Welcome to Randolph Reads, where Randolph faculty and staff share what we're reading! This month, Professor Crystal Howell recommends Stephen King's 2019 thriller The Institute. Check it out:
I love a book that leaves me spooked. Gore? No, thanks. Axe murderers and cleaver-wielding villains do nothing for me, but squeaky floors and figures that move in the shadows? Yes, please. I like to be so frightened by a book that I find it difficult to turn off the lights and walk through my own house after dark. I’m also not a snob when it comes to reading for fun, so when the child’s silhouette on the cover of the newest Stephen King book caught my eye, I didn’t hesitate to add it to my audiobook queue. The Institute (2019), however, delivered a very different sort of fright than I bargained for.
The titular Institute, the reader soon finds, is some sort of quasi-governmental laboratory where the staff—a mix of retired military operatives, doctors, and scientists—conduct strange, painful experiments to harness the powers of children with innate telekinetic and telepathic powers. Twelve-year-old genius Luke Ellis awakens to find himself a prisoner of the Institute, and the novel moves quickly from there. Like many King novels, the plot has some twists and turns but zips along. I found myself increasing the pace of the audiobook—1.25x, 1.5x, finally 2x normal speed—as I raced toward the conclusion. By the time I finished, I was scared but not in the monsters-under-the-bed way I had anticipated. The Institute’s frights are much more real than the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel or the thing that lives in the sewers of Derry. In The Institute, King asks how far we are willing to go for safety. For peace. For our way of life. Are we willing to take children from their parents? Imprison them? Subject them to inhumane conditions? Is the greater good worth this sort of sacrifice? Can our individual and collective souls be washed clean of such stains? The Institute gives U.S. readers no quarter as King demonstrates how popular fiction can shine light on serious political and humanitarian issues such as the children’s camps at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Institute won’t leave you looking over your shoulder for ghosts and ghouls, but you may find yourself afraid to look the mirror for too long after reading.
0 Comments.