I read The Institute by US author Stephen King after many reviews discussed the social issues within the novel and the similarities with the psychologically challenging novels Firestarter and Carrie, both sharing with The Institute, children with powers of telekinesis and telepathy.
The Institute focuses on twelve year old Luke Ellis, a boy of exceptional intellect who is kidnapped one night from his home, his parents murdered. Luke is taken to an isolated and secret government research center known only by those inside as ‘The Institute’. Luke has very a minor talent with telekinesis which like many of the other children in the The Institute labels him a “Pink”, the more expendable children exposed to riskier experiments designed to provoke greater talents in telepathy or telekinesis. Within ‘Front-Half’ of The Institute, Luke meets Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon who are all, like him, kidnapped children, now orphaned. The true horror of The Institute is not just the experiments or dissociated manner of the staff, Luke learns that ‘Back-Half’ is the real horror of the secret experiments. Once children have undergone and survived the initial experiments of Front-Half, they are quickly transferred to Back-Half where no one hears from them again.
Luke’s intellect and kindness helps gain him a friend on the inside operations at The Institute. Through this network, Luke plans an escape and a way to expose the inhuman experiments and treatment of the children kidnapped from their families, lives forever changed. The secrets Luke discovers are dangerous to The Institute and the truth more horrific than anyone realised.
The Institute is a strong novel about our modern social condition and the ease with which society accepts actions for the ‘greater good’. This is the social context that Stephen King explores with detailed historical references to Facist and Communist ideologies. The Institute does have many elements reminiscent of Firestarter but is hard-hitting in its delivery where it shares the emotional weight of social injustice with The Green Mile. Ultimately, I found The Institute without true comparison. A must-read novel.
You must be logged in to post a comment.