Steve Rubin’s Reviews > The Institute > Status Update

King's gift as a novelist has always been his ability to make the surreal believable--and in the process, scare the hell out of his readers! Unfortunately, this is not the case in The Institute, his latest. As a result my empathy for the characters (children mostly), in spite of their horrendous difficulties, did not materialize. It's a quick read, but does not rise to the level of his earlier, better books.