The Institute
by Stephen King
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Description
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis' 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, show more and 10-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. As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King's gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don't always win. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
The Institute is my first Stephen King novel in a few years. I am ashamed to say it has been sitting among my TBR since its publication date. Now that I finished it, I regret waiting so long to get to it because I enjoyed it so much. Well, as much as you can enjoy any story involving child abuse and creepy government installations.
The Institute should come with a warning label across the cover. Experiencing what Luke goes through at the hands of all the caretakers at the Institute is ROUGH. Some scenes made me physically queasy because I was so upset by what the kids were going through. The Institute is one time where Mr. King's masterful storytelling is a drawback. He is just too damn good at bringing his stories to life.
The Institute show more made me think of Project MKUltra. The Institute is different from that illegal program, but Mr. King may have considered the CIA program while writing his story. Mr. King brings a paranormal stance to his Institute through its focus on telekinesis and telepathy. However, both programs involve controlling brain functions, so the connection between the two seems logical.
Once again, Mr. King excels at creating characters that worm their way into your heart. In particular, Luke and Avery appear to be the most vulnerable and therefore are the ones you root for the most. The remaining kids carry such an air of exhaustion that it ages them ten years at least. It is too easy to forget that they are still kids. Therein lies some of the story's horror. What they endure at the hands of Ms. Stigsby and her minions is something you wouldn't want an adult to experience.
The Institute is a little predictable, but the story does not suffer from that predictability. The story's heart is the children and their attempt to escape. It does not matter how much you can guess in advance because the journey the kids experience is the focus. That journey is unpredictable; Mr. King throws in several surprises to keep your interest.
The story is not all doom and gloom, thankfully. The Institute includes plenty of heartwarming scenes to ease your pain and suffering. Avery and Luke's relationship, in particular, is sweet. So is Luke's relationship with Kalisha. These relationships remind you of their youth and inexperience, which makes their fates at the hands of evil adults so much worse.
As difficult as it was to read at times, I enjoyed my time with The Institute. Mr. King writes terrific stories with some of the best characters, and this one is no less amazing. Mr. King proves, once again, that you don't need mythical creatures to create a horror story. The atrocities humankind is capable of is the scariest thing imaginable, and The Institute shows that.
I enjoyed Santino Fontana's narration a lot. His understated performance allows Mr. King's words tell the story. What he does add is subtle but effective, highlighting the kids' innocence and bringing out the adults' lack of conscience. He has a pleasant voice that never grows tiring or too soothing. Mr. Fontana adds the right amount of tension to his narration to keep you focused on the story. Mr. King's team always selects the best narrators for his novels, and The Institute is in good hands with Mr. Fontana. show less
The Institute should come with a warning label across the cover. Experiencing what Luke goes through at the hands of all the caretakers at the Institute is ROUGH. Some scenes made me physically queasy because I was so upset by what the kids were going through. The Institute is one time where Mr. King's masterful storytelling is a drawback. He is just too damn good at bringing his stories to life.
The Institute show more made me think of Project MKUltra. The Institute is different from that illegal program, but Mr. King may have considered the CIA program while writing his story. Mr. King brings a paranormal stance to his Institute through its focus on telekinesis and telepathy. However, both programs involve controlling brain functions, so the connection between the two seems logical.
Once again, Mr. King excels at creating characters that worm their way into your heart. In particular, Luke and Avery appear to be the most vulnerable and therefore are the ones you root for the most. The remaining kids carry such an air of exhaustion that it ages them ten years at least. It is too easy to forget that they are still kids. Therein lies some of the story's horror. What they endure at the hands of Ms. Stigsby and her minions is something you wouldn't want an adult to experience.
The Institute is a little predictable, but the story does not suffer from that predictability. The story's heart is the children and their attempt to escape. It does not matter how much you can guess in advance because the journey the kids experience is the focus. That journey is unpredictable; Mr. King throws in several surprises to keep your interest.
The story is not all doom and gloom, thankfully. The Institute includes plenty of heartwarming scenes to ease your pain and suffering. Avery and Luke's relationship, in particular, is sweet. So is Luke's relationship with Kalisha. These relationships remind you of their youth and inexperience, which makes their fates at the hands of evil adults so much worse.
As difficult as it was to read at times, I enjoyed my time with The Institute. Mr. King writes terrific stories with some of the best characters, and this one is no less amazing. Mr. King proves, once again, that you don't need mythical creatures to create a horror story. The atrocities humankind is capable of is the scariest thing imaginable, and The Institute shows that.
I enjoyed Santino Fontana's narration a lot. His understated performance allows Mr. King's words tell the story. What he does add is subtle but effective, highlighting the kids' innocence and bringing out the adults' lack of conscience. He has a pleasant voice that never grows tiring or too soothing. Mr. Fontana adds the right amount of tension to his narration to keep you focused on the story. Mr. King's team always selects the best narrators for his novels, and The Institute is in good hands with Mr. Fontana. show less
King goes Koontz. Children with telekinetic and telepathic abilities are being renditioned to a secret facility to be prodded and injected and tested, all for some cabal of self-appointed protectors of the world. While the story has a distinctly Koontz feel, it's classic Uncle Stevie, and Constant Readers won't be disappointed. Many great complicated and unique characters. This was one of those I couldn't quit reading.
This really got under my skin. Probably because it’s horrible things happening to kids. I think you could probably read the whole thing as a big metaphor for the treatment of Native American and Aboriginal children by the British Empire. There are a couple of apparently off-hand comments about England that might be there to point your brain in that direction, but there are also comments about the Holocaust so perhaps King wasn’t intending such a specific reading.
There’s actually quite a lot going on in the novel, more than usual with King, with some interesting Biblical parallels. When they’re in the tunnel and there’re 11 of them (minus the traitor), which would make the hero Jesus Christ. And some clever techniques to make show more you fear for the hero’s fate.
I also think King might be sitting there with his middle finger cocked at Stranger Things and a big shit-eating grin on his face. You’re got a bunch of kids, a worn out cop and an evil government institute in the woods. There’s even a character called Winona. There are also call-backs to eighties things but because Stephen King is a legend his call-backs are to his own books, notable Firestarter. And he’s done it in under 500 pages and without any self indulgence and padding. show less
There’s actually quite a lot going on in the novel, more than usual with King, with some interesting Biblical parallels. When they’re in the tunnel and there’re 11 of them (minus the traitor), which would make the hero Jesus Christ. And some clever techniques to make show more you fear for the hero’s fate.
I also think King might be sitting there with his middle finger cocked at Stranger Things and a big shit-eating grin on his face. You’re got a bunch of kids, a worn out cop and an evil government institute in the woods. There’s even a character called Winona. There are also call-backs to eighties things but because Stephen King is a legend his call-backs are to his own books, notable Firestarter. And he’s done it in under 500 pages and without any self indulgence and padding. show less
This book could only have been written by King. From the themes to the characters to the twists and the way they came about, The Institute in some ways felt like an amalgamation of so many of my favorite King books--particularly It, The Shining, and The Stand. I'm honestly not sure whether this was a good or a bad thing--King has a lane that is undeniable enjoyable, and most of the time, I didn't mind that I could feel flavors from those earlier books creeping into this one. At the same time, the book was so 'undeniably King' that it didn't feel quite so fresh in idea or character as what I'm used to reading from him. Funny enough, it was the middle of this book which had me turning page after page, unwilling to put the book down, show more whereas the beginning and ending didn't have the same inertia for me (comparatively, anyway).
The thing which stood out, though, and which I can't help warning others about...as much as this felt like a King book, there was also a heavier weight with it. Particularly in the first half, some of the material was so sad--sad, not simply dark--that reading was an act of determination. More than any other King book I've read, or any book at all I've read recently, there were whole chapters where a sense of hopelessness pervaded--where I couldn't even say I was enjoying the book, it was so sad, but also couldn't stop reading. And while children experiencing violence in fiction doesn't often get to me, the violence here was so direct and intentional, and so continuous, the book as a whole felt darker than many King books I've read.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely, but with those caveats above in mind. I can't see myself re-reading this one, though. show less
The thing which stood out, though, and which I can't help warning others about...as much as this felt like a King book, there was also a heavier weight with it. Particularly in the first half, some of the material was so sad--sad, not simply dark--that reading was an act of determination. More than any other King book I've read, or any book at all I've read recently, there were whole chapters where a sense of hopelessness pervaded--where I couldn't even say I was enjoying the book, it was so sad, but also couldn't stop reading. And while children experiencing violence in fiction doesn't often get to me, the violence here was so direct and intentional, and so continuous, the book as a whole felt darker than many King books I've read.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely, but with those caveats above in mind. I can't see myself re-reading this one, though. show less
Stephen King is the only author whose reading I always put off, for a very practical reason: when I start reading I can't stop, regardless of the size of the book, and since I read in the evening, this usually causes problems the next morning. All right, at any rate I'm a teetotaler, it's my only chance to experience the effects of a hangover.
Having said that, The Institute is such a well-written book, with such a deepening of the characters, even the secondary and more secondary than the secondary, that it is, in my opinion, an expression of the full maturity of this author I have always loved.
The story is now well-known and I won't write about it, I'm just saying that The Institute's world is an atrocious one in which one must show more necessarily immerse oneself in, to understand how to remain human. show less
Having said that, The Institute is such a well-written book, with such a deepening of the characters, even the secondary and more secondary than the secondary, that it is, in my opinion, an expression of the full maturity of this author I have always loved.
The story is now well-known and I won't write about it, I'm just saying that The Institute's world is an atrocious one in which one must show more necessarily immerse oneself in, to understand how to remain human. show less
5/5
Not only the best book I've read this year (so far, of course), but also the best book I've read in a good while. The book is very intense, even during the most calm and "routine" parts of the story. Since I've also read King's Dreamcatcher recently, this book served to show me perfectly how he improved his writing over time.
The setting is amazing, you can really feel how the atmosphere is tense. Both the Institute and Dupray are very well written. Specially the former, it ends up defined like such an inherently evil place, very akin to a concentration camp, but with this odd air of monotony and routine that's very common to a public facility.
For the characters, I loved most of them. Sure, some weren't as well defined as they could show more be, something that I partially blame on King's tendency to write longer books which can afford to develop characters much more slowly. Luke is a fun protagonist and his incredible intelligence works very well to just disrupt the scenarios he is thrown in. His friends are a colorful and interesting bunch that really helps to make you hate the environment they are subjected to. Tim and the people of Dupray are not all that well described, but I liked their simplicity and it's nice to have a small town in a a Stephen King book that is more positive than negative overall.
I feel like the real focus of this book were the villains. From the moment they were introduced I hated them and wanted to see them get their comeuppance in the end, and I was not disappointed. The carers were clearly written to resemble concentration camp workers and it's a fitting comparison. The director as this mean, Amanda Waller-ish sociopath that takes herself out of harm's way while saying she was just doing her job, is the worst of them all and I loved to see her getting killed by her own crew. The book certainly delivers on the catharsis it promises the readers.
All these things considered, I really loved this book and would recommend it to pretty much everyone. It's a somewhat long book, but you hardly feel it. Amazing read. show less
Not only the best book I've read this year (so far, of course), but also the best book I've read in a good while. The book is very intense, even during the most calm and "routine" parts of the story. Since I've also read King's Dreamcatcher recently, this book served to show me perfectly how he improved his writing over time.
The setting is amazing, you can really feel how the atmosphere is tense. Both the Institute and Dupray are very well written. Specially the former, it ends up defined like such an inherently evil place, very akin to a concentration camp, but with this odd air of monotony and routine that's very common to a public facility.
For the characters, I loved most of them. Sure, some weren't as well defined as they could show more be, something that I partially blame on King's tendency to write longer books which can afford to develop characters much more slowly. Luke is a fun protagonist and his incredible intelligence works very well to just disrupt the scenarios he is thrown in. His friends are a colorful and interesting bunch that really helps to make you hate the environment they are subjected to. Tim and the people of Dupray are not all that well described, but I liked their simplicity and it's nice to have a small town in a a Stephen King book that is more positive than negative overall.
All these things considered, I really loved this book and would recommend it to pretty much everyone. It's a somewhat long book, but you hardly feel it. Amazing read. show less
Man I could not put this book down! If you're looking for straight up Stephen King horror, it won't be found in this book. However if you're looking for complex characters, stomach turning scenarios, good vs. evil, and some bad ass kids; then this is the book for you. Alternating between Tim, a "retired cop" who is just floating through life and ends up in a dead end town working as a night knocker and Luke, a kid with IQ off the charts, who has been kidnapped and taken to The Institute. The Institute won't be found on any map, and no one has heard of it; but they specialize in kidnapping children who have telekinesis and telepathy and experimenting on them and using them for "nefarious" reasons. Luke and Tim have very different show more stories, but they may just find themselves crossing paths. Hard to put down, and expertly plotted; a unique story and I loved the children's perspectives and voice. Another Stephen King spectacular! show less
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Author Information
966+ Works 867,771 Members
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, he became a teacher. His spare time was spent writing short stories and novels. King's first novel would never have been published if not for his wife. She removed the first few show more chapters from the garbage after King had thrown them away in frustration. Three months later, he received a $2,500 advance from Doubleday Publishing for the book that went on to sell a modest 13,000 hardcover copies. That book, Carrie, was about a girl with telekinetic powers who is tormented by bullies at school. She uses her power, in turn, to torment and eventually destroy her mean-spirited classmates. When United Artists released the film version in 1976, it was a critical and commercial success. The paperback version of the book, released after the movie, went on to sell more than two-and-a-half million copies. Many of King's other horror novels have been adapted into movies, including The Shining, Firestarter, Pet Semetary, Cujo, Misery, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers. Under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, King has written the books The Running Man, The Regulators, Thinner, The Long Walk, Roadwork, Rage, and It. He is number 2 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. King is one of the world's most successful writers, with more than 100 million copies of his works in print. Many of his books have been translated into foreign languages, and he writes new books at a rate of about one per year. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 2012 his title, The Wind Through the Keyhole made The New York Times Best Seller List. King's title's Mr. Mercedes and Revival made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 2015 for Best Novel with Mr. Mercedes. King's title Finders Keepers made the New York Times bestseller list in 2015. Sleeping Beauties is his latest 2017 New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) Stephen King is the author of more than thirty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are "Hearts in Atlantis", "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", "Bag of Bones", & "The Green Mile". "On Writing" is his first book of nonfiction since "Danse Macabre", published in 1981. He served as a judge for Prize Stories: The Best of 1999, The O. Henry Awards. He lives in Bangor, Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. King's book, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories, made the 2015 New York Times bestseller list. (Publisher Provided) show less
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Awards and Honors
Awards
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Institute
- Original title
- The institute
- Original publication date
- 2019-09-10
- People/Characters
- Tim Jamieson; Lucas David "Luke" Ellis; Nicholas Wilholm; Kalisha Benson; Iris Stanhope; Avery Dixon (show all 53); Helen Simms; Julia Sigsby; Trevor Stackhouse (security); Annie "Orphan Annie" Ledoux; Wendy Gullickson (deputy); George Iles; John Ashworth (sheriff); Daniel Hendricks (doctor); James Evans (doctor); Felicia Richardson (doctor); Everett "Heckle" Hallas (doctor); Joanne "Jeckle" James (doctor); Maureen Alvorson; Taggart Faraday (deputy); Veronica "Ronnie" Gibson; Addie Goolsby; Corbett "Drummer" Denton (barber); Robert Bilson (twin brother of Roland Bilson); Roland Bilson (twin brother of Robert Bilson); Herbert Ellis (father of Lucas David "Luke" Ellis); Eileen Ellis (mother of Lucas David "Luke" Ellis); Jim Greer; Denny Williams; Michelle Robertson; Robin Lecks; Jerry Symonds; Gerda Wilcox (twin sister of Greta Wilcox); Greta Wilcox (twin sister of Gerda Wilcox); Harry Cross; James "Jim" Evans (doctor); Tony Fizzale; Rolf Destin; Frieda Brown; Gladys Hickson; Zeke Ionidis; Winona Briggs; Stevie Whipple; Fred Clark (janitor); Donna Gibson; Joe Brinks; Chad Greenlee; Andy Fellowes; Norbert Hollister; Richard Bilson; Gutaale Dobira; Rosalind Dawson; Russ Dorr (memorial)
- Important places
- DuPray, Fairlee County, South Carolina; Dennison River Bend, Maine, USA; South Carolina, USA; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota USA; Sturbridge, Massachusetts, USA (show all 7); Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
- Epigraph
- And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines...
And Samson took hold of the tw... (show all)o middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lord, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. --Judges, Chapter 16
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones... it were better for him that a millstone were handed about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. --Matthew, Chapter 18 - Dedication
- For my grandsons: Ethan, Aidan, and Ryan
- First words
- Half an hour after Tim Jamieson's Delta flight was scheduled to leave Tampa for the bright lights and tall buildings of New York, it was still parked at the gate.
- Quotations*
- E non solo perché prendere il volo alle sei e tre quarti significava svegliarsi quando Dio ancora dormiva.
Faceva un segno col gesso e proseguiva. Tornando indietro ripeteva la stessa procedura, ma cancellando i segni. L'intero processo gli ricordava un vecchio motto di spirito irlandese: «Se arrivi tu per primo, Paddy, fai un se... (show all)gno sulla porta. Se arrivo prima io, lo cancello».
Se Nicky Wilholm era il ribelle, George Iles era il giullare di corte. Ora, però, sembrava serio come un attacco di cuore.
«Come avrai sicuramente già sentito dire, le opinioni sono come il buco del culo: ognuno ha la sua. … »
Quei ricordi erano bellissimi e pungevano come ortiche.
Non sarebbe male averne un pochino in più, pensò, ma gli venne subito in mente una battuta di suo nonno: «Metti i tuoi desideri su un piatto e la merda sull'altro, e vedrai da che parte pende la bilancia».
«Quello è Hollister, il proprietario del motel, e non ce lo vedo a scaricare qualcosa. A parte le budella, di prima mattina». - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Better to save some for later.
- Publisher's editor
- Graham, Nan
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.54
- Canonical LCC
- PS3561.I483
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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