The Institute by Stephen King

The Institute by Stephen King

SUMMARY

In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

MY  REVIEW

Best horror book for 2019.

Not your usual thriller/ horror type of books by Stephen King. This book is a paranormal/sciencefiction book.

It may remind you the series Stranger Things with the gifted children.
Children who face evil...fight evil...win against evil.

what you did for yourself was what gave you the power.

Children with supernatural powers endure horrible tests and bizarre experiments by ruthless adults at the Institute.
Many people for you to hate there....

working in a place like this destroyed your moral compass

On the other hand the kids. Luke Ellis is one of them. Abducted and imprisoned by a group of adults who think that if they use these children, they will save the world. Luke is determined to understand what they do there and stop them.

you had to have been imprisoned to fully understand what freedom was.

Stephen King has written some awesome books with kids as protagonists (shine, stand by me, even carrie etc). And this book is not an exception. Obviously this is a writer that understands children and their deepest fears. He knows how to play with his words and analyse their emotions. And you actually believe him. You feel what these children feel.

It is a fast-paced book.
Engaging.
Page-turning.
Smart-written .
Dark.
Twisty.
Disturbing.

It may make you sad and angry.

Don’t say things that invite sorrow

I loved the ending and the way it was delivered. Nothing was rushed and unexplained.

OveraIl a very satisfying experience.

this life we think we’re living isn’t real. It’s just a shadow play, and I for one will be glad when the lights go out on it. In the dark, all the shadows disappear.

October 2020 - Halloween month - Stephen King

October = Halloween month

Halloween month = Horror books

Best horror books = Stephen King's novels

CONCLUSION: READ ANYTHING BY STEPHEN KING!!!

Simple maths really...

Midnight Lily by Mia Sheridan

SUMMARY

Holden Scott is the prince of professional football. At least he was before he lost it all... or more to the point, before he threw it all away. Now he's out of a job, out of the public's good graces, and perhaps just a little out of his mind. So when a friend offers up his remote lodge in the wilds of Colorado, giving Holden some time away to get his life back on track, he can hardly say no. The last thing he expects is to see a beautiful girl in the woods—one wearing a white, lace dress who appears in the moonlight, and leaves no footprints behind. Is she a dream? A ghost? A product of his muddled imagination? Or something entirely different?

Midnight Lily is the haunting love story of two lost souls reaching for each other in the dark. A tale of healing, acceptance, and the worlds we create to protect our own hearts. It is a story of being lost, of being found, and of being in the place between.

MY REVIEW

Wow!

Happily ever after doesn't mean a lifetime of perfection. I don't think anyone believes that happily ever after means there are no unhappy days, even unhappy years. It means loving forever, despite all the many reasons it's easier not to.

There is this movie with Robin Williams, "What dreams may come". You most likely remember it. Chris loses his children, his life and suddenly he is in heaven and he is not happy because his wife is somehow in hell, lost in her crazy mind. And he tries to find her, he keeps looking for her because heaven without his only love equals personal hell. He knows that she exists, he knows that she is real and she needs his help because he simply believes this fact:
What's true in our minds is true, whether some people know it or not.
And he finds her.

You may ask, 'why is this relevant to this book?'

Well, this book is not what you think it is. This book is basically a journey to the human mind.

Yes, it is romance.
Yes, it talks about pure love and commitment.
Yes, it is about two people who have fallen in love.
Yes, there is happily ever after.

But nothing is what is seems.
But nobody is who you think he/she is.
But there are twists and turns that they may make you gasp "WTF" many times.

When the main male character from the book says to Lily:
If you go away, then I'll come and find you, even if it means I have to get lost for a while, too ,
I think I was crying harder than the first time I watched the Robin Williams' movie and there was this scene when he finds his broken wife and tells her: Annie, I'm here babe, I still exist.

Please, be open-minded when you start this book! 

Seek by Mia Sheridan

SUMMARY

Wealthy socialite Olivia Barton never imagined her fiancé would disappear on what was supposed to be a routine business trip. She's even more heartbroken and confused when a hired private investigator tracks him half a world away, to a seaside town in Colombia. But the country has recently been ravaged by a massive earthquake and deadly tsunami, shutting down outside communication and making travel all but impossible. Still, Olivia is determined to make it to Colombia to find the answers she so desperately seeks. What she needs is a guide—a mercenary.

The man named Thomas arrives in shadows, an unmistakable air of danger about him, promising to help lead her through the ruined, crime-infested country. But when Thomas and Olivia find themselves fighting an undeniable attraction, danger takes on a whole new meaning. Then again, in the lush jungles of South America, all the rules are different and Thomas and Olivia are about to discover that sometimes the thing you seek, isn't necessarily the thing you find.

MY REVIEW

"Have you ever been in love?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. I'm assuming you have a heart under all that...muscle mass?"
"Love makes you weak."

Tomas is 'un salvador', a saviour, BUT he is also an opportunist.
Livvy is 'sunshine', warm and bright, BUT she is also a tough cookie.

They will meet, when Livvy decides to visit the ruined, most dangerous part of Colombia in order to find out what happened to her missing fiance. Tomas will be her guide.

Together they will live a clean adventure. They will walk the most unsafe trails, avoid drug dealers, run from murderers, avenge ravaged girls, visit devastated villages and pretend to be husband and wife.

Tomas will soften and let himself be loved.
Livvy will toughen up and give herself a night to remember.

"Oh, God, Livvy. I can't wait much longer. I've already waited too fucking long."
"Then don't."

Until Livvy is led to her final destination and she finds out:
-what happened to her fiance
-what is fake and what is real
-who is fake and who tells the truth

Another book that I absolutely loved by Mia Sheridan! It has the right and balanced amount of adventure and romance and enough twists to make your head spin.