At this point, people are either going to buy The Institute or they’re not. Most probably had their mind made up as soon as they knew a new book by Uncle Stevie was on its way. Personally, I pre-order anything by SK months in advance and hope it will get here on release day.

This is a good one. Not great, but good. The plot is interesting and pulls you in quick. There are some fairly one dimensional characters, including one of the main protagonists, but King drops them into exciting enough situations to hold our attention thoroughly. The sum of the dastardly plan is greater than its’ antagonists, which is a bit disappointing coming from the man who has dreamed up some of the best villains of the last 50 years.

King’s magic, which is very much on display here, lies in his ability to tell a story with some flat characters and some drags in the action, and still turn in a page-turner. Speaking mainly for myself, the reader feels a compulsion to barrel through and find out what’s going to happen before we run out of pages. Also, anytime King writes kids, I’m there for it.

For all the King-can’t-write-an-ending proponents (and this was one of the better meta/running gags in It 2) the end of this satisfies. It mainly wraps itself up leaving just enough of an opening to make the reader wonder what the morally right thing to do would be. The characters make a decision based on some very concrete reasoning, but there is certainly still room for ambiguity and what-if-ism.

All the same, I enjoyed the week I spent in the woods of Maine (not my first trip, not my last) and DuPray, SC. I enjoyed seeing some new faces and finding what they might do in an extraordinary situation. Until next time constant reader.