[Book Review] The Institute
by Stephan King Personal rating 8/10
Personal Note
The author leaves the reader with a sensitive choice of morality, whether the purpose of the institute is rightful or wrongful. Whether a small sacrifice should be made for the chance of a greater good or if unjust actions are rendered wrongful no matter the bigger picture. The author takes effort to get the reader at personal levels with each main character. The author makes the pain of the characters real and personal to the reader. The author creates a thrilling story that takes the reader into the character's perspective, making it feel like a 3D perspective view movie. I felt the bottom of the fence raking against my legs and I felt blood dripping from a place of my body where my earlobe should have been, I saw the donut crumbs on the train that the freight manager left behind and felt hunger.
Strengths
Flawless balance between descriptive and narrative text to let the imagination and story progress fluently.
Longest book i’ve read in my life. 561 pages with relatively lots of words in one page.
Weaknesses
The book seemed unnecessarily slow at the start especially with narration around a sub character. When the sub-character is reintegrated into the story at the end, I could barely remember his character. Considering the two months it took me to read this book (my mind was on other things and other books), I took 59 days reading 30% of the book and once the action started it took me the next 24 hours to finish the remaining 70%.
Plot Summary
*Spoiler Alert. Anyone who intends to read the book already should not go any further.
Characters
Main Character: Luke Ellis (super smart kid)
Main character Friends: Kalisha (Luke's first friend in first half), Avery(Super strong TP), Tim(Local friendly cop),
Institution members: Julia(in charge), Stackhouse(2IC), Maureen(caretaker)
Story (Short reminder version)
Thousands of kids are reported missing every year. Out of those reported missing some Kids ranging from 10 to 14 are kidnapped (and their family often murdered in the process) and taken to a secret institution hidden away surrounded by forests somewhere in Maine. These kids are not taken at random, they are subjects of particular interest that are being monitored by a secret organization. Nobody knows that these few children are actually incubated by their paternal figures until they are ripe of age. How they were discovered and how the institution knew? All babies are given a test at birth called BDNF(Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and in rare cases, babies with exceptionally high BDNF levels experience supernatural events. Hearing voices or experiencing objects move as if, in the presence of a ghost. Eventually we find out that they possess some form of either telekinesis or telepathy.
Luke wakes up one morning and finds himself in his own room. Everything is normal.. but strangely, the window is not where it is supposed to be. Overnight he has become a victim of one of these kidnappings and lost his parents in the process. He is now part of ‘The Institute’. The place seemed like a school for kids, there are caretakers, a cafeteria, a playground with a trampoline…. Just not doctors that randomly call upon kids to put needles in them and forcefully make them focus their eyes at hypnotizing videos until they pass out. This particular hypnotizing video consisted of swirling colorful dots that made some throw up, pass out or die. Despite the agony of being a test subject, the security makes sure the kids are in line and go through the procedure without resistance. The staff would electrocute young kids with zap sticks if any slight disobedience is apparent. Security cameras are everywhere, kids can't go home. They have no home if anything.
While the kids are stripped of their freedom, the internet, their rights and safety, the institute is relentless and emotionless. I assume the institution calls it motivation when the head manager Julia appears and says that the kids are serving a valuable purpose for the country and the world. At first, you would think the institute was a place of research, where they are trying to contain telekinesis and telepathy powers to create a psychic army to dominate the world, but gladly, the author provides a better story than that.
Fresh kids arrive at the institute in relatively constant frequencies and new arrivals naturally become acquainted with one another and get along. What also was constant was the rate at which kids were removed from this new home. The Kids find out they are in a sector of the institute called ‘front half’ and although not said aloud very much, becomes familiar with the word ‘back half’. Not one of the guests knows exactly what the back half is but there is a bad feeling that one gets from rumors and listening to the staff’s thoughts through telepathy. What became obvious was that when the testing was done on an individual and you have been sitting comfortably for a couple or few days, one knows. The men in red are coming for you to remove you from the front half, and take you to the back half one is never to be seen again.
The youngest of the institute Avery, age 8, comes in not long after Luke’s arrival. Avery was unusually young to be taken by his parents but one could see why he was here already. He could read minds like listening with his ears and send thoughts like speaking. The strongest telepathic the institution found in a few decades. He cries and wets his pants but luckily finds himself around some compatible people to make his substitute mommy or daddy figures. Avery has trouble sleeping at night and finds himself seeking his parent buddies to sleep together with. At night he would come find Kalisha, a TP girl of color who was the longest staying resident in the front half and inevitably, when she was taken away to the back half, Avery looked to Luke.
One day there was a heavy storm and consequentially, not so long after, a small trench was discovered under the playground fence. The security didn’t know yet and for the first time in a long while, Luke thought of hope; A way to escape this hell of an institute. With the aid of a special caretaker called Maureen who Luke had helped out with her personal issues, Luke escaped during the night. He had 3 things Maureen had secretly provided for the mission. 1, a knife to dig and to take care of something on Luke. 2, a USB. 3, some information on directions. During the night Luke went out and made the trench deeper and got through, and when the time came to remove the tracking tag on his earlobe, the young brave boy did it. Like a Saw movie, he cut a large portion of his earlobe off, threw it over the fence and dashed for it. Following the instructions he got, Luke landed himself on a train. Where was he going, what was his plan, was he going to make it?
Meanwhile back at the institute in the morning, a Janitor finds Julia saying it's urgent. Julia followed to see what he had found, imagining a clogged toilet. To everyone’s surprise…. It wasn’t the earlobe… yet... but, Maureen was found dead. Suicide by hanging in the toilet of an empty dorm. Her tongue poking out and a small message on the mirror that started turning the mentality of the institute on its head, ‘hell is coming’. The institute didn't know exactly what, but they were scared, Julia not knowing what exactly is happening did start to doubt the security systems and security measures that have been gradually weathering over time. She knew how dusty the cameras were and how laid back everyone had become with familiarity of the work. This realization was good for the institute but for the matter at hand, She was one day too late.
Avery was trying to cover up the trench Luke left behind. He was caught by the now highly alert security and was tortured, the poor tiny boy. Avery eventually leaked some information about the escape and panic made its way to the privately operated institution. The information that Avery provided was a good start for the institute, however, the help was not sufficient to avoid further punishment. Avery was dunked multiple times into a water tank, till he fainted, and was brought back to reality, and was dunked again, and repeated…. As the final punishment Avery was thrown into the Back half.
The runaway situation was a chess game. A game the smart boy Luke was best at. Luke would repeatedly mention having at least 3 moves, each with three moves the opposition can take and be ready for the right reaction. The institute had spies all over the region so they had a good home land advantage on locating Luke. First of all, they thought Luke was going to go as far away as he possibly can. And they were right. From looking at train schedules and their dedicated locations the institute was able to get a good idea as to where Luke was going. The game was just starting when Luke was caught in the freight of mattresses and lawn mowers. Thankfully not by one of the institute spies who called themselves the uncle of a lost boy, but by a friendly freight manager who may or may not have believed Luke's story, but was convinced from the blood soaked clothes and desperate conversation with Luke that he had to leave the kid alone in the train instead of taking him to local authorities to report a lost kid.
There were uncles at every stop, so Luke couldn’t simply get off when the train was parked. When Luke got off the train he tried to get off early to avoid any attention but he ran into a signpost and knocked himself out. The people at the train station all saw Luke and helped him get to a safe place. Between the local folks there was one that was a spy for the institute and called the institute right away. The institute departed with Julia leading as soon as the report came in but luckily, Luke had about 8 hours before they arrived at the station. Luke had 8 hours to convince the locals what he had seen and where he was the last few months.
It seemed 8 hours was enough, especially with the USB Maureen prepared. The USB contained footage revealing the back half and also the A ward which was revealed to be the next place kids were transferred to after being in the back half.
Meanwhile, when Avery landed himself in the Back half he learnt what the purpose of the institution was and also realized there was a ward A where one was taken to and never to be seen again. The purpose of the institution was to make globally threatening targets kill themself by means of long distance telepathy that was achievable only when the kids in back half all focused at once and with an additional boost they called the ‘hum’ that was coming from the kids in ward A. There was something strange about the kids who stayed longer in the back half, they were slowly losing their strengths and minds. At meal time, the fresh back half members would eat but the veteran back half members would drool and not eat at all, as if their mind has been brainwashed, or perhaps didn't have a brain to wash at all.
Back at the station where the townsfolk were watching the USB footage, Maureen concludes what the A ward was, it was the children at the institute who had given up their minds to the psychic power; they had gone over the mental wall and could not return to their bodies. What was left of them was their bodies, and the pure power they possessed that let out a ‘hum’. They ran around like lunatics, had no clothes on, banged their heads rhythmically or repeated saying the same phrases infinitely. They were broken. And when their bodies did not eat, they eventually died, and were taken to a special furnace for cremation. A death known to no one. Probably a better place to be than be consumed by power and not able to return to one's body.
When the Locals all agreed something had to be done, Julia and the kidnapping murderers had arrived and a massacre broke loose. Both locals and the institute took fatalities but Luke and the friendly police officer, Tim, survived and were able to out smart and capture the overly unstable, emotional and desperate Julia. When Stackhouse, who was second in charge after Julia was at the institution, received the call he had feared but somewhat expected. A deal was made with Luke to have Julia back and the secrecy protected in exchange for the kids in the institution.
When Luke, Tim and Julia arrived at the institution, Stackhouse was outside with both his hands in front as instructed by Luke. When the car was close enough, Stackhouse suddenly put one hand up and the hiding crew open-fired at the car. There would be no trouble if Tim and Luke were dead and if that meant Julia had to die as well, it was judged to be ‘worth it’. But being the smart boy Luke was, Luke and Tim were in the back seat against the floor while Julia was forced to drive the car seating at the front taking all the bullets thrown by her own team. Luke and Tim survived. But the game was not won yet.
It turned out, there was no need to win anything by force from Luke and Tim’s side. There was an explosion and an unbelievable event that distracted everyone there. You see, Avery being the most powerful TP, figured out how the ward A kids used their powers and realized that they respond to a strong TP Force. The Ward A kids attached themselves to any familiar power and enhanced it. The kids in back half, the ones still with their minds intact put their hands together and made their way out. They made the staff kill each other, and electrocute themselves to death, slap one self till they were out etc. When they came to a dead end due to security lock down that Stackhouse had previously ordered. Avery, felt power coming from the kids of ward A but also felt power coming from far far away. As if there were institutions all around the world. While in his time at the dead end, he fell asleep and dreamt of answering a series of phones that hung up after saying ‘can you hear me?’ the phones got bigger and bigger as he answered each one and when he woke up. One of the mindless Ward A kids had written on the wall, ‘ Answer the BIG phone’. Knowing that he might be consumed by the power when the big phone was picked up, he said his goodbyes to his friends and answered the phone. He said ‘i can hear you’ and a rumble started along with powers that were never witnessed before. The building’s security did not matter anymore because the whole building started vibrating and elevating. When the broken building lost its integrity the other kids escaped to the playground, and looked at what was happening. The whole building was levitating above and was moving toward the adjacent administration building. When the buildings were vertically aligned the levitating building fell and demolished both structures killing any who remained in them. The institution was done for. At Least this branch was.
During this event Stackhouse and his crew had forgotten about who they shot at, why that shot at them and were in shock. Luke and Tim captured this opportunity to reverse the tide and took control of the situation. The institution members were tied up and the surviving kids were reunited. The surviving kids all stayed with Tim for a while and were let go one by one, Tim let one child go at a time to where their family or closest family was. Telling them not to say anything about anything, and they don't remember or just don't know. It was judged that it was for the world’s best interest that no such institute existed.
Before Luke was to be introduced back into the real world. A person in a suit visited Tim and Luke. He said that they have caused a big mistake and now the world is on a death timer. The man was the boss of all the institutions. Mentioned a power that Luke had only guessed existed and that was future predictors. The man's job, the institution's purpose was to remove global destruction scale threats before anyone realized it would threaten life on Earth. Whether it may be the development of gas that could take out a whole race, a leader who would release multiple nukes upon the world, Hitler, who shot himself… (The institutes doing?). However, Luke was not persuaded because there was always a chance that the future could change, the many variables that could lead to an alternative path. Luke had done his research on suspicion and the conclusive factor was that the further away an event was the more subject to variations and change it could have been, and this man in the suit was talking about 10~15 years ahead. Luke and the Suited man both knew that the most accurate future readings were made 10 minutes, or just before the event. While the man’s approach to this was ‘why take a risk’ Lukes approach was why sacrifice children for a chance of a risk that might not happen anyway. This makes one think. Because of the frustration of interfacing a kid and how this kid was stabbing at all the right things the suited man had no intention of mentioning first, he casually took out a smoke. He was not allowed to smoke as weird powers prevented the cigarette from coming in reach... ‘Why smoke if you know how you will end up?”... Speechless, the man in the suit got back to his car and left.