The Institute
Stephen King
Brief Summary
The main protagonist of the story is a young genius boy named Luke. He is kidnapped from his home in the middle of the night and brought to the Institute. There, he lives with other children who possess telepathic and telekinetic abilities. The second protagonist is Tim. Tim is a man down on his luck who decides to see where life brings him. Getting off his Delta flight, he hitchhiked toward his original destination with no real plan. His travels lead him to a small town in the South, where he becomes a night knocker. The two protagonists are led to each other by a series of unlikely events leading to the demise of the Institute.
My Thoughts
Sadly, I was disappointed with this novel. I was expecting an impactful ending, but instead, it was fairly predictable and anti-climactic. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was something more than was King gave us. It was reminiscent of his earlier novel, Firestarter. In fact, I could see the parallels. King gave us another novel with hidden abilities with a secret clandestine organization trying to acquire said abilities. The novel felt very unoriginal to me. It also has a Stranger Things vibe to it. The story revolves around the happenings and point of view of the children. The only positive part of the novel for me was the narration since I listened to it as an audiobook. If not for the great narration, I probably would not have finished the novel.
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