Every chapter and paragraph is honed to either enhance the dimension, or to hint to a future event.

It’s a fair beast of a novel at 576 pages, but at no point do you feel like you’re reading ‘filler’. The idea of orphan kids triumphing over evil adults in a well-worn trope, but King manages to refresh this genre and spice it up not only with ‘magical powers’ but also with shootouts, explosions, friendships and immense bravery. For decades, children showing TP (telepathic) or TK (telekinetic) abilities have been stolen from their homes and transported to the Institute Facility, and subjected to tests and experiments to increase their powers. Both don’t meet until the climax of the book, but we’re aware from the start that’s where they’re both headed. Little does he know that far away, child-genius Luke has been kidnapped from his home, his parents murdered and transported to the super-secret Institute in Maine. The first chapter follows Tim as he acts on a gut feeling and disembarks a plane to travel to DuPray, South Carolina, and get a job as a night knocker. The theme for ‘The Institute’ seems to be that great events turn on small axes. I have the one on the right – which do you prefer? It’s the ending I wished I’d seen for ‘ The Nickel Boys’ by Colson Whitehead, if only to satisfy my bubbling rage and resentment for their captors. I’m a full-on Stephen King fan-girl, and I have a slightly obsessive relationship with the TV series Stranger Things – and ‘The Institute’ is a Halloween mixed punch delight of King’s distinct and digestible writing style, and a storyline where kids with special powers rise up against the injustice of the adults around them. This turned out to be my book-equivalent-woman-equivalent of a wet dream.

Stephen king book the institute