From an author's point-of-view, what grabbed me early on was Stephen King's protagonist. The story starts off introducing Luke, a prodigy child of about twelve years, getting kidnapped while his parents are murdered. Seriously? How can you not be rooting for the kid after that?
King's story structure is more polished than some previous novels. Take Black House for example, I could be confused, but I'm pretty sure that's the novel where the reader is taken on a flying eyeball journey around the countryside for the first fifty pages before the story begins--not so with The Institute. This novel dives off the deep end as soon as the Luke character is introduced.
Prior to that, the reader follows the wanderings of Tim as he haphazardly makes his way from the west coast of Florida to the small Georgia town of DuPray. This part of the story reminded me of Dan Torrance's wanderings in Doctor Sleep. (Thank god that part was cut from the movie.)
All-in-all, The Institute was a gripping, well paced adventure that every Stephen King constant reader will enjoy.
King's story structure is more polished than some previous novels. Take Black House for example, I could be confused, but I'm pretty sure that's the novel where the reader is taken on a flying eyeball journey around the countryside for the first fifty pages before the story begins--not so with The Institute. This novel dives off the deep end as soon as the Luke character is introduced.
Prior to that, the reader follows the wanderings of Tim as he haphazardly makes his way from the west coast of Florida to the small Georgia town of DuPray. This part of the story reminded me of Dan Torrance's wanderings in Doctor Sleep. (Thank god that part was cut from the movie.)
All-in-all, The Institute was a gripping, well paced adventure that every Stephen King constant reader will enjoy.