Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Institute by Stephen King

40 reviews

tifftastic87's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The Institute focuses on two stories. In the first Tim Jamieson an ex cop who was let go due to a reckless decision and ends up hitch hiking to a small town in South Carolina. He decides to stay a while as both a night knocker and an unloader at the train station, and gets to know the town. In the second, Luke Ellis is a very intelligent 12-year-old boy about to attend both MIT and Emerson. But in the middle of the night he is kidnapped and taken to The Institute a place that doesn't care about his intelligence, only about his minor telekinetic ability. All the kids here are used and abused, but the employees have gotten a little lax. It will take everything look has to be able to escape. 

I think Stephen King really excels when he writes stories about children. His stories with adolescent teen boys are some of the most compelling and well written. The story doesn't have the normal tendency to go off the rails but is a great analysis of power and what those who have too much of it choose to do with it. Stories where "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" are where King shines the most, the absolute horror of having zero power and control in a situation reaches into some deep fear inside of us. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Death, Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, and Cursing

Moderate: Racial slurs, Addiction, Bullying, Chronic illness, Racism, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Ableism

spooderman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

the book was good but i would’ve chosen someone other than santino fontana to narrate it. idk i think he’s great in general but i didn’t vibe with his narration

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Terminal illness, Torture, Medical trauma, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Vomit, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Cancer, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Misogyny, Alcohol, Ableism, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Racism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Excrement, Car accident, Drug abuse, and War

readinglibraesq's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Death

ilmariel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Torture, Grief, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

fuathling's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

King knows how to write a story. Fleshy characters. Tasty plot. And a good full-circle roundhouse kick to the chest at the end. Just the way I like it. Mwah. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Torture, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Racial slurs

pkc's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I finished this in conjunction with the audiobook, reading the last 200+ pages in my physical copy and…King remains one of my favourite authors BUT this just wasn’t it for me. It felt a bit like he’d bitten off more than he could chew and the end was rushed with a resolution that could be described as shaky at best. I rated it as highly as I did because the final set piece was epic. It either needed to be expanded or drastically cut back. I can’t decide which. I will say though. The authors note at the end of my copy brought a wee tear to my eye.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, Confinement, Cursing, Self harm, Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

book_s1ut's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Death, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Violence, Trafficking, Bullying, Child death, Torture, Classism, Alcohol, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Confinement

secre's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

The Institute is a slow burn, creepy, and unnerving novel. It's not terrifying or gory or over the top in the way some of King's horror books can go, but it's got a quiet horror for the fact that it's fairly realistic. The supernatural elements come in the telekinetic and telepathic powers of the children depicted, but the abuse of power and conditions in which the kids are kept is something you can see happening.

The novel opens with Tim Jamieson taking a chance and hitch hiking after losing his job as a police officer, only to find himself in the small town of DuPray. His journey stalls and he takes on the job of Night Knocker for the small little town. For a while I wondered what this had to do with the main plot, but before too long we switch to Luke, a genius child with a small parlour trick gift for telekenesis. That small gift however is enough to get him noticed and he's kidnapped in the middle of the night, his parents killed. He finds himself in the Institute, with a handful of other kids with similar powers. Those in the Front Half endure tests and shots, but they all know it's better than what happens in the Back Half. Yet it is the Back Half that they are all destined for in fairly short order.

This is a book that has taken me a long time to read, despite being relatively short for a King novel - just shy of 600 pages instead of well over a thousand. A lot of the horror is in the nitty gritty details of the children's lives. The tests and abuses and humiliations heaped upon them, even as those who behave earn tokens and those who don't endure punishments. The Institute itself is brought to life with it's bleakness and often petty cruelty. It's a slow build, where the tension is built throughout the novel as the cruelties ramp up and the stakes - always high - become more visible and tangible.

It's fairly tame for a King novel, yet it's disturbing in a creepy, realistic way rather than body horror and massacres. It's more of a YA novel than some other King novels I've read, yet it's also horrifying on a psychological level. He brings the tortures and abuses to live, even as the adults perpetrating the horror continue to justify their actions all the way to the very end.

All in all, a solid success for King here and one that reminds me how much I enjoy some - if not all - of his work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Murder, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, and Suicide

Minor: Terminal illness

jurassicspark's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Child abuse

Moderate: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Trafficking, Murder, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Torture, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol and Blood

farrington's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, Confinement, and Physical abuse