The Institute Review

By Stephen King

Rating: 5/5

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.

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WARNING! Spoilers :)

The overall concept of children between the ages of 8-18 being kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night and brought to The Institute, where their room is almost identical to their room at home minus a window. Then, they're tortured and tested on simply because they tested as a TK or TP.

There's a lot to unpack here. This definitely took me on a roller coaster of emotions. I really enjoyed reading about these group of kids who take down this secret organization. Unlocking their true power for themselves, to no longer be used as guinea pigs.

My heart ached when I read about the Ward A kids. How they lost their mind from the movies and treatments. Every time Pete came up smacking his head I wanted to cry. The description of these kids hit so hard to home for me.

Let me explain why, as I grew up with 3 siblings with special needs. I grew up being around other kids that matched those exact descriptions of the Ward A kids. So to read about how they were treated so harshly was hard. I wanted to save them all!

It killed me when I read all the children who died in the process of bringing down the organization. But then, you also have to think about how they're no longer in pain anymore.

The ending definitely leaves it open with the whole "What if". I can totally see SK making a sequel to this. I would totally read it too. It leaves open the idea of "were the kids right to do what they did?" I think so! I wouldn't have wished any child to be subjected to that life. It's not right or fair.

This easily joined the ranks of among my favorites. It was a joy to read. I recommend this book to any SK fan. I wouldn't have considered this a true horror book, but I can see why its labeled as so. It's more a thriller and suspense than horror.