The Institute
Ratings399
Average rating4
Parts of this were very good. King excels at writing kids. Luke and his friends and the other kids at the Institute are believable and engaging. They're worthy heroes of this supernatural thriller, and probably the only truly scary thing about the book.
I also enjoyed Tim Jamison and the other residents of Dupray, South Carolina. King sets up the drifter character of Tim very cleverly; you're not sure at first whether or not he's trustworthy. The story of him proving himself, getting his backstory, and finding a new place for himself in Dupray is satisfying. Also, the scene where the citizens of Dupray rush to the rescue of the Sheriff's office, all of them packing heat to defend their town, is one of the best moments of the book.
Where The Institute lost me was with Mrs. Sigsby and her sadistic slacker employees. These characters aren't that menacing or even interesting. We spend a lot of time with them, especially when they're on the hunt for an escapee and we see every step of their process. I have a feeling that if we knew less about them, they would seem more powerful somehow.
The mismatch of the heroes and villains is a problem if you're trying to create any feelings of suspense and excitement about the conflict.
Entertaining page-turner with the typical focus on children and King's trademark storytelling. It may be a guilty pleasure, but there's no denying it is a pleasure. He has the occasional misfire, but King's output is remarkably consistent, and remains at a high level.
As the story began as a sort of involuntary road trip by Tim, I immediately took him and the book to my heart. An interesting character comes to a small town and becomes a night knocker. Never heard of it before, but all the more interesting I found exactly that.
Shortly thereafter, I met Luke, who would be the focus from then on. He and numerous other children who were held captive in the so-called Insititute. King-typically it was very rough there. So much so that you could almost feel the children's pain yourself. Of course, this was also due to the fact that the character drawing is once again great.
Nevertheless: I was sad. Where is Tim? Only the children? I was a bit disappointed, but only briefly. Because the story about the institute, the background and the children became more exciting by the minute. And as typical for King, I couldn't put the book down after about halfway through, because that's when it really picked up speed.
I had almost forgotten about Tim, but then the two heroes finally met. It was great. A relief and at the same time tension, because how exactly did they deal with what was to come?
Then the end of the book was good. No, it wasn't very good, unfortunately, but still good enough that I will definitely read The Institute again. What I'm getting at is that the showdown felt kind of forced. It was spectacular but not spectacular enough. As if King had to draw a line very quickly.
Stephen King has done it again, such a great book. Our main character is Luke Ellis who is a genius 12 year old. He has a devastating event occur in his life and soon finds himself trapped at The Institute.
This book does not disappoint! To know the characters were all children was so fun, the views children have are usually overlooked but in this book they're the only thing the adults can rely on. I felt myself so engrossed in this book and recommend it highly!
Conflicted rating. The Institute opens with the adult male Tim, following his journey to a backwater American town for the first 30+ pages. Then the story cuts away to the equally intriguing (but in a different manner) story of 12 year-old genius Luke, who then becomes the novel's protagonist as he is taken to the eponymous Institute. Whilst their stories do collide in the novel's third act, I felt like much of this winding book amounted to not a lot - I'm not sure what King is saying politically about America (in particular Trump voters, and gun laws), and the Stranger Things sci-fi vibe was thrilling at parts but oh so very long. The description was rich, but I couldn't understand why Luke's intelligence was correlated to him being the one to “unleash hell” when there was such an interesting supporting cast - James Avery, Nick, Kalisha, Maureen - helping him. I definitely plan on reading more Stephen King novels, but perhaps this was pitched towards an older, or less SF-experienced audience.
Really enjoyed this one. This one is Classic King and he sticks the landing. Good stuff!
This one starts and ends strong but kind of lags in the middle. While I liked it well enough, it's definitely one of the lesser King things I've read.
There are two intertwining stories here. First we meet Tim who is a disgraced cop trying to figure out his next step in life. While on a road trip to Florida, he ends up becoming a Night Knocker in a small town called DuPray.
Luke is a twelve year old genius. He is set to start college, not one but two, when his home is invaded. His parents are murdered, he is kidnapped and later wakes up in a room that eerily looks like his back home.
Luke soon finds other kids, and learns he is at what they call The Institute where kids are either a TP (telepath) or a TK (telekenetic). He also learns there are two sections here, the Front Half and the Back Half. Tests are ran, mistreatment of the children occur, and when kids “graduate” from the front to the back they aren't seen again.
Such a great read. Typical King writing style which I love, even during the longer portions. Not his normal scenario as this is more sci-fi than horror BUT I loved that about this one. Be forewarned: if you have any aversion to child abuse (non-sexual) then this may not be for you. It's not saturated with it but there are a couple of scenes that made me cringe with the horror of the children's treatment.
I've been on a King run of late, I admit, but this was the one I appreciated the most. A spiritual successor to books like Firestarter, and a reminder that sometimes King really knocks it out of the park and past the parking lot.
King Does It Again
Once again Stephen King hits one out of the park with The Institute. Plot, characters, and dialog woven by a master into an awesome story.
The cover is the best thing about this brick of a novel. Utterly boring and predictable from first to last page. Pretty sure King churned out this one without waking up.
Pretty decent story, but good god is the children's dialogue extremely out of touch and outdated.
Jeepers!
“The Institute” is built upon a decent premise, certainly one that I would have expected Stephen King to do much with. And yet the book feels like three stories mashed together, all at different stages of completion.
The beginning section, in which we are introduced to the mysterious Tim, is well-done; I was reeled in and ready to keep going. Then we move to the point-of-view of Luke Ellis, an extremely intelligent 12-year old with mild telekinetic abilities. He's abducted and finds himself in a facility full of other oddly-gifted children. This section moved along at a good clip, but gets bogged down after Luke's escape.
My complaints? The “bad guys” are all a little too bad and the kids a little too good. The last section, much like some of King's other books, is slapped on, especially the last 50 pages, which should have been edited out entirely (this section feels like a different story with little development).
One thing that really bothered me in this book is that the kids antiquated or odd language one might find in Baby Boomers, not those born after 2004.
All in all, an okay book for a snowy day, but not for the faint of heart.
[b:The Institute 43798285 The Institute Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549241208l/43798285.SY75.jpg 68147322] Still One of My GreatsI have to tell you I am the biggest Stephen King fan but if you read my reviews regularly you know that right. King writes so well about the innocence of kids. He also writes at his best when the subject is pure evil. Think about what “IT” is all about. When you take pure evil and innocent kids and you slap them together and you have the magic of The Institute. The book starts in a simple little town where a cop passing through takes a job as a night knocker. There's a kid, a really smart kid, who's 12 years old and getting ready to attend MIT because he's, you know, special. That's the setting. From there it gets chilling. Even without ghosts, or vampires or outer space boogie men.The child, Luke, is taken in the middle of the night. His folks are murdered. He wakes up at The Institute in Maine in a room that's just like his - almost. There are other kids there and he gets the skinny from a young girl in the hallway, seemingly smoking a cigarette. She tells him that they “do stuff” to the kids, injections-flickering lights-dunking, but at least they're in the Front Half. You don't want to go to the Back Half. No, that's like the roach motel. Kids go in and don't ever come out.To say this is a character study of the people throughout history who have told themselves that the horrible, hideous, atrocious things they do are for a “higher good”. This book is King at his best. It's tense and I found myself ill at ease throughout the 500 plus pages. But it's good. A good story, good writing, and yeah, sure, it's relevant in the America of today and about our choices. This is going to be one of those books that I rotate through at least once a year. Five stars all the way.
“... Pero no hubo palabras, tal vez ni hacían falta. Como tampoco telepatía.
A veces un abrazo era telepatía.”
Such a strong story. Just kept pulling you forward. It reminded me a little to some of The Stranger Things episodes on Netflix.
What an incredible story, I've never been so engrossed in a book. The story follows a little boy who due to sad circumstances ends up in an institute for kids with special abilities. Unfortunately, the kids here are treated more like cattle compared to something Charles Xavier might run. The kids have telekinetic and telepathic powers and these powers are used in the institute to kill targets across the world in order to prevent world-ending calamities. The book follows this young boys journey through the institute and his eventual escape from it...
The King of unnecessary long and convoluted intros about weird men having philosophical thoughts about the loading and unloading of trains (the rest was really good though).
So far I've been hit or miss with Stephen King's novels. Pretty much split down the middle. 50-50. This one did not do it for me. I don't know if it was the chapter length or what but I just could NOT connect to the story or characters.
This is the first Stephen King book I've read and I did so in 5 days after getting for Christmas, and all I can say is woah. I flew through this book and I didn't have to try. I genuinely read this book for hours at a time without getting tired or forcing me to go on. If King writes his others books like this I am definitely picking up a few more of his works.
The GOOD: I really liked the premise of the story. Kids with telekinetic and telepathic abilities taken away to a mysterious organisations. The entirety of the story leaves you wanting to know more and about their abilities, and the organisation, the tests, etc. You really don't want to put this book down. The character development is excellent, one of the best in any book I've read. They genuinely feel like real people changing and growing and adapting.
The MEH: The ending was good, and sad. A little bittersweet. But I didn't want it to end. I wanted to read more, find out more, know more. Being a bit nitpicky, I did find the ending slightly lackluster. Butttt, honestly only because the rest of it is so good. It's not really a bad thing, it's just, it's a story that would lend itself well to a series. I could easily seeing it going on for longer, but alas. The only weak point I felt in the book was when Frieda dobs Avery and Luke in. It was such a frustrating thing to read that their awesome plan almost got undone from something so dumb! Also Avery drawing attention to the hole under the fence when he tried to hide when the Institute honestly would not have noticed it til way later. One of the adults even tells him he should've left it alone. These two little mistakes were frustrating to read, and were a little out of place considering the context. Also, we never heard of Frieda again after she dobs them in. I would've loved a follow up on her towards the end.
The BAD: Nothing. Other than I want more!