The Institute by Stephen King

I have re-adopted / re-kindled the reading resolution this year. I am not a fast reader so 12 books in a year (i.e. one book each month) looks both reasonable and not overtly ambitious considering that I more often than not struggle for time. What helped was that my daughter's exams are around the corner so her Kindle was free which I borrowed and kept in my handbag. So, every free time, no matter how short, has kind of become reading time. I was able to wrap up my first book yesterday. It took a couple of days over a month but that's okay as I might be able to make up few days if I pick up some shorter book.

The reason it took over a month was two-fold. First, I was not able to decide which book to read. I have quite a few unread books with me but I wanted to pick up something which I could recommend to my daughter to read after her exams. Something that meets her interests but is one level above from what she has been reading off late. Now, Science Fiction or Scientific Thrillers (I hope I mentioned the right category where this book falls into) is not my cup of tea but that's my daughters favourite genre. So, I searched the most well-known author of the genre and tried to select a book which might be of interest to her and also has really nice reviews on Goodreads. Second, since it was not my preferred genre, I had a really sluggish start. I dragged the book initially but took over it seriously only once I had hit February.

Now coming to the book... As I already mentioned the start was sluggish. I found the book boring in the beginning. It picked up my interest only after the entry of Luke Ellis, the lead protagonist, which happened well after a quarter of the book. But, did it pick my interest or what? The book thereafter was almost un-put-downable, if that is even a word. The characters were well-etched (although - spoiler alert - I wondered if Luke is such a brilliant child prodigy then why is his talent not any useful or displayed during his stay in the Institute but people may argue that there is some explanation to that in the book) and you almost are able to form a mental picture of how they might look like. The language is crisp, smooth and simple enough to keep you hooked. There are swear words used freely (and that too by 12 year olds) but that is not any problem for the adult readers although that is the only one thing which is making me indecisive about letting my 13-year old read the book. Not that 13-year olds nowadays are not aware of these words. Last, I was slightly disappointed with the end, especially the climax which let me slightly down. It was quite dramatic but just not the kind I would have liked. Then again, it's my personal view totally. In the reviews, people had mentioned that the plot is similar to the Netflix series "Stranger Things" but I cannot comment on that since I have not seen the series myself.

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