The Institute by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been a while since I went gaga over a new King novel.

My favorites have always been his earlier stuff, but I've never actually disliked any of his new stuff, so there's always that. :)

And then this one comes around, hooking me from the very start, and managing to improve upon Firestarter, going the full YA dystopian route while also making me so invested that I wanted to scream.

This is Supreme King. I LIKE these kids. I love the story! And I especially love the twist that makes it all so much deeper, relevant, and twists the knife in our modern society.

It's not just horrible in how it tells us that thousands of kids remain missing every year. It's not just horrible how desensitization can affect us all. It's not even the whole justification s**t we've surrounded ourselves with since before our children could walk. Or even before we could walk.

It's all of it. And more. Because these children could be our children. Ignore the TK stuff. I'm talking about the true danger of desensitization. It's so easy to add one more thing. And another. And another.

The adults were the obvious villains, and examples, of course, but what really got me was the CHILDREN. It's so easy to turn them all into those in Gorky Park.

*shiver*

I am very, very happy to see King being this great again. :)


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