Good afternoon, House of Madness captives:
Oh, Mr. King, how I do love thee. Over the years I've read tales of vampirism, killer clowns, possessed cars, aliens, and just about every fear you could ever muster imaginable. He writes with such ease, that you start off with a promise to yourself of only reading 10 pages before bed, to realizing it's 3a.m. and that presentation you have in the morning probably isn't going to go so well barring 33 cups of coffee, and perhaps even some stronger substances you can't simply pick up at your local pharmacy. Only Stephen King could write a novel, not a short story, but a fucking novel about a woman getting handcuffed to her bed with no help in sight, and keep it enthralling for hundreds of pages. He's simply the master, and I've yet to read anything he's slung my way and walk away disappointed. "The Institute" was no exception.
Luke Ellis isn't your run-of-the-mill 12 year old straight A student. As others study, cram, and cogitate, Luke simply 'gets it', and everything academical comes with ease. He also has a weird sort of trick, or power in his arsenal which nobody knows about; sometimes just by concentrating on something, he can move it with his mind without lifting the slightest of a finger. I bet he'd be fun at parties. Luke is scheduled for a meeting in Boston in order to do some testing and see if he is indeed brilliant enough to be a child prodigy, and attend college before he's old enough to work at Walgreens or drive anything with more mechanical complexity than a bicycle. One night, intruders barge into Luke's house, murder his parents (unbeknownst to him), and kidnap Luke all while he's under the influence of chloroform, none the wiser to the happenstance until he wakes up in his room, yet it's not his room at the same time.
Luke has woken up inside a place known as 'The Institute', where children occupy their individual rooms reminding them of home, in an attempt of keeping them under some form of sanity. The Institute is locked down tighter than Mother Theresa's.........social security number, and although there's no escape, there's also internal free reign to go about and do whatever you like. Until it comes time for testing of course; then the children must behave and participate for fear of reprisal in the form of tortuous beatings, drownings, or worse than their big brains can even fathom. Good behaviour rewards the cooperator with tokens which can be used at vending machines offering anything from sweets and apples to cigarettes and booze. Sounds like the perfect place for Rob Lowe as a kid if you ask me.
As Luke desperately tries to find a way out, and escape the clutches of this evil corporation which has rendered him so hopeless, he also must find a way to put an end to all of this madness and ensure these horrors never come to light for another child ever again. If escape doesn't seem impossible enough, Luke must also try and figure out just how deep this operation goes, as there's no way this is a stand-alone institute working under the anonymity of a single roof. As Luke tries to devise a plan with his newfound friends and peers, he not only has to decide who he can trust on the inside, but also who his allies might or might not be in the outside world if he manages to make it that far. Luke is going to need plenty of help, and every ounce of brilliance locked up in the brain that's responsible for bringing him here, and just like the adults in "The Institute", time isn't on his side.
Madness Meter: 8.4/10
NB
