{"id":7188,"date":"2020-01-18T20:48:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T00:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=7188"},"modified":"2020-01-18T20:48:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T00:48:47","slug":"book-review-the-institute-by-stephen-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-institute-by-stephen-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Institute by Stephen King"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

The Institute, <\/em>by Stephen King<\/p>\n

Scribner, 2019<\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-1-9821-1056-7<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Institute<\/em> is entry number fiftysomething in the catalogue of He Who Cannot Stop Writing, better known as Stephen King.\u00a0 As he has been wont to do since 2010’s Full Dark, No Stars, <\/em>King continues to mine the vein of psychological horror, finding true evil in the inhuman actions that normal, rational human beings foist on each other.\u00a0 King doesn’t need vampires, hotels with a mind of their own or undead children with scalpels to do so: he finds plenty of ugliness with the insanity of everyday people.\u00a0 The Institute<\/em> isn’t on the level of his unholy trinity of The Shining, The Stand, <\/em>\u00a0and ‘Salem’s Lot<\/em>, but it’s still a very good read, and one that would be considered outstanding for any other author.\u00a0 It’s clear that over 40 years into his career, King still has an iron grip on his claim to being America’s best writer, and he isn’t likely to relinquish the throne anytime soon.<\/p>\n

The first 40 pages consist of following Tim Jamieson, an ex-cop drifting through life, who \u00a0winds up in the tiny hick town of Dupray, South Carolina and takes a King-created job as a night knocker, someone who walks the town from dusk till dawn, checking business doors and keeping an eye out for trouble.\u00a0 The story stays here just long enough to get the scenario set and characters developed, then \u00a0jumps to Minnesota, with a completely different thread and set of characters.\u00a0 It’s a testament to King’s skill that he’s able to do this.\u00a0 He creates interest in an ordinary situation and location, gets it all developed, and then shifts gears to something completely unrelated, but no less interesting.\u00a0 Phase 2 focuses on Luke Ellis, a child genius. who at the age of 12 is taking the entrance exams to MIT, the country’s most famous genius farm.\u00a0 Luke is kidnapped and his parents killed one night, and he wakes up in a lockdown hospital\/research unit in northern Maine known as The Institute.\u00a0 Luke and the other children are subjected to various tests, beatings and tortures, as their captors seek to exploit extra-sensory abilities that most of the kids didn’t even know they had.\u00a0 Of course, their handlers have their own nefarious reasons for their actions.\u00a0 Eventually, the Maine and South Carolina threads tie together, and the story barrels through a thrilling conclusion.<\/p>\n

As often happens with King, this one is yet ANOTHER page turner that is hard to put down.\u00a0 A great deal of King’s skill lies in making any character at all seem interesting and worth the reader getting emotionally attached to.\u00a0 Even the minor characters, like security guards and homeless people are completely developed, and you want to know what happens to them, no matter how small their role in the story.\u00a0 The dialogue is perfect, whether the characters are southerners or New Englanders.\u00a0 King clearly does his research, and gets all the little nuances and mannerisms perfect when the characters are conversing or taking actions.\u00a0 The other area where he shines, as always, is in creating settings that make perfect sense, down to the last detail.\u00a0 Everything fits, whether it’s detailing an escape plan or describing the methods used to physically and mentally abuse children.\u00a0 He never leaves room for unbelievability, it all seems completely plausible.\u00a0 King’s unequaled skill at all of the above is the main reason he’s been on top of the mountain for so long.\u00a0 Of course, none of this matters unless the story is exciting, and it is.\u00a0 It’s a fast burn of a story, and maintains a quick clip through its 500 plus pages.\u00a0 There are no sections that drag, it all flies fast and keeps you turning pages.<\/p>\n

The Institute <\/em>is yet another winner from the author with the most consistent track record of excellence in American literary history.\u00a0 If you’re a King fan, you’ll like it, and non-fans would also be likely to enjoy this one.<\/p>\n

Recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Institute, by Stephen King Scribner, 2019 ISBN: 978-1-9821-1056-7 Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook   The Institute is entry number fiftysomething in the catalogue of He Who Cannot Stop Writing, better known as Stephen King.\u00a0 As he has been wont to do since 2010’s Full Dark, No Stars, King continues to mine the vein of<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3419,4287,1178,1127,67,4286],"class_list":["post-7188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-children-in-horror","tag-extra-sensory-perception","tag-human-horror","tag-psychological-horror-fiction","tag-stephen-king","tag-the-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7188"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7245,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7188\/revisions\/7245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}