Redheaded Reviews: The Institute by Stephen King

Luke Ellis is a special twelve-year-old boy in that he is really smart and has now outgrown the school his parents have sent him to. Now he's ready for college. M.I.T. and Emerson are his choices. But his family lives in Minneapolis. The school's trust has found a way to relocate to Massacuttes and find them jobs. Luke could also do something else. He was able to rattle the plates in the house when he got upset or move the pizza pan off the table when he got excited. One night after he'd taken the SATs a group of people broke into his house and killed his parents and took him to The Institute in the Maine woods.

When he wakes up it's to a room that looks exactly like his room at home. He walks out to the hallway and meets an African American girl named Kalisha who tells him he can call her Sha if he wants but to never call her sport because that's what they call her. She's TP pos or Telepathic positive. He tells her he's a TK or a Telekinetic but he doesn't know if he's a pos or not. She says can you do anything without trying? He says no, he does it by accident. And she says he's pink. The pink's they try to bring out the opposite ability.

They do this by giving you shots to hopefully get you to see dots. The shots have different reactions to you. They can itch, give you a fever, or choke you. They also stick a rectal thermometer up their buts which is quite painful. They also dunk them in the tank to bring about the Statsi Lights that would indicate a second ability.

The cafeteria has wonderful food and there are machines where you can use the tokens you earn for being good to buy candy, but also cigarettes and booze, but only enough booze to get buzzed. There's a playground with lots of equipment to play on such a trampoline and a basketball court. There are also games to play such as chess.

Some of the other kids are Nick, a TK pos who refuses to cooperate and fights them every step of the way and winds up with black eyes and split lips. George, a TK pos, believes in getting along to survive. Iris who is a bit high strung but sweet. Avery, little kid who is very strong TP comes in and Kalisha wants Luke to look after him. Helen comes in next. She's a punk rock girl with dyed hair and an attitude to match.

They make up the Front Half of the Institute. But there's a Back Half and then there's a Back Half to the Back Half. Eventually, you leave the Front Half and go to the Back Half where you watch movies that give you headaches. The movies are about certain people and their lives. Once you've worn yourself out in the Back Half you go to the Back Half Back Half never to be seen again.

When Kalisha gets sent to the Back Half and sends the information about it to Avery to tell Luke she also tells him to plan an escape. Luke is the smartest one of them there and if anyone can do it it's him. So Luke makes plans to escape. Will he make it? And what will happen to the others? Mrs. Sigby and Stackhouse who run the place have their own agenda.

The government really did experiments on people with TP and TK in the 1950s and 1960s. They gave them LSD to help them with their "powers". I think King got his idea for his book on those experiments. This being a Stephen King book, not everyone gets out alive, which will break your heart because you get attached to the characters. Avery is an adorable kid you want to protect and Luke is someone you see as being wasted in there. King has created a world that could very well exist. It's a scary world filled with all sorts of possibilities. This was an amazing book filled with plenty of thrills and chills and heartbreak. If I could give it more than five stars I would, since I can't I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

Between midnight and four, everyone should have permission to speak freely.

-Stephen King (The Institute p 31)

It came to him that life was basically one lone SAT test and instead of four or five choices, you got dozens. Including shit like some of the time and maybe so, maybe not.

-Stephen King (The Institute p 56)

Karl Marx had called religion the opiate of the people, but Stackhouse begged to differ. He thought Lucky Strikes and Boone’s Farm (greatly favored by their female guests) did the job quite nicely.

-Stephen King (The Institute p 238)

It came to him, with the force of a revelation, that you had to have been imprisoned to fully understand what freedom was.