Book Review: The Institute -- Stephen King

First of all, it doesn't really matter what I have to say about Stephen King's novel, The Institute. King is an established author with an established following. Some consider him to be the voice of Modern American horror. This book was destined for the bestseller lists before it was a twinkle in Mr. King's eye.

And I'm a fan. I grew up on Stephen King. His work influenced my own work in that I found a passion to write about, well...horrible things. But here I am, a huge fan of King's early works, that have gone on to become iconic horror movies, and I'm only giving The Institute a 3--okay, 3.5 but not quite a 4.

I like it. It was a fine story. Some reviewers have--and will want to make comparisons to the TV series Stranger Things, but let's face it. Stranger Things is a homage to King's work, so you can't really go about saying, "Hey, he's just trying to ride the coat tails of Stranger Things with this one."

What I am going to do is categorize this story as Mainstream Horror. There are truly better horror stories out there right now with a much harder edge to them. I've reviewed a few. And as mainstream horror that will appeal to the masses, this book is fine. It's about a kid with special powers who gets abducted by a secret government organization, to be referred to as The Institute, then is forced to undergo horrible experimentations in order to be used for global political reasons. There are other kids forced to undergo the same treatment, but our MC Luke has a goal--to find a way out.

I admire King's underlying message here--that kids are our future and we need to trust their capacity to change the world for the better on their own, not use and abuse them because of our own fears. Something like that. It's a great theme.

But too much of the story felt too familiar to me, with King relying on tropes and characterizations that are so common in his older works that here they feel like a recycling of old material. I enjoyed reading it. If you're a sporadic reader of King's work, you might enjoy it too. But I wasn't riveted. Like I mentioned, this horror story with scifi elements is on the mild side of the horror salsa spectrum.

You can find a copy of Stephen King's The Institute pretty much wherever books are sold.

Something to Tweet About!

 

The Chain:Francisco Pizarro is a pilot episode for a historical fiction drama. That's all. That's the tweet. Thank you, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards!

IndieReader Approved! And an Interview to Boot!

I am more than willing to admit that I have yet to master the art of self promotion. I've written three self-published books so far, but haven't submitted them to many book competitions other than Readers Favorite, which is part of the package I opted for through BookBaby. I've invested in a few editorial reviews through Kirkus and IndieReader, and I've been fortunate enough to garner some actual reader reviews that run the gamut between the one ⭐Dull, I don't see the point of this, to the five ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thanks for the original and thought provoking horror series.

But because IndieReader's editorial reviews have ranked a couple of my books as "Indie Author Approved," I got to fill out their author interview questionnaire. Kind of cool! check out the link below:

IR APPROVED AUTHOR DIANE M. JOHNSON: “THERE’S A LEVEL OF VALIDATION THAT COMES FROM BEING ACCEPTED BY A TRADITIONAL PUBLISHER.”

 

Book Review: The Only Good Indians

Make no mistake, this is more than a horror novel with a Native American inspired monster. There is an underlying theme in The Only Good Indians, one that shines a light on what it means to be a Native American trapped in modern America. Trapped by what the white man expects you to be and finding no way out of it, no way off the reservation except to die. Or maybe there is hope. I guess you'll have to read the book to find out.

There is plenty of gut wrenching horror here, and the characters are not always likable, except they're trying. They’re trying to be better than what they were born to be in the eyes of the rest of America. And the diehard horror fans will probably catch a too obvious hint near the end concerning which final characters live or die.

But that's okay. The deeper meaning that I got from the story is what pushed me to rate it from a four to a five. Well worth the read.

You can find out more about this book--and about Stephen Graham Jones HERE.

BOOK REVIEW: Creature, by Hunter Shea

I normally just post my book reviews at sites like Goodreads and Amazon and BookBub, but it's April and I need to commit to posting an actual something to the blog -- so why not reviews? It makes no sense to not post the reviews to the blog, and I need to make that monthly blog entry that I promised myself I'd get to every month this year.

So, in the spirit of cheating, here's my book review that's also the monthly blog post. I consider it fortunate that I happened to be reading Creature, by Hunter Shea.

This isn't the first Hunter Shea book I've reviewed. The first was Slash, which was a solid piece of creature feature horror writing. But Creature is different. It's more personal for Shea, it doesn't get to the traditional horror elements right away and, in my personal opinion, it's the better read. There, I've already written more than the original quick review itself. And since I'm longing to get back to my own writing, here's the review posted at all the other places mentioned above:

I’ll get straight to what I liked about this book, the time and energy Shea put into building character. Or as some writing gurus will tell you, write what you know. And in Shea's own words, elements of this story are very personal.

It's a slow development of character for a good two thirds of the story. The creature in question doesn’t rear its ugly head until the bitter end, but that's okay. The story isn’t really about the creature itself, but of the creature as a manifestation brought on by the every day horrors of living with a brutal and uncompromising disease. Literally.

Kate is the one who lives in pain every day of her life. Her husband Andrew loves her and just wants her to be well, but her ever constant need for care wears on him as well. So they take a trip to the wilds of Maine hoping to enjoy nature and some alone time for healing.

But the disease isn’t forgiving, and the creature in question is eventually drawn to it.

I’m not going to give away any more spoilers than that. The slow development of the plot to get to the final moments of horror is essential to this story (in my opinion), so stick with it.

I’m glad I did.

 You can find Creature at most of your favorite online book outlets. Or, if you're feeling like supporting the indiebook community, purchase it here, direct from Flame Tree Press.