The Institute

by Stephen King · 2019

In Stephen King’s pulse‑pounding thriller, twelve‑year‑year‑old Luke Ellis is ripped from his quiet Minneapolis home when masked intruders murder his parents and whisk him away in a black SUV. He awakens in a stark, windowless room at a place called the Institute, where other children—Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and the precocious ten‑year‑old Avery—are confined, each possessing uncanny abilities like telekinesis or telepathy. The Institute is divided into a “Front Half,” where the gifted are forced to hone their powers under the cold, ruthless watch of Director Mrs. Sigsby, and a mysterious “Back Half” where those who rebel simply vanish. As the children endure brutal punishments and barter for tokens to survive, Luke discovers that escape is deemed impossible. Yet his desperate drive to free himself and the others fuels a tense, high‑stakes battle against a sinister institution that will stop at nothing to harvest their extraordinary gifts.