The Institute Review

 

The Institute by Stephen King

Children with telepathy or telekinesis are being kidnaped and taken to the Institute where the staff run tests and do experiments on them.  

I have read some reviews of this novel and it seems in most cases people either loved or hated it.  I'm more in the middle.  There are some very interesting ideas presented but there were points that I was not a fan of.  The characters you are introduced to first are, to me, the most interesting and well developed characters in the book.  But then they are dropped completely for a very long time.  Until you almost have to look back in the book to remind yourself who these people are when they reappear.  Then the story becomes about the kidnapped kids and what happens to them at the institute.  And the plot slows down to a crawl.  And I got a little bored waiting for it to go somewhere.  And when I did  find out the reason for the Institute I was a little confused why they would have chosen this convoluted, overly complicated and morally ambiguous plan to achieve their goals. Some of the characters were a little too simplified too.  One of the employees is afraid of a situation that was solved by a simple Google search.  The head of the institute is self-righteous and self-important to such extremes that by the end of the book she becomes slightly absurd.  Toward the end, when things start to happen, I did start to root for Luke and the other children and feel I was starting to get involved with the characters a little bit.  But it was too long in coming to redeem the book completely.  A lot of reviews also mention that King included some politics.  I remember that, but at the time I read it without a thought.  It didn't seem like a big deal to me and I don't think that should stop you from reading the book if you are interested.  I wouldn't say I would recommend this to someone as a good introduction to King but if you are already a Stephen King fan I do think it is still worth a read.