruptly appearance of the Institute facilities what kept me reading nonstop. Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris... and especially Avery. I really hated Sigsby, Stackhouse and every single one who made the kids suffer.
Talking about my first experience with King's way of writing, I think he's able to do magic with the kids, the dialogues are incredibly enjoyable and every kid is different in their own way. But I also have to say it was really difficult to me to follow when he started to describe some American things such as States, Roads, Towns...
Despite that, I think The Institute is such an enjoyable book. Very attractive if you like psychic abilities, and the fight against a bigger evil.
Sorry if my English wasn't good enough, I've lost practice.

I started this upon the recommendation of a friend. Also, I have read other Stephen King books in the past (The Stand, The Tommyknockers, It) so I thought I'd give it a try. I made it just past 200 pages before deciding it was not my cup of tea.

The Institute by Stephen King is a great sci-fi horror novel. Children with unusual abilities are brought to a mysterious institute with an unknown agenda. Parts of the book seemed similar in tone and mood to Doctor Sleep, yet the book is distinct and brings many intense and horrifying moments. The mysteries of the institute and these new additions to King's universe are compelling. I didn't love the ending, but overall it's still a great read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such a good story and I think what makes it so horrifying is something like this (not to its full extreme) is possible. I liked how we learnt about the Institute and all the different levels that went on in this backward version of solving “world peace”

4.8

Que buena historia, creo que la capacidad de sentir una gran conexión con la mayoría de todos, incluso con los malos. Solo me hace pensar que tan bien ha sido llevado todo.

Realmente estoy sintiendo un vacío al terminar la historia, he quedado satisfecho pero tan dañado por el trayecto. Las lágrimas estaban al borde de las últimas páginas.

Me entretuvo y mucho más, ha sido un buen viaje en todo esto... Que bonito ha sido.

This story was kind of all over the place, but I liked it.

It started very calm, with the typical for King sort of slice-of-life introduction to a character, which I think I enjoyed the most.
Then we switch gears to another point of view and while that part was the proverbial meat on the bones, I found it slightly stale. Things were happening, but I was neither particularly intrigued, nor scared. I found myself mostly looking forward to the moment when the two perspectives would overlap.
And when they finally did, I did enjoy it. I think the way the author did it was appropriate and satisfying. And it pretty much saved the book for me.

The whole premise of this book is very good and it could've been really scary, but it was executed with so many conveniences, that all possibility for horror flew out the window. My biggest gripe being with the way the bad guys were portrayed. When you put a super smart protagonist, against a group of lazy and at times stupid villains, you simply can't maintain an atmosphere of fear.

I would qualify this book as a sci-fi thriller more than anything else, though given the slow pace in the first half of it, you might not feel too “thrilled” for a while there. But the second part and especially the ending definitely redeem it all.

I do want to point out something that upset me a bit though. And that is the inappropriate innuendo about children private parts in every other chapter, as well as the weirdly detailed thermometer scene (if you know you know). All of this was unnecessary and the plot wouldn't have suffered one bit if it was removed. So the author added it just because he wanted to and that really made me give him the side eye. I was ready to DNF the book then and there and while I'm happy I didn't, it has changed my opinion for the author as a person in a negative way.

I would recommend this book to those looking to explore (somewhat of) a sci-fi thriller with a paranormal aspect.

i am disappointed. the first book i read by stephen king was the shining and i loved it. It had become my favorite book of all time. i started this with the same expectation, but not only did it take me forever to finish, but also, the writing was slow and dull? i don't know how to explain it. I did want to know what would happen next but also, it wasn't a page turner. I could read a page and just close the book and come back to it a day or two later. in face I think i finished 4 books since i started this which is a shame.

this gave me stranger things vibes but more unhinged. reading about children being slapped unapologetically really hurt and oh my god, murdering the parents with no guilt?

it makes me wonder after too many stories about organizations and programs like these, if it really exists in america. I wonder.

If I cry it's a 4 star at a minimum and King made it happen. That Avery kid will forever be my favourite

“Great events turn on small hinges.”

Absolutely LOVED this! My first Stephen King novel did not disappoint, great characters, vivid scenes and one hell of a story! Plus the most badass 10 year old ever! Go Avester

If only he had a massive collection of works for me to check out

My best read for 2023 so far! You are going to be sleepy at work because you are going to stay up way too late reading that next page. I hope Stranger Things gave Mr. King some $ as they “borrowed” a lot of ideas from this book!

This book was engaging throughout, and left me in tears at the end. 10/10 recommend to anyone who loves thrillers, rooting for the good guys, and cheering on kids who deserve better!

I like the majority of Stephen King's work; however, I don't know why the vast swath of authors I read have to voice their dislike of Trump repeatedly. I get it, yall don't like him. To make things worse, the timing in the story of the Trump hatred just literally makes no sense. The big unseen baddie is finally introduced and the characters chose that point in time to bash trump and give each other high fives about it? Cmon man!

Also, the book was longer and more drawn out than necessary....

Un libro muy interesante que te atrapa desde el comienzo y no queres parar de leerlo.
Tanto la historia como los personajes me parece muy buena, todo está bien argumentado y se sabe desenvolver.
La parte final se me hizo un poco floja y rápida pero aun así me gustó.

La razón por la cual no le doy 5⭐ (además de lo que ya dije antes del final) es porque siento que al ser una historia con personajes que tiene poderes interesantes, esperaba más de eso. Fue lo que más me llamó la atención desde el principio, y si bien está presente me hubiese gustado verlo más.

this quickly became one of my new favorite books. once I roughly hit 100 pages, I couldn't put it down and I was hooked! it's been a long time since I've read a book that held me so tightly. I loved the plot, characters, beginning middle and end. can't say enough good things about it! 

I enjoyed listening to the audio version of this book. The concept was interesting, as most of Stephen King's works are, but felt that there were two main issues I couldn't overlook (SLIGHT SPOILER):

1) Stephen King's political beliefs bleeding on to the pages of his work. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but one of my pet peeves is when an author tries to push his opinions and beliefs on to unsuspecting audiences. If it's part of the story, a core part, then fine. However, this was not, and was a shallow attempt at taking digs at a specific individual/party.

2) Needless loss of life at the end. I get that they were kids, but the situation was such that I feel certain lives did NOT need to be lost, regardless of the mental maturity of the individuals with the capability of stopping the loss of life.

You could argue that those two issues shouldn't color my opinion of the whole book, but it's my review, so deal with it :)

Первая половина книги хороша: знакомство с жителями и приемами Института. Но с побегом и после него начинаются проблемы. В основном, из-за огромной графомании (несколько глав описывать как Люк то спит в поезде, то бежит) и карикатурно глупых взрослых. Прошло то время, когда веришь в такие Институты с экспериментами и предсказаниями будущего. Особенно подкосило плохое цифровое оснащение Института.

Честно, у этого романа есть потенциал на фильм - прекрасный экшн, понятные типажи героев, мимолетные романтические линии, - но в остатке я не могу сказать, что прониклась. Персонажи не запоминающиеся, а мораль истории скатывается в противостояние властьимущих против детей с суперспособностями, и они показаны наравне. Я не получила от книги ни страха, ни психологичных моментов, коими славится Кинг.

It was absolutely everything I wanted and more.

This was my first Stephen King book and I couldn't have chosen a better introduction to the man.

I could go on and on about how much I loved the characters, how satisfied I was with the ending, how I was on the edge of my seat every single page, but right now I just finished the book and, over everything, what I feel is awe.

The edition of the book I got is extremely dense, 480ish pages with a font size so hilariously minuscule, but the words just flew by.

“He wanted to tell Luke that he was brave, maybe the bravest kid ever outside of the boys adventure book. He wanted to tell Luke that he was strong and decent and his folks would be proud of him. He wanted to tell Luke that he loved him. But there were no words and maybe no need of them. Or telepathy.

Sometimes a hug was telepathy”

5 Stars, I am warm.

A cross between Stranger Things and [b:The Girl with All the Gifts 17235026 The Girl with All the Gifts (The Girl with All the Gifts, #1) M.R. Carey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403033579l/17235026.SY75.jpg 23753235], this novel is a straightforward sci-fi thriller. Much like the Breakers from The Dark Tower, kids are kidnapped and imprisoned because of their psychic ability and forced to work for a shadowy group. This book is what King does best: Takes a fairly simple premise, sets the stage, and then lets the reader just absolutely devour every word until the end. Dialogue and plot sometimes hit some road bumps, as can be expected with King, but the story itself is what's front-and-center here. The reader won't find anything life-changing here, but it was a very enjoyable read from start to finish.If you enjoyed this one, please check out the aforementioned [b:The Girl with All the Gifts 17235026 The Girl with All the Gifts (The Girl with All the Gifts, #1) M.R. Carey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403033579l/17235026.SY75.jpg 23753235] as well.

This was sooooo sooo good. It was slow to start but it all started to make sense towards the middle of the book. I really enjoyed how everything built with the characters, the kids especially. This one was wayy better than the mist.

This was excellent. A return to his roots with Running Man, etc. Loved it. Will read it again, most likely. Truly thrilling, in-depth, and with an ending that felt fulfilling.

Another interesting and creepy subject matter from Mr. King.

This is the first book I have read by Steven King but it really didn't make me wanna read more of his work. First off the times the breasts of a female character were discribed for no reason is way to many. Even the fucking kids my guy. 

The story in the beginning was also slow as fuck. Just 250 pages of kids being abused. Like idk if this is supposed to be horror or thiller of whatever but it was just sad and nothing else. Zero suspense. The story also took exclusively very predictable turns and was pretty boring overal. 

The character discriptions were also just so weird. This whole book made me feel uncomfortable and not in a good way, it was boring and went on for way to long. Not a fan

Haven't read King in twenty years, but I've ended that hiatus with this one. It was a good choice! I zipped through this exciting story. It was really fun. Now I'm thinking about possibly adding 11/22/63 to my TBR pile.

During the first 10-15% of this book, I was thinking that this would be a SK miss for me, but then I really started to get into the story.
This felt like a 80's Stephen King and I really enjoyed it.
There were some details that made me feel like the story dragged a little, but I definitely recommend this book.

Stephen King at his best. It's not quite up there with 22/11/63 but the relatively quick pace and great characters really hit the spot. It's ripe for an adaptation but maybe Stanger Things has beaten them to to it.