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A review by lewis666
The Institute by Stephen King

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

My fourth Stephen King book officially finished! And it was such a great read. Admittedly a bit of a slow start with what would become for me, too many characters to really keep track of, which leaves things challenging to follow if a lot is going on at one time. You can tell King sometimes borrows from the best of his other books, which is fine. Besides that I have no complaints! 

The main characters are likable and emotionally investing and one or two moments genuinely made me tear up. No spoilers but one part unexpectedly caught me off guard when Luke takes a moment in a specific area, to just breathe and take it all in as he stares up at the stars and begins to cry. I'm not sure why that hit me so hard, but damn it really did. 

Protagonists easy to root for, antagonists easy to hate, elements of horror sprinkled throughout to unsettle you, King really has a charm about him in his writing even though he's known for horror. Definitely worth a read if you're a fan, I'm yet to read more of his work as again, this is only my fourth, but I'd say his strongest effort in recent years. Really happy I finally checked it out, as it was given to me as a gift a couple years ago.