A brilliant twelve-year-old is kidnapped and wakes up in a secret facility for children with special powers
Children held in a secret facility
Luke Ellis is twelve, extremely clever and about to start college early. He also has a small telekinetic ability. One night intruders break into his home in Minneapolis, and he wakes up in a room that looks like his own, but in a hidden facility in the woods of Maine called the Institute, where other children with psychic powers are kept, tested and never allowed to leave.
Who will enjoy it
Stephen King fans and readers who enjoy fast, suspenseful stories about brave kids standing up to powerful adults.
What you will get
A gripping, emotional thriller about friendship and courage among kidnapped children, with King's trademark suspense and a strong sense of good versus evil.
The Institute Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Horror · Psychic powers · Kids · Conspiracy
Length
576 pages · ≈ 17 h
More about this book
The book opens with a seemingly unrelated story: Tim Jamieson, a former police officer, drifts into a small South Carolina town called DuPray and takes a job as a night watchman. Then the focus shifts to Luke. At the Institute he meets other captives, including the sharp, warm Kalisha, the rebellious Nicky, the joking George and the youngest, ten-year-old Avery, who has strong telepathic powers. The children are given injections and tests in the Front Half, rewarded with tokens and punished when they resist.
Children who are moved to the mysterious Back Half never return, and Luke uses his intelligence to find out what happens there and why. The facility is run by the cold, efficient Mrs. Sigsby, and only a kind housekeeper, Maureen, seems willing to help. Luke plans a desperate escape, and eventually his story connects with Tim's in DuPray. Cruelty is present, but King focuses on the courage and friendship of the children and on the moral question of whether terrible acts can be justified for a greater good.
Long but very hard to put down. About 576 pages in the Gallery paperback.
It
Under the Dome
Misery
The Dark Half
The Dead Zone
Carrie
Full Dark, No Stars
The Stand
Bag of Bones
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
The Green Mile
Four Past Midnight