Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Institute by Stephen King

53 reviews

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

mo_bees's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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 abuse, Medical trauma, Confinement, Child death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Medical content

bookishchaos's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Eerily similar to Stranger Things, but still a good story. About 100 pages too long tho. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, and Confinement

Minor: Gun violence

koberreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

 

 

Stephen King... You son of a gun. 

King got me good damn it. Got me so good 

 

Short review: 

(This is a good novel about children, although mentions sex and short scenes of adults about to do sex, no actual sex happens even the underage sex. I prefer horror/adventure novels of his without the abrupt, almost unbearably disturbing sex. So read this if you don't like those scenes as well.) 

 

The book description says it all but I don't think all the mystery and unexpectedness is gone just because you read it. I don't know truly shit what's gonna happen here while I read it. And each character especially the children has unique voices of their own. It amazes me how he can create characters that are literally gaps away from his actual age. 

 

Read it and get enriched by it 

 

 

Long review: 

To be frank, this is the first novel I read by Stephen King but the work that I read him first was his memoir “On Writing” and I loved it and loved Stephen King for writing such, I felt he is the most humane unexpectedly one of them, not only creative but loving and hardworking man, I ever read about (I did expect much because I thought he is pretty odd or even evil to write about “darkness” of human nature and I thought he just writes to sell “fear”. It is more than that 

 

This novel though is not horror but brings more of what Stephen King is. A person who writes not just to sell stuff, get money or get famous but rather to enrich one life and to see things from a different perspective through the characters 

 

 

Spoiler

I like the last part. Even though it explains some unexpected concepts.. it still rings true.. no one can predict the future exactly or know that it will happen with certainty... there are too many variables. But it does make me question still if the precog can predict the future. Made me feel like Luke, knows the certainty of the math but still doubts himself regardless. Stephen King is smarter than he has ever shown himself in public or his writings. And yes I am too attached to Kalisha and I am not even a white boy who has an attraction to the opposite skin colour. I am Asian and in my eyes Kailsha is both awesome, brave, beautiful and so precious. I wished she chose Luke.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

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

nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Gaslighting, Grief, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Slavery

justin_depresso'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