The Institute

This is a fast paced page turner.I started reading this novel, after I completed The Shadow of the Wind.Therefore, it was definitely a change of taste. The story, begins with a policeman, who has recently resigned from his job and through a turn of fate arrives at a sleepy little town in USA, where he is trying to come with grips with his new life.At the same time, King takes us to the Institute, started by a clandestine organization to harness and augment telekinetic and telepathic powers of gifted children, using questionable techniques. These children at the institute have been kidnapped and suffer intolerable torture. How a lone kid from the institute and the policeman settling in his new life, meet and bring down the Institute is the rest of the story.....Well written and keeps you awake through the night till you have reached the last page.

It’s getting old and banal Mr. King. I was hoping to enjoy this book but alas, not to be. A word of advice though... If you continue to write, avoid politics so you don’t alienate half your reading audience because we are after all the force behind your income. Your Trump digs have nothing to do with the story. You're just a sorry old man trying to grand stand. I pick up a book to forget about the trivial day to day political b.s. so why do you feel the need to shove your beliefs down my throat? Wish I could get my money back on this but I won't purchase anything else from this author. I might also add that this book repeated itself over and over, had a slow moving story line and was hard to finish. Might be a good time for you to retire Mr. King...

Preordered this book some months ago, as was always a fan. Then read some recent SK rants made comparing events in this novel to certain views on law enforcement at our borders. Immediately returned the book for refund before reading it. I will not make another SK purchase.

King writes so well about the innocence of kids. He also writes at his best when the subject is pure evil. Slap them together and you have The Institute. The book starts in a simple little town where a cop passing through takes a job as a night knocker. There's a kid, a really smart kid, who's 12 years old and getting ready to attend MIT because he's, you know, special. That's the setting. From there it gets chilling. Even without ghosts, or vampires or outer space boogie men.The child, Luke, is taken in the middle of the night. His folks are murdered. He wakes up at The Institute in Maine in a room that's just like his - almost. There's other kids there and he gets the skinny from a young girl in the hallway, seemingly smoking a cigarette. She tells him that they "do stuff" to the kids, injections-flickering lights-dunking, but at least they're in the Front Half. You don't want to go to the Back Half. No, that's like the roach motel. Kids go in and don't ever come out.To say this is a character study of the people throughout history who have told themselves that the horrible, hideous, atrocious things they do are for a "higher good". This book is King at his best. It's tense and I found myself ill at ease throughout the 500 plus pages. But it's good. A good story, good writing, and yeah, sure, it's relevant in the America of today and about our choices.

As I sometimes do, I’m going to open myself up to you in a way that may, or may not, resonate. I hope it does, but I know it is probable that detractors will hurl insults my way, as they toss expletives at the master of horror himself. Wish I could state that in so doing I share a common ground with King, but, frankly, I am no more qualified to walk in his shadow as a writer than I am to walk in the shadow of Saint Peter as a Christian.So, why am I such a fan of Stephen King? I became a fan not due to his fiction. That writing took years of exposure before he won me over. His nonfiction writing, though, went straight to my heart. You see, I am a bit old-fashioned when it comes to fiction and writing. I loved some fiction, such as Old Yeller and Shane, but, my interest always was oriented toward the nonfiction tales by the likes of John Goddard (Go North, Young Man), Eric Collier (Three Against the Wilderness) and Bradford Angier (several books on living off the land).Then, one day, I read “The Stand.” That book was the culmination of everything I felt a novel should be, written in exactly the right language and flow.In recent years, King has penned a vast number of tales that tickled that nerve hidden deep inside me. While I enjoyed most all of them, not one of them satisfied that itch deep inside. Until, perhaps, “The Institute.Once again, King is not the ‘artist’ on par with James Michener or John Steinbeck or F. Scott Fitzgerald. When it comes to plain English writing, especially the sort where the writer stays outside the story and lets his characters get through to us so we can see the world through their eyes, though, no master storyteller comes close to Stephen King, in my humble opinion. So, as you peruse the review below, know that I am prejudiced in favor of Stephen King.In “The Institute,” we begin our journey in a small village of South Carolina. The opening is a masterful way to tug us along as we get to know a key figure and setting. Later, we meet our protagonist in Minneapolis and still later we get to know him (Luke) in Maine. To expound further would lead to spoilers, which I refuse to do…BLUSH FACTOR: If you’ve never read a Stephen king book, it might surprise you to learn the master of horror does not write for children or for people whose ears are sensitive to foul language. Yet, I found myself enthralled by yet another novel by one of my favorite authors.POV: Presented in third person point of view.WRITING & EDITING: In my opinion, no writer alive today gets into the heads of his subjects and tells their story to us better than does Stephen King. I marvel in considering how perfectly he presents these kids in their own words. I mean, King is in his seventies, how in the world can he so perfectly sound as though he is one of those kids?BOTTOM LINE:As enthralled as I am by this latest offering from Stephen King, it should be obvious I am rating it five stars out of five.

Started to read someone else's copy, but it took him only seven pages for irrelevant, negative political crapola to appear. Won't finish it or recommend it.