REVIEW: The Institute

The Institute
Author: Stephen King

In recent years, Stephen King novels can be a bit hit or miss for me.  The Institute is definitely a hit. I loved it! The story caught my attention from the beginning and kept it throughout! I was lucky enough to get onto the hold list for the digital audio book in the #2 slot at my local library....so I didn't have long to wait. The waiting time for King novels can get quite long. When I finished this book and returned it, I was curious so I clicked into the book info to see how many library patrons were waiting. The wait list at the metro library I belong to is 9 weeks on 24 copies. And the smaller more local library, the queue is at 103 with 6 months of waiting for those at the very end of the line. The line for the print book is even longer.  Metro: 120 patrons and 7 weeks. Rural: 213 in line and 6 months of waiting.

This story is worth the wait.

Luke Ellis is peacefully sleeping in his bed inside his parent's home in Minnesota one night when he's drugged by strangers and taken away. He wakes up in a room that looks like his room....exactly like it....but it isn't his room. There is no window. And when he opens the door, there is a hallway....and other doors. Other rooms. With children who were also taken and brought to...The Institute. He discovers every child brought here has special abilities. Psychic abilities. The other kids tell Luke that they are in Front Half, where tests are done on them. After awhile, kids who have been at The Institute the longest are taken to Back Half. Nobody knows exactly what happens there. Kids that go to Back Half never come back. Luke wants to save his friends. He wants to escape the tests, the headaches, the horrible fear of Back Half...  But nobody has ever escaped The Institute.....   Nobody.

This was a perfect tale to listen to on audio. The story kept my attention from start to finish. I can't imagine how scary it would be for 12 year old to be stolen from his house in the middle of the night and wake up somewhere like The Institute. I enjoyed listening as the kids formed friendships, endured horrible testing and experiments, and joined to fight back.

While there have been similar stories before, King definitely puts his slant and full storytelling talents into his version. The characters are vivid and the events horrifying....as a mother, there were portions of this story that were hard to stomach. But I was invested in the story and enjoyed every word of it!

I'd love to see this book made into a movie or series. The characters would be fantastic. The story reminds me a bit of Stranger Things... if it were set in the hospital where Eleven was created. 

The audio book, narrated by Santino Fontana, is 19 hours long. Fontana gives an awesome performance. He reads at a nice pace and gives a great acting performance. There are a lot of characters, and multiple ages/personalities of children and adults...he breathed life into each one. Excellent listening experience!

I got lucky and didn't have to wait weeks or months to enjoy this story.....but I would have felt it was worth the wait, even if I had.