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FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Can someone expand on Maureen? I had the impression she was there to help the kids-yet I was taken aback after she left a note for Luke-in the following paragraph he refers to her as a snitch.
Hi Tobydixie918 welcome to the message board. I will leave this for another member to reply to as I haven't yet read this one.
 

MrsSmeej

Token lunatic
Feb 15, 2008
3,123
3,382
Somewhere over the rainbow
Finished Stephen's latest masterpiece - The Institute.
History was being made... I didn't give a hoot.
I was so absorbed in reading Sai King's latest book
I could hardly drag myself away from it to cook.

Now I've got a first world problem; I don't have a clue
What's a fan of Stephen King (like me) supposed to do?
I'm a book-a-holic. Stephen King's my drug of choice.
Now I'm hearing echoes and they're in the Avester's voice.

There's no other author who makes characters so real.
I read lots of novels and most lack the same appeal.
This is what I get for bingeing... Guess I'll have to use
Some lesser distraction to avoid the evening news.
:icon_eek:
 

Spideyman

Uber Member
Jul 10, 2006
46,336
195,472
79
Just north of Duma Key
Finished Stephen's latest masterpiece - The Institute.
History was being made... I didn't give a hoot.
I was so absorbed in reading Sai King's latest book
I could hardly drag myself away from it to cook.

Now I've got a first world problem; I don't have a clue
What's a fan of Stephen King (like me) supposed to do?
I'm a book-a-holic. Stephen King's my drug of choice.
Now I'm hearing echoes and they're in the Avester's voice.

There's no other author who makes characters so real.
I read lots of novels and most lack the same appeal.
This is what I get for bingeing... Guess I'll have to use
Some lesser distraction to avoid the evening news.
:icon_eek:
May I suggest Michael Koryta , esp. Those Who Wish Me Dead.
 

notebookgirl

Well-Known Member
Oct 8, 2013
858
4,940
Somewhere over the Rainbow
In case you missed it, there is a post in the News announcing Stephen's next book, The Institute, coming out in September. The cover will be revealed tomorrow so even though the Board is closed, you should be able to get a peek by following the link given in the News post.

Anticipating the next question, the page count is 576 pages. :)

After reading the book, my question is will we hear from the kids again?
 

notebookgirl

Well-Known Member
Oct 8, 2013
858
4,940
Somewhere over the Rainbow
Nothing's planned at the moment but if an idea comes up for him, I'm sure you will.

Cool. I am just thankful he is still writing these great books. It's truly amazing how he captivates readers with the worlds he creates. It seems like he is still having fun doing it too. I know you heard this from millions of super fans, but I just have to add my name to that list and say how I feel right now.
 

Sunlight Gardener

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2013
375
1,273
This was by far my favorite of SK's recent works. Don't get me wrong, Sleeping Beauties and the The Outsider were fairly solid and held my attention but neither actually gripped me and made me feel like I didn't want to put them down. I didn't like Elevation at all, so I have been waiting for a recent work to rope me in and capture me. This one did. I loved every second of it.

Fantastic storytelling and great character development. Felt like a throwback SK book. I couldn't wait to get back to it each day and see where the story went. It didn't disappoint.
 

Klerekast

Human Magpie
Apr 30, 2015
322
2,095
37
The Netherlands
This is definitely a new favourite. This is right up my alley... :cool:


Not even kidding, I've always had a (bit of an unhealthy) obsession with institutes (and trains, so the cover makes it even more perfect!), I'm absolutely sure that I was locked up in an insane asylum in a previous life... Again, not even kidding.


So, about the actual book, I absolutely love it. I've read many reviews that say it's "just another ready-made King book", "the ending is bad", "you don't get to know the kids well enough to feel for them", etc... I disagree. But then again, it probably helps that I haven't read that many of his books yet, and that I'm easily impressed.
For me it's all about atmosphere, and I could picture the described environment(s) right away, and it's perfect. I don't write reviews as I'm bad at them, so this post is basically just a scatterd mess with loose thoughts. Anyway! Some actual thoughts... I'll put them all under a spoiler just to be sure.


I thought it was incredibly cool that Pampus (here in The Netherlands) was also named as one of their locations. I know it's fiction, but I believe this could have been a true story, call me insane if you must. So I keep wondering about Pampus and looking up pictures, just to imagine there could actually be an institute like that hidden there... Not that I would want there to be one of course! :hopelessness:

Everybody seems to love Avery, but sadly I can't say that I do? I get that he is supposed to be the heartmelting little boy who sacrifices himself to save them all, but to be honest I don't feel anything for him. For some reason Iris caught my attention though, I'm not really sure why. I actually worried about her fate quite a lot, I really felt for her.

I absolutely love Tim and Wendy's humane attitude towards Luke and all this. Okay, they didn't believe him at first, but who would (besides me and Annie)? I respected Tim so much when he let Luke yell at Sigsby and physically hurt her when she had the guts to claim that she was in pain. That was SO well-deserved. Also that they said they would just flat out shoot the monsters if they caused trouble instead of reading them their rights. Violence is always ugly, but in this era of crippling political correctness and bureaucracy (especially where I live) it is extremely refreshing to witness this honest, human, no-nonsense attitude.

People say that the book/the ending is predictable, but I didn't feel that way? Again, I am easily impressed and I haven't read a lot of books, so maybe that explains it. But for me it was nerve-wrecking the entire time. I was absolutely sure that the only two people who actually believed Luke, Tim and Wendy, would get shot for instance. I also didn't think Luke would make it...

Fun fact (if anyone cares): The "Hoor je me?" (Dutch) is changed to English in the Dutch version of the book. :nerd: Makes sense of course, since they were all supposed to be foreign languages.

Speaking of translations: I feel cheated. "Avester" is replaced with just "Avery" in the Dutch book. Why? The whole book is filled with English names, do they really think we are too stupid to understand the nuance of this nickname? Also, I really have no idea why, but when they are using the big phone, the part where they "GO." one by one, Nicky's entire part is missing in my book. The heck? I'm not sure if there are more paragraphs missing from the book, but this is one that I noticed...

This book actually haunts me, so I can safely say it's a good book. :cool: