I’ve read enough Stephen King books to say that most of them aren’t silly like most horror books are. Most of King's horror does not involve monsters or vampires; his books have a premise that I can swallow as long as I can accept, just for the sake of the story, a bit of the supernatural.

THE INSTITUTE is one such book. If you can accept that there are children all over the world with telekinetic and telepathic powers, then you can enjoy it and won’t think it’s silly.

Luke is 12 years old. He has slight telekinetic powers, but that is enough for him to be kidnapped, his parents murdered. He is brought to the Institute (in Maine, of course), where children with telekinetic and telepathic powers are put through horrendous ordeals to enhance their powers.

Because stories about children usually bore me, I admit that my favorite parts of this book involve adults, the nice ones. And there are some, although most of them are taking advantage of and discarding the lives of these children. The good guys are in a small town in South Carolina, and the best one is Tim.

Although my favorite Stephen King novel is still 11/22/63, THE INSTITUTE is good and I enjoyed it, although it would have been better without the political comments.