The Institute- by Stephen King
FIVE STARS!
February 2023
It's been awhile since I have read
Stephen King, WHY? He is a master storyteller, and unlike many books I read, he is in no rush for his storyline to unfold . . . he is the one telling the story, and every word is an integral part of the bigger picture.
The first part of the book paints a dismal picture of a down and out former cop Tim, ousted from where he came and wandering for purpose. Meanwhile in another part of the country a sinister institute snatches youths and attempts to harvest their psychic gifts in the name of world peace. Luke is one of them. King creates characters who become completely transparent, you know how they are feeling and you’ll feel it too. I knew the two storylines would converge but I couldn’t guess how or why. The suffering the kids do at the institute was the only reason I hesitated before choosing this book. I usually avoid negativity like the plague. There is enough dark energy in our world and reading is a lovely escape for me. I made it through the couple of disturbing scenes just fine, doubling my expectation for a glorious payback. This is the journey taken when you read Stephen King. He will effortlessly suck you into the quest and when the final chapters come, you’ll feel the sweet wrath of the liberated. Victims become victors in the most satisfying way.
-Kim Luke
Book Blurb:
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.
