The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

Melissa and I are currently reading and will be discussing The Institute by Stephen King. Anyone is welcome to join us. Please use spoiler tags as needed! We are all at different points in the book and you can definitely spoiler something in this one.



In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.

I am already at 62% and I'm loving it. I'm having a hard time putting it down. (view spoiler)[ I am so worried for Luke and Avery! Luke is on the train and the Institute people know it and have people looking for him. They have just decided to make Avery "pay" for lying by dunking him in the tank. I don't want that poor little guy to go through that! I'm so upset with that girl for tattling on him to get what she wanted. Grr... (hide spoiler)]

I read this as my first book of 2020! Loved it, following this thread so I can discuss when you's are done!! :)

Excellent! Welcome, Kate. :)

I'm up to chapter 16 (71%) (view spoiler)[ Poor Avery! They dunked him until he lost consciousness. How terrifying that must have been. :( He seems stronger and more controlled since he came out. I know that he said the tank seemed to have increased his abilities, but I'm thinking more along the lines of personal growth and maturity. He seems calmer and maybe more driven. Nothing the institute would want!

It seems like the kids have found a way toward together to make themselves stronger and healthier as well. I was so happy to see that. They may have a chance to keep themselves together until they all escape. It also seems that they have a plan coming together. I can't wait to see what it is!

Luke is in a lot of danger... I'm sure he has at least a couple of adults who want to help him, but the team doesn't seem to care about collateral damage so they had better start believing soon. (hide spoiler)]

This is SO good. I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts on it too. :)

87% - (8) (view spoiler)[ oh, it's coming down to it now! That was quite the shoot out. I had to laugh at Dr. Ellis repeatedly saying he was there in protest. Ugh, that guy.

What's going on with the dream - phones getting bigger, can you hear me in different languages... Do you think they are reaching out to others around the world? The group or their reach keeps getting bigger?

Luke just said he's going to "pick up the pieces" and indicated that he was buying his friends time. I wonder if he's trying to buy them time to save themselves and he's going to clean up their mess or just pick them up??

I'm just brainstorming where this can go. I have so many ideas, but they're probably all wrong. lol (hide spoiler)]

I probably won't have time to read any more until Sunday, but I expect I'll finish it then. Hope you were able to get started, Melissa!

I finished this book this morning. I was disappointed that it took so long to get to the good parts, but the book ultimately was very good. I probably won't ever read it again, but I do think it needs to be a movie.

Oh, that's interesting, Pamela. The book grabbed me right away. I'm still at 87%, but am planning to finish today. I'm so curious to see how it ends. Often people complain about King's endings, but it sounds like you had the opposite experience with this one.

Just dropping in, I read this last year and gave it five stars. This was only my second King book and I read this so quickly. I just couldn't stop. I had many of the same feeling as you Kristie but I felt like I could see everything happening. It gave me Stranger Things vibes but I felt it was done better.

I heard that from someone else too, Chelsea. I've never seen Stranger Things, so I don't get that.

I finished yesterday and I loved it. I knew the basics of how it was going to end based on a few of the things that were said (and I've read a lot of King, lol).

(view spoiler)[ I was sad that Avery died. I liked that kid. I guess he had to though because his powers were so strong.

I thought the reasoning for the Institutes was weak. First, you don't really know what these people are going to do years in the future. Second, if you are that concerned and you have that much time available, why don't you just have a bunch of assassins who can make it look like an accident? I mean, no one would put it together since they are mostly unknown random people at the time you are killing them. It would be less hassle, less people, less cost to do it that way. (hide spoiler)]