The Institute

Conflicted rating. The Institute opens with the adult male Tim, following his journey to a backwater American town for the first 30+ pages. Then the story cuts away to the equally intriguing (but in a different manner) story of 12 year-old genius Luke, who then becomes the novel's protagonist as he is taken to the eponymous Institute. Whilst their stories do collide in the novel's third act, I felt like much of this winding book amounted to not a lot - I'm not sure what King is saying politically about America (in particular Trump voters, and gun laws), and the Stranger Things sci-fi vibe was thrilling at parts but oh so very long. The description was rich, but I couldn't understand why Luke's intelligence was correlated to him being the one to “unleash hell” when there was such an interesting supporting cast - James Avery, Nick, Kalisha, Maureen - helping him. I definitely plan on reading more Stephen King novels, but perhaps this was pitched towards an older, or less SF-experienced audience.