Happy New Year book friends,
2019 was a great year for reading, and I had a great time doing it!
Here is a late entry for me that I read in November.
My Thoughts
Oh My, I have finally found a new favourite Stephen King since 11.22.63
This one came with a slow start, I couldn’t really see where it was heading, and then a few chapters later, BAM I was invested!
This book follows 12 year old Luke Ellis, who is a normal boy, well except for the fact that he can move things with his mind, but he thinks that is just normal really, it doesn’t happen all the time, just when he’s mad.
Except, you and I both know that it isn’t normal, and so do the people that break into his house one night, kill his parents, kidnap him, and take him to The Institute.
We also meet Tim, an ex Cop, who was on his way to somewhere completely different, until he decides at the last minute to gives up his seat on a packed flight, and then just goes on his merry way. He finds a random old town, and gets a job as a Night Knocker, that he is way overqualified for, but seems to enjoy, and everything in his life seems to be going Hunky-Dory.
Luke has woken up in his bedroom, except is isn’t his, it just looks like it, turns out, that The Institute has a lot of kids just like Luke, and they are subjected to some horrific experiments by the adults in charge.
Do Luke and Tim have a connection? Well it wouldn’t be a SK if people were randomly shoved in his story for no reason would it?
Am I going to tell you what the connection is? OF COURSE NOT YOU FOOLS!!!
If you loved watching shows like Stranger Things, or reading SK’s older books like Firestarter, or even newer books like The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken or Vicious by V E Schwab (personal favourites of mine) then you will LOVE this book!
It reads more like a YA than most of his books, so don’t let the STEPHEN KING thing scare you, if you’ve never read any of his books before, then this would be a great starter for you.
Mr King is not known as The King for nothing, his books are usually huge, and this one is no exception, but if you go in knowing that it is going to be a wild ride, then you are going to have a great time.
🎧🎧
When I knew that Santino Fontana was narrating this one, I just KNEW that I was going to love it, if you’ve already listened to YOU by Caroline Kepnes then you’ll know what I mean (if you haven’t, what are you waiting for, add it to your never ending TBR)
Narration = Perfection
Story = Perfection
Me = Happy
Stephen = KING!
Enjoy
Vicci📚💛✨
About the Book
*Affiliate Link
Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts – telepathy, telekinesis – for concentrated effect.
Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He’s just a regular 12-year-old, except he’s not just smart, he’s super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use….
Far away in a small town in South Carolina, former cop Tim Jamieson has taken a job working for the local Sheriff. He’s basically just walking the beat. But he’s about to take on the biggest case of his career.
Back in the Institute’s downtrodden playground and corridors where posters advertise ‘just another day in paradise’, Luke, his friend Kalisha and the other kids are in no doubt that they are prisoners, not guests. And there is no hope of escape.
But great events can turn on small hinges, and Luke is about to team up with a new, even younger recruit, Avery Dixon, whose ability to read minds is off the scale. While the Institute may want to harness their powers for covert ends, the combined intelligence of Luke and Avery is beyond anything that even those who run the experiments – even the infamous Mrs Sigsby – suspect.
Thrilling, suspenseful, heartbreaking, The Institute is a stunning novel of childhood betrayed and hope regained.
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