Name: Jacqueline Englund's review of The Institute by Stephen King
Item: The Institute
Rating: 5
Author: Jacqueline Englund

Stephen King

'It does everything you'd expect of a masterpiece - and it is one' Sunday Express 'Hums and crackles with delicious unease' Independent 'A captivating, hybrid novel that shape-shifts through several genres' The Sunday Times Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts - telepathy, telekinesis - for concentrated effect. Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He's just a regular 12-year-old, except he's not just smart, he's super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use... Far away in a small town in South Carolina, former cop Tim Jamieson has taken a job working for the local sheriff. He's basically just walking the beat. But he's about to take on the biggest case of his career. Back in the Institute's downtrodden playground and corridors where posters advertise 'just another day in paradise', Luke, his friend Kalisha and the other kids are in no doubt that they are prisoners, not guests. And there is no hope of escape. But great events can turn on small hinges and Luke is about to team up with a new, even younger recruit, Avery Dixon, whose ability to read minds is off the scale. While the Institute may want to harness their powers for covert ends, the combined intelligence of Luke and Avery is beyond anything that even those who run the experiments - even the infamous Mrs Sigsby - suspect. Thrilling, suspenseful, heartbreaking, THE INSTITUTE is a stunning novel of childhood betrayed and hope regained.

The Institute

Una fascinante historia sobre de la lucha entre el bien y el mal, en un mundo en donde los buenos no siempre ganan. En mitad de la noche en un barrio tranquilo de Minneapolis raptan a Luke Ellis, de doce años, tras haber asesinado a sus padres. Una operación que dura menos de dos minutos. Luke se despierta en E Instituto, en un cuarto exactamente igual que el suyo pero sin ventanas. En habitaciones parecidas hay más niños: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris y Avery Dixon, entre otros, que comparten capacidades especiales como la telequinesia o la telepatía. Todos ellos se alojan en la Mitad Delantera de la institución. Los mayores, en cambio, se encuentran en la Mitad Trasera. Como dice Kalisha: "El que entra no sale". En este instituto tan siniestro, la directora la Señora Sigsbyy sus empleados, se dedican a extraer la fuerza supernatural de cada uno de los niños, siempre de una manera despiadada y sin escrúpulos. Si los niños cooperan, ganan monedas para las máquinas de dulces. Pero si no, el castigo es brutal. Cada vez que una víctima desaparece, Luke se encuentra más desesperado por escapar y buscar ayuda. Pero nunca nadie ha logrado escapar del Instituto "Bajo los fuegos artificiales de su imaginación incansable, Stephen King nos muestra en sus mejores novelas que lo raro, lo extraordinario, lo verdaderamente insólito es vivir". --El Mundo

El instituto

Juan Sebastian Perniola

Fabian

A NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2019 SELECTION From #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King, the most riveting and unforgettable story of kids confronting evil since It. In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s 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, and ten-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.

A Novel

Jacqueline Englund

The King is back and he’s still got it! A fantastic read, that reminded me of the old school Stephen King. I was absolutely hooked from beginning to end. A must read if you’ve enjoyed his previous books!

Midori Kobayashi

4/5stars

Great events turn on small hinges.


One of Stephen King 's classics. The premise is very entertaining, the way the characters are written is amazing. The bind this group of kids share, their TK and TP abilities very beautifully described. 


Sane people don't sacrifice children on the altar of probability. That's not science, it's superstition.


Despite being a 600 +pages chunky book, I was so invested and it did not feel like a stretch, (the way some of the other King books are). I was very hyped up to find out how it's gonna end because the set up, the 500 pages worth of build up had my hopes HIGH. 


But the ending was kind of a let down, I expected more, more of action? More that how it ended. It kinda fell flat for me. I'd still give it 4stars for the mere entertainment that buildup got me, the whole two different story lines happening and the way they connected: Classic King.



It came to him, with the force of a revelation, that you had to have been imprisoned to fully understand what freedom was.


In a nutshell: One of the better works of this author, def recommend.

Taylor Nuzzolo

Man. This is a roller coaster let me tell you! The characters are so relatable and real, the story is intricate and interesting and the mystery behind it all is captivating and convoluted. Holy mother forking shirt balls this book messed with me a little bit. Usually I don’t enjoy book about children being treating in abusive ways but this kept my interest without becoming disgusting. Stephen King is a genius storyteller and pushes out some of the most cares about characters I’ve ever seen. I have loved (or loved to hate) every single character in this book from Avery down to Gladys. I highly recommend!

Jeff James

This was a solid adventure story that moved along at a brisk pace. I was expecting something a bit more horror-tinged when I started reading it, but instead this was mostly a fantasy about terrible things happening to telepathic and telekinetic kids. This was also the closest King has come to a young adult novel since maybe Eyes of the Dragon, although it was fairly profane, so maybe that would disqualify it in some circles. King sticks the landing here, and I enjoyed it a lot.

The Institute [Large print]

Felipe Saldarriaga 

¿Les ha pasado que en las historias que leen de gente o niños superdotados por lo general pueden con todo y son sin emociones? Bueno, esto no sucede aquí. Una vez más king nos muestra el lado más humano de cada ser y conecta de una manera magistral cada uno de los sucesos. La evolución de todos y cómo avanza te hace querer continuar de una sola.
Este libro ha sido el primero del año y un regalo muy especial 💙

First Stephen King book, it was nice! Halfway through I was intrigued, but it was about 60-70% through that I was hooked and couldn't put the book down. Loved the story and the way it all unfolded. Very enjoyable read. 

Omar Fernandez

Beatriz Pereira

Disappointed with the ending. Amazed by the imagination to build such a storyline.

Mark-Olivier

Well, well, well... It was something. I took me fooorever to read it. The story is good. Well, the idea of it. Great start, great end. The middle though... It was endless. It's like nothing was happening.   <spoiler>yeah they were kidnapped and stuff, but nothing was really happening. They were only getting tested infinitely</spoiler> I have to say that, for a good week, I hardly read the book because I didn't want to keep reading those endless pages/chapters. On the other hand, I didn't give up, and I was surprised by the end. Finally some actions. I can even say it was sad. In conclusion, maybe I won't recommended this book on a daily basis, but I also won't talk sh*t about it. It's really up to the reader.

this was so incredible… it might be one of my fav if not my fav king book honestly.

the idea of kids having super powers is not a new concept, and it’s something that has been written about plenty of times, but this truly does have an original, horror spin on it.

seeing the world through the lens of an extraordinarily intelligent child is rlly a unique reading experience, and i think it was so well thought out. the plot itself was always interesting, and nothing was ever irrelevant / negligible to the plot (as always with stephen king). some parts were so unflinchingly cruel it was hard to read, especially when children are involved.

i loved the characters! the antagonists were so awful (in a good way) and frustrating. 

my favorite quote from the book doesn’t really fit the actual vibe of the majority of the book, but i love it anyway: 

 “Sometimes a hug was telepathy.”

Carlos Milla Soler;

El Instituto

Mary Garza

** spoiler alert **
           El inicio de este libro fue tranquilo tengo que decir que el personaje de Tim me gustó bastante de momento ahí todo bien pero ya que se inicia con la historia de Luke como que no me agrado y ya de ahí empecé a sufrir un poco con la lectura la parte donde se explica lo que hacían con los niños dentro del instituto fue interesante pero me costaba seguir lo que pienso es que en ese momento no lograba conectar con Luke todo lo que le pasaba al pobre me daba igual porque aunque había otros niños que me agradaron como Sha, George, Nicky, Iris (pobre niña) Helen y mi bebé Avery no me estaba enganchando.

En el momento en que se llevaron a Kisha a la mitad trasera Luke tuvo una evolución y ame como cuido al pequeño Avery. La relación de ellos dos fue una de las cosas más lindas en el libro. 

Desde el momento que Luke escapa del instituto yo ya estaba más que enganchada en que momento paso ni cuenta me di, ya quería saber que iba a pasar y vaya que pasaron un montón de cosas y tengo que decir que no sería un libro de Stephen King si no hay una carnicería de por medio. Pero en serio, ¿eran necesarias tantas muertes inocentes ? Porque la de los malandros sobre todo de la víbora Sigsby no lo lamento. 
El equipo que hicieron Tim y Luke fue de lo mejor junto con Wendy. 

Jamás imaginé que existieran más institutos en otras partes del mundo. 
Me da a pensar que tal vez exista una segunda parte. 

El final fue adecuado me dejó satisfecha aunque llore y sufrí mucho y todavía siento feo con el pequeño Avery ¿por qué él no se pudo salvar? 

Pensé que este libro me iba a decepcionar que iba hacer el primer libro de King que no me iba a gustar y pues el Sr King me dejó otra vez sin palabras y obviamente seguiré leyendo más de él.

James Eaton

Such a great SK book! It had all the elements of King's best writing. Character development, mystery, supernatural elements, humans who are bad people, plus a good ending. 

I have read 13 Stephen King books this year and this is in the top 5 of the year for sure.

Esslam Ben Ramadan

** spoiler alert **
           What an incredible story, I've never been so engrossed in a book. The story follows a little boy who due to sad circumstances ends up in an institute for kids with special abilities. Unfortunately, the kids here are treated more like cattle compared to something Charles Xavier might run. The kids have telekinetic and telepathic powers and these powers are used in the institute to kill targets across the world in order to prevent world-ending calamities. The book follows this young boys journey through the institute and his eventual escape from it...

Alfredo santos

This is what I would call the Stephen King take on Stranger Things. Loved it, but can't keep thinking how much is taken from the ST universe. It was a bit too long for my taste, but sometimes SK works are gargantuan.

alina s

Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts - telepathy, telekinesis - for concentrated effect.

Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He's just a regular 12-year-old, except he's not just smart, he's super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use...

Far away in a small town in South Carolina, former cop Tim Jamieson has taken a job working for the local Sherrif. He's basically just walking the beat. But he's about to take on the biggest case of his career.

Back in the Institute's downtrodden playground and corridors where posters advertise 'just another day in paradise', Luke, his friend Kalisha and the other kids are in no doubt that they are prisoners, not guests. And there is no hope of escape.

But great events can turn on small hinges and Luke is about to team up with a new, even younger recruit, Avery Dixon, whose ability to read minds is off the scale. While the Institute may want to harness their powers for covert ends, the combined intelligence of Luke and Avery is beyond anything that even those who run the experiments - even the infamous Mrs Sigsby - suspect.

Thrilling, suspenseful, heartbreaking, The Institute is a stunning novel of childhood betrayed and hope regained. 
--front flap

Institute

Sian Wadey-Kerr

I haven't read any Stephen King in what feels like a long time and it was good to delve into his works again. I love his 'voice' and the idea of an institute for 'special kids' was intriguing. The book starts by introducing Tim, and I must admit I did wonder what the point of this was and when we were going to get going with the story. Once we met Luke and the events began to unfold it was a rip-roaring read and I couldn't put it down. I could picture The Institute clearly in my head, the amount of detail in the workings of it was fantastic and it felt like a real, tangible place. Quite a scary thought. I loved all the kids and their friendships, especially Avery. 
My only negative point is the amount of characters. Towards the end we met some new people and King had to name all of them and at that point I just wanted to find out what happened. Also, I'm not sure how entirely believable it is for a twelve year old to go through all of those things, however I'm prepared to accept some artistic license. 
Other reviews said that this felt like 'classic King' and I couldn't agree more. A fantastic read!

Shan

This was my first Stephen King read. Although I have absolutely loved all film adaptions that I have seen, I am just now getting to reading his long books. This one was worth messing with my reading goal for! It was captivating and moved at a decent pace. However, there were a few things I wish they discussed more deeply at the ending. If you're a fan of Stranger Things or The Umbrella Academy, this one is for you!

Celeste Richardson

“Great events turn on small hinges.”
I love Stephen King. This has not been a lifelong truth, and my infatuation began a mere 5 or so years ago. Since then, I’ve read a third of his body of work, and I’ve been largely impressed. While I do believe that King would benefit from a harsher editor, and that he often fails to stick that landing with his endings, Stephen King has an incredible mind. The plots he dreams up, and the characters he creates to populate those stories, are pretty spectacular and always feel original. While I’ve enjoyed everything of his I’ve read at least in part, some of his books are more successful than others. The Institute is just such a book. The plot was disturbing and vaguely supernatural without seeming implausible. The cast of characters was beautifully fleshed out and varied. And the ending didn’t suck!
“It came to him, with the force of a revelation, that you had to have been imprisoned to fully understand what freedom was.”
Luke Ellis is a brilliant kid. Like, seriously brilliant. Accepted into two colleges at the age of twelve brilliant. But Luke’s mind isn’t what gets him kidnapped from home in the middle of the night. Or rather, not his intellect. His mind has a latent ability that draws the attention of a secret organization known only as The Institute. When Luke wakes up, he’s in a near perfect replica of his own bedroom, but with one startling difference: there are no windows. In the halls, he meets other kids like himself, kidnapped children with mostly weak traces of telekinesis or telepathy. But what does the Institute want with them? The answer is revealed piece by disturbing piece. Luke and his friends have to find a way out, a way to stop the Institute. But what can a ragtag group of kids do against such an organization? I don’t know that this was truly a horror story, but the knowledge that such a thing could possibly exist, and that so many thousands of children disappear every year and are never found, is one of the most horrifying ideas ever. 
“He was only twelve, and understood that his experience of the world was limited, but one thing he was sure of: when someone said trust me, they were usually lying through their teeth.”
King really excels at capturing the voices of children. Luke is a phenomenal character who I rooted for with my entire being. His friends were wonderful as well, but Luke was undoubtedly the star of the show. I love how hard Luke had worked to seem like a regular kid despite his enormous intellect, and how he was able to use the fact that adults underestimated him to his advantage. Luke is brave and kind and fiercely loyal, and I had no problem believing that he’s probably one of the most intelligent people on the face of the Earth. I was blown away by him as a character. Another character, who I won’t mention by name because I don’t want to spoil said character’s arc, broke my heart more than once.
“It was so simple, but it was a revelation: what you did for yourself was what gave you the power.”
One of my favorite things about reading a Stephen King novel is the thrill of hunting for little Easter eggs referencing other stories he’s penned. The Institute was no exception to that, and I found small references to multiple other books sprinkled throughout. I love that someone who decides to make The Institute their first King novel won’t be missing anything if they don’t catch these references, but that King rewards his Constant Readers with these tiny, delightful tidbits that recall to their minds the other works of his they’ve read and loved. 
“But there were no words, and maybe no need of them. Or telepathy. Sometimes a hug was telepathy.”
I would happily recommend this book to just about everyone. Whether you’re a horror fan or stay far away from the genre, whether you’ve been reading King for decades or decided on a whim to give him a try with this book, I think you’ll find something to love here. I honestly believe that this is one of the strongest books he’s written in recent years outside of Sleeping Beauties, which he coauthored with his younger son. The Institute is more philosophically disturbing than visceral, and it gave me a lot of food for thought. It’s amazing that so many decades into his writing career, King just keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait to see what he creates next.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.

Clara Moore

Wow what a roller coaster! This was the first Stephen King book I've read (I am a big chicken and do NOT like being scared lol) and man I couldn't put it down! Sometimes I had to pause and take a deep breath but then I was right back at it. This book carried me through right to the very end. I was hesitant and nervous going in but was so glad I took the risk!

isa.

Ashutosh

I loved the theme of all the kids possessing extraordinary cognitive abilities, also right from start to end it follows a proper and intense pattern of writing. The ending is intense, gripping and satisfying. Little or no horror, but still can be considered as a good SK novel👍

Jessika Rucker

I really enjoyed the concept of this book! I kind of hope this becomes a TV series or a movie. With my whole heart, I feel like this would be amazing to see! I haven't read too much sci-fi, but this book makes me want to jump into the genre more!

Yulande Lindsay

One of the few writers I buy as soon the book releases. I trust him implicitly to engage me completely. But this one...boy. When it's children...it hits you in the feels so deeply. I was a simmering ball of rage throughout most of this book because...children. Wonderful, gripping. Stephen King does not disappoint. Yet again.

Aysenur O.

When i saw this book on the shelf, it took me moment to realize how much i wanted to read it. because of the English is not my native language, i was afraid to misunderstand the whole point or do not get any joy of it.

The book itself is not that hard to read and the subject is so freaking interesting which connects you to the book. I mean, one cannot drop the book till the end.

I will definitely read this book again! And I will recommend to anyone who ask me for advise what to read.

Jade Lee

** spoiler alert **
           This book. Wow. 

I am so glad this was my first Stephen King book. It took me a second to get used to his style but holy shit, once I was in, I was IN. 

This book was engrossing and absolutely disturbing at some points but I could not put it down. I am now in love with his writing style and definitely plan to read more of his books. 

I think this is one of my top books from this year. The concept and the idea behind it was so creative and terrifying on a global scale. I loved so many characters and felt so many emotions. 

I would 100% recommend!

Fabian &
The Institute by Stephen King

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