The Institute: A Novel
Written by Stephen King
Narrated by Santino Fontana
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King whose “storytelling transcends genre” (Newsday) comes “another winner: creepy and touching and horrifyingly believable” (The Boston Globe) about a group of kids confronting evil.
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 “first-rate entertainment that has something important to say. We all need to listen” (The Washington Post).
Stephen King
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
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Reviews for The Institute
3,974 ratings237 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm looking forward to a potential sequel. Another excellent work by the King. You gotta love the not so subtle swipes at Trump!
4 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a remarkable story! It began slow, but then it all began to make sense. It is not until 3/4ths of the way, that you begin to hear the connection of the characters in the beginning, to those throughout most of the story. I’d want to listen to it again!!!!❤️❤️?
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Holy man you can almost feel those children's little hearts breaking and swelling with love and fear and bravery.
The end1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brilliantly read and performed
5 stars, 2 thumbs up, love it1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A little repetitive at times and a bit lengthy, but overall a good one. ?
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great story! Once you start stop is not an option! Full of child heroes and monstrous people, miracles in the middle of horrible situations.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Steven King at his best! This book is extremely intense and tortuous. Definitely worth your time.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hooked from start to finish!
I would recommend this to anyone1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Santino is the perfect narrator for this story; his voice, combined with the novel itself, creates an absolutely captivating adventure. I normally only listen to my audio books while I'm traveling, but I've been listening to this one at home and at work as well ? Keep up the great work, Stephen, and the reviews bashing Santino are absolutely baseless.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It just is great. I usually hate his endings but there’s a few I love and this is one of them. Bravo Mr. King, Bravo
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The audiobook is excellent, I loved from begging to end. In the other hand the story is so freacking twisted and sort of creepy, I didn't like it that much but I have to admit that Stephen King is a great writer, his style is pretty engaging. Will read something else from the author.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Good story with a lack luster conclusion, premise was more interesting then execution
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finished on oct 10 2019. It wasnt as expected.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There was a LOT of buildup with repetitive days leading up to about one minute of interesting action. And then a one minute contemplative idea to voice around your head awhile. The sad part just wasn’t super sad. The lisping man seemed to only be there to make fun of people who lisp(?!) I had just finished elevation and loved it. Despite most people who love king telling me they hated it. So tried this story. They love it and it was MEH to me. I’ll give him another shot with something super universally loved by his fans before I abandon him as an author
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It’s not great Stephen King, but it is GOOD Stephen King. A pleasurable read and a few times in the story, King played some of his “greatest hits.”
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Perfectly written and perfectly read! A very good story that keeps you hooked until the end.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed this book and I thought the reader, Santino Fontana, was exceptional.
I loved the start of the book where a random man delays taking a flight. The man is not in a hurry and he meanders around until he stays in a one horse town doing a job he is grossly over qualfied to do. For me, that is the best part of the book. We are then wafted over to The Institute and while it is clearly a vitally important part of the story, it started to drag and was in danger of losing focus.
Once we left The Institute again, the story picked up again and by reasons of circularity, we ended up back at the one horse town.
There, I've said I liked the book and I have given nothing away, no spoilers. It's a long story and there are attempts in the book to justify the horrible things that were done in The Institute but author King comes out on the side of right, in the end, in my opinion.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pretty standard Stephen King stuff. Nothing great or memorable but it passes the time on long trips. 3/5
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Another home run by King! Some of his books are unnecessarily long and drawn out, but this one seemed to justify every minute it took to complete the book. Great narrator, too.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked the words and the order they were in
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved it! Couldn’t stop listening. Luke and his adventure with the institute.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5X-Men meets Stranger things!! Great read!! Words words words words
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Frightening concept springs out of King's mind...or it actually happening?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5omg I loved this book its must if you like mystery.its not a horror but will keep you puzzled. An you will fall in love with Avery lol
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was great but not typical Stephen king. Kept me hooked though
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5great storyline, keeps you wanting more! there are a lot of characters which i found a bit confusing at times though.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A child's triumph after almost being broken by the world will always be a heart-grabbing story. Elements of the story were not original, but this is overlooked by Stephen's signature natural convo between his characters.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing!!! This needs to be turned into a movie or a show.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I LOVED IT, from beginning to end!
i wish i hadn't read it so i can read it again ! - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Awesome Book!! Could not put it down after starting it.