Luke Ellis is an extremely smart twelve-year-old, who is on the fast track to success, with his parent's permission and support. One night, Luke is kidnapped and his parents are killed. He awakes the next morning in a room similar to his at home, only there are no windows. The items in the room look like his items but he knows by little inconsistencies that they are not his.

He has woken up in The Institute. He walks to the door expecting it to be locked but it's not. Instead, he finds more doors, and behind those doors are more kids. Kids with special talents like telepathy and telekinesis.

The kids are given all sorts of shots, and tortured in various ways to try and increase their abilities. If they're good, follow directions, and don't fight, they're given tokens to use for snacks, cigarettes, and even alcohol.

There are few rules at the institute, except for the kids to do as they're told on their trips to the "lab".

There's the front half of the institute, the back half, and the dreaded back half of the back half. Once the kids are transferred to the back half, they're never seen again.

As time passes, Luke is tortured beyond what he thought he could handle. He knows he is close to being sent to the back half. This makes him desperate to want to escape and save them all. He found a surprise coconspirator in his escape plan, the cleaning lady, Maureen.

Would Luke be able to remove the tracker from his ear, and escape this chained fortress? If he does, will he find help on the outside, or will they deem him as crazy, and turn him back over to the institute?

I highly recommend this book. It kept a good pace from beginning to end. I look forward to the movie or series, I'm sure will come.

Stephen King Fans, Thriller/Suspense Fans

The bond the kids shared and their determination

To read more of King's newer works.

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

I listened to this book on Audible: 18 hrs. 59 minutes
Narrated fabulously by Santino Fontana
Released on Audible Sept. 10th, 2019
672 Pages
A 2020 Thriller/Suspense Audio Award Winner
New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019
Rated 4.6

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of The Institute: A Novel   from Amazon.Com!

Created Feb 13, 2024 at 6:40am • Submit your own review...