The Institute by Stephen King.
Scribner, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1982110567
Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD
Reviewing a Stephen King book is always a mixed bag. Love it and people think it’s favoritism, hate it and they believe you are being contrarian. Some of King’s books deserve a tepid review, but even when it’s just an okay book by him, it’s usually better than most other writers. There’s a reason why he’s had over 20 books on the bestseller lists. King knows how to draw people: he understands them, inside and outside their heads, and the minutiae that make up our everyday lives. The Institute is one of his good novels of recent times. While it’s no Salem’s Lot or The Stand, it immerses the reader in the characters’ lives in a story that is successful in everything it attempts.
The plot is relatively simple: Luke Ellis, a talented young boy, is abducted in the middle of the night. His parents murdered, he is shoved into a black SUV and driven to the titular institute where children with telepathy and telekinesis are studied. This may sound similar to Firestarter, but it isn’t: If readers must compare this to another King title, it’s closer to IT than anything else. Luke awakens in the Institute, where he meets a group of other kids who fill him in on what happens in the “front half.” Keep your head down, follow directions, and earn tokens for everything from television to candy to other treats. Mrs. Sigsby is the evil woman who runs the institute with an iron fist. She is quick to dole out punishment to the kids, a true caricature of evil, the only weakness of the novel. The supporting cast of the story is much grayer in nature as the staff within run the gamut from caring to apathetic to downright sadistic. The purpose of the place is nebulous which lends a deft touch to the story. What’s in the “back half?” Is it death or something better? Worse? Once children leave the front half, there is zero communication with them. Only the youngest, Avery, has the skills to sense anything about the others at a high level, and might signal a solution to their captivity. Even Luke, brilliant for his age, is still just a kid at heart. For all of his skills and ability to read people, he’s still a child, stuck in an adult’s psychopathic playground. King is a master at painting kids, and this might be his best effort yet. IT is a masterpiece, but the Losers’ Club was closer to teenagers than true children.
In a side story, a mysterious ex-cop leaves Florida and heads north, only to make a strange decision to divert into a small South Carolina town where he accepts a job as a “knocker.” His assimilation into that community is fascinating, and it is curious to see how the pieces come together.
The final product is both thrilling and touching, frightening and timely.
A welcome addition to the King canon.
Recommended.
Reviewed by David Simms
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