Review: The Institute by Stephen King

Luke is a smart kid. So smart, in fact, that he’s been accepted to start at two universities, simultaneously, despite only being 12 years old. However, after just sitting for his SATs, and with a brilliant path mapped out before him, everything changes. In the middle of a perfectly ordinary night, Luke’s parents are murdered, and he is kidnapped. When he wakes, everything seems normal until he realizes that he is not, in fact, in his bedroom. On the contrary, he is in a strange room designed to look like his bedroom, but with a few key differences. Luke is now a resident of The Institute.

Luke soon learns that he and his fellow young captives are part of a secret programme which was designed to test for and enhance the psychic abilities of American youths. Despite its long history, it remains unclear who runs The Institute, and why. Using his extreme intelligence, Luke decides to escape, and ensure that The Institute is closed down.

Often, I find that stories with young protagonists fall victim to a fatal flaw which can cause a narrative to be jarring and unnatural - the presence of the writer. When literary pre-teens think, speak, and act more like the forty-something year old writing the story than any young person you’re likely to meet, it shatters the easy belief in fiction. However, King has found a clever way to circumvent this hitch and make hs story believable, through a kid with an IQ that’s through the roof. It’s easier to believe that a 12-year old could outsmart and bring down a programme run by scientists because he’s a genius, and not as a result of luck, or media-induced precociousness.

With a reliable, albeit young, character in place, it becomes easier for the reader to suspend their disbelief throughout the rest of Mr King’s latest offering – a necessary prerequisite, as King shows once again that he’s royalty when it comes to supernatural fiction.

The Institute is an all-systems-go adventure from the first page. In this world, children fall victim to the fight between good versus evil, being used as pawns in a battle beyond their grasp. While King makes us voyeur to abuses, torture and neglect of the children within The Institute, he forces us to reflect on the myriad damaging beliefs that we subject each other to on a daily basis. As the humanity of the children is slowly eroded, one can’t help but notice that the line between scientist and monster is slowly blurred, banishing traditional notions of black and white, wrong and right, good and evil, into an indeterminate grey soup.

In true Stephen King style, The Institute is creepy, thought-provoking and just a little too close to home to be easily dismissed as pure fantasy. In short; it’s a treat that’s bound to sew a seed of suspicion, and get you thinking.

The Institute by Stephen King is published by Hodder & Stoughton, and is available in South Africa from Jonathan Ball Publishers.