Joint Review: The Institute by Stephen King

Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: September 2019

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.

I'll be honest, I didn't ultimately care for this latest from King.  I think I'm pretty much done with this author.  Which makes me really sad because I am a HUGE fan of his earlier stuff.  The Institute was just OK.  When i finished it I thought...meh.  It felt like it was a YA version of Firestarter and Carrie.  As Autumn said to me in our discussion of the book, "Maybe he is out of ideas?". 

The characters were forgettable.  The ending was a big let down.  There was no real tension except maybe toward the end.  There was a lot of potential here, but it just fell flat for me.  I think the only character I really liked was the ex-cop, but I can't even remember his name.  It's long, so if you have the time, maybe try it, otherwise go back and read one of his earlier books.

I'm kind of on the fence with this one.  Yeah, I kinda liked it.  But I also found myself thinking that various parts reminded me of other things.  I know King likes to pull little tidbits from other books into the story, but this wasn't like that, it felt like recycling.  

I always say I'm gonna give him one last chance and I keep expecting more.  Maybe my expectations are too high?  I'm not really sure.  Will I give him another chance?  In all honesty, probably, but it better be something spectacular!