The Institute by Stephen King

**Audiobook Warning**

So, we’ve got telekinetic kids, a small town cop (actually, two) who is more than meets the eye, shadowy agents, numerous references to Maine and a Scooby Doo ending. Yes, people, we are in Stephen King territory. To be fair, apart from the first two books in the Dark Tower series (loved book one, not so much book two), this is my first foray into one of his books in over twenty years. Like most of you, I loved the classics, but I drifted away somewhere in the 90s. I saw this audiobook in my library, and thought it sounded pretty good. Which I guess it was. The plot revolves around a hyper-intelligent 12-year old who gets kidnapped and taken by a dodgy government organisation where he is the subject of brutal experiments. Along the way he meets a ragtag group of misfits that help him escape and so forth. Here’s my thoughts on the audiobook:

• Characters – I liked the two leads. There’s the “socially awkward” junior genius (Luke) who’s smarter than the rest of the cast put together, and manages to plot his escape without making it look too easy. The ex-cop turned security guard was also likeable and one could feel some sympathy for his plight. Most of the bad guys were mere little more than stereotypes, but the director of the titular Institute was quite delightful in a panto villain fashion.
• The Plot – Raise your hand if you’ve heard this one before. It’s quite similar to King’s earlier novel Firestarter (which I heartily recommend), but less exciting. The first half of the book, which was set in the Institute, was okay at best, the scene where Luke escapes is really well done (Stephen King can actually write) and the first ending, set in a small town in South Carolina, is great. Then there’s the dreaded second ending, where the big bad guy comes and reveals all. I’ve heard from fellow nerds about King tying all his books into one big multiverse, and this is the first time I’ve spotted it. In that sense it was interesting, but it was more book-dropping (not by me) than a cohesive giant plot.
• Urban Dictionary – When I first started reading SK, I liked how he threw in the odd idiom here and there that made me chuckle. Maybe this was an audiobook thing (more later), but I felt like he went overboard, trotting out turns of phrase far too often. I’m Irish, and we speak idiomatically almost as a rule, but this felt like SK was trying to impress us with his knowledge of slang. I just felt like it broke the flow of the story.
• Narration – I liked the narrator for the most part. His pacing was good, you could distinguish the characters easily without a need for peaking at names and he hit the humorous moments well. Except…it was like he delighted in reading out the constant barrage of cliches, like someone trying really hard to be funny. I would like to hear him read something else, just for comparison.

Verdict

Not one of the classics, but certainly not one of the author’s worst.