The Institute follows our main character Luke, a very intelligent child who is kidnapped from his home in Minneapolis and woken up in a room that looks exactly like his own but no windows. Luke suddenly realizes he's at The Institute; home for other kids with telekinesis and telepathy. As Luke realizes something isn't right with this place, he desperately tries to escape; but no one has ever  escaped The Institute before. 

I really wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did!

When this book was just announced, I was really excited; mainly because I was worried that Stephen King wasn't going to publish anything this year. The more I read about the plot, the more I was really excited to read this.

The Institute screams Stranger Things. I know Stranger Things is based on several Stephen King works, including Firestarter, IT, and The Mist. But if you were to compare Stranger Things with one Stephen King book, it would be The Institute.

  There's so many aspects of this book that made it absolutely incredible. For starters, the characters in this novel are so genuine. I find that Stephen King creates the best characters, especially his child characters; Danny Torrence from The Shining, young Jamie from Revival, Gage from Pet Sematary, The Losers Club from IT, etc. Luke Ellis was definitely no different. 

I realize that I seem to love King's child characters more because you feel more sympathy for their pain opposed to his adult characters. Not that I didn't feel bad when John Coffey from The Green Mile was put on death row and executed for something he didn't do. But when kids are put in dangerous situation, it gives you a different feeling. 

The torture Luke's friend Avery had to go through because he lied to protect Luke during his escape broke my heart. Luke's constant beating and being electrocuted because he didn't want to admit he "saw the dots" broke my heart. Seeing innocent children go through pain gives you a different kind of feeling in comparison to an adult.

I found the group dynamic to be super sweet and genuine as well. I loved Luke's interactions with the other kids at The Institute and have quickly fallen in love with each of them as they were my own children. Which by the way, if you've read The Institute at all, is it just me or does anyone else picture Jacob Tremblay as the perfect Luke Ellis? Intelligent yet funny and sweet.

Every single person Luke has met from Kalysha to Maureen to Tim to Avery was so genuine and they all wanted to help Luke and like-wise, Luke wanted to help them.

Which, speaking of characters, Avery and Maureen's deaths were both something I wasn't expecting. More so, Avery's I thought was really sad, although things were leading up to it and it was bound to happen now looking back, but Maureen's was so sad because I really wasn't expecting her to kill herself. When I read her death scene, I really did gasp out loud.

Writing-wise, Stephen King is known to write every single detail in his books. That means, some readers aren't a huge fan of his books because they sometimes seem to drag on. I personally don't mind it as I love reading anything King writes but I found The Institute to be one of his more gripping books. 

This book is constantly go-go-go. There's very little moments that felt too slow or that King added parts that weren't necessary. Every part of this book was not only fast-paced but eventful as well.

I really enjoyed reading this mainly because it was so hard to put this book down! I think I easily finished the last 200-300 pages in about a day or two, it was just that good!

Now, I've seen mixed reviews for this book, mainly because Stephen King has been getting more and more political in his writing lately so I can see how some of the parts in this book (especially the last 200 pages) can be a miss for some. I personally don't really mind although I understand that most people are here to enjoy the content and not the politics added.

The only real problem I had with this book was that I really hoped they expanded a little more on why they're doing all the torture and testing on kids and how it affects them, generally.

I know it's expanded throughout the book, but very roughly. There's a scene at the end of the book where Bill (I believe is his name) is educating Tim on Precogs, BDNFs and why The Institute was made, but I was a little disappointed that King decided to throw all that detail at the end and give us a small piece of the apple.

If I were to pick, I'd love to have this information spread throughout the book, generously because I think that element is just as interesting and important as Luke's experience at The Institute.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the book! I loved that King threw in his little references to his other works like he always does, where in this novel they mentioned several books but The Shining reference with the Grady Twins stuck out to me the most!

I know that before The Institute was out, a lot of people said it was similar to Firestarter and said it's a must to read Firestarter first and honestly, if you didn't I think you'd be okay! I ended up reading Firestarter though but found very little connection to the two other than the fact that the kids had similar powers!

If you, or anyone you know loves Stranger Things, I highly recommend this book!

If you've read The Institute, what did you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts!