A review by lucyarmstrong
The Institute by Stephen King

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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