Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Institute

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Institute by Stephen King

90 reviews

lukerik's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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 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.

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tonylovd's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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heckinchimken's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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charliedezeeuw's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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amberjackonski's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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samdalefox's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

This was a friend's choice for our book club. He's a big fan of Stephen King, whereas I find his works hit and miss. This was more miss than hit, not because it's a badly written book or not enjoyable, but because it's very much what to expect of this genre, there was nothing novel or surprising for me. If this story wasn't written by King, I don't think people would rave about it so much. The storyline is predictable and the writing is average. As with most of King's longer works it's adventurous and maybe has too much unecessary detail, but it's easy enough to read.

I was drawn in at the start following Tim, then it flipped to follow the child protagonist Luke and it took me some time to reinvest. I'm not convinced making him a child genius actually helped serve the character and story themes, but acted more as a plot device so King could shoehorn in convenient facts that wouldn't come up organically otherwise. From the heavy referencing to Nazi concentration camps I suspect King is trying to introduce the same questions of horrors and amorality to a different audience (abuse of power, authority, utilitarianism, scientific advancement through non-consent etc.). The largest threat

that their torture was preventing the 'end of the world'

didn't land for me at all and was rushed/not adequately explored in my opinion.

I'm sure King fans will love this, for more casual readers enjoy it for what it is; don't expect too much.

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arithefan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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mhari's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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zoebill96's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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lucyarmstrong's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I went into this book with relatively low expectations- Stephen King is notorious for controversial writing when it comes to women, people of colour, people in the LGBTQ+ community and basically any other minority you can think of. I can hardly push myself through books where these individuals are written badly and or offensively, so I was more than glad to find that King has really changed his approach. Not that this excuses all of the horrible misconduct in his other novels, but speaking for this novel alone it was really refreshing not having slurs or over-sexualised women in every other sentence. (Yes, the bare minimum). All of Stephen King’s novels that I’ve read so far (IT and Cujo) were pretty mediocre anyway, so I was pretty shocked that The Institute ended up being a 5* read. I don’t know what it was exactly that drew me into the story so much but I couldn’t put it down. I think just the bizarreness of it all was intriguing. Basically, the book follows Luke Ellis, and other children who have been abducted and taken to a secret government facility called the ‘Institute’, where they are tested on due to their telekinetic of telepathic abilities. It deals with the children as they face the torture they’re put through, and plan their escape with the help of a small-town policeman, Tim. I have to say the first fifty pages were pretty uninteresting to me, but once we got to the POV of Luke and the other children in the Institute I sped through the book. I was attached to all of the children and their friendship, as well as Tim by the end of the book. As much as I wasn’t a lover of Tim’s POV at the beginning of the story, I love how his side of the tale intertwined with Luke’s for the ending and I did find myself caring more about Tim after seeing how he reacted to Luke’s situation. There was something really unsettling in the atmosphere of the Institute, and that was definitely one of the things that kept me reading. While I would say this book was more of a thriller as opposed to King’s typical horrors, there was something eerie about it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I felt so empty after finishing this book, purely because I’d grown so emotionally attached to the characters over the twelve days it took me to read this book. The ending was devestating, but hopeful in all the ways that mattered.

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