Content warning: some upsetting sexual stuff
Why does King feel the need to comment on the bodies of prepubescent female characters? She died before she would grow boobs? Is that the only thing she didn't live through by dying young? She placed her hands on her nonexistent hips? Just say she placed her hands on her hips. Try writing kids so that they sound like kids, instead of just unnecessarily reminding us of what they look like.
Billy did not have to run out into the rain to rescue the unconscious rape victim in his boxers. He could've been clothed. He did not need to have his boxers fall down as he dragged her into his apartment. He did not need to put her in his bed, take her clothes off (it had been raining, so they were wet, necessitating their removal), fall asleep next to her, and wake up with his erection pressing into her. This ten-page ordeal took me out of the book so entirely I couldn't get back into it.
Most guns use magazines, not clips. This is the bare minimum of competence in writing about firearms, and King doesn't reach it in The Institute. How does a 70 year old who's been writing since the '70's not know this by now? He's never picked up a Jack Reacher book? I'm not even gonna talk about the gunfight in South Carolina toward the end of the book, it's just dumb.
Gee whiz, so many people in Trump country are normal folks who don't like the guy. Who'd'a thunk? Good thing he doesn't lay it on so thick it takes you out of the story because you're cringing so hard.
The kid in The Institute is a genius, got it. He knows everything about everything. Why, as his example of him knowing so much about history, does King say the kid can list every vice president? That doesn't mean he understands history, it means he's good at memorizing trivia.
Making one of the protagonists in The Institute a cop who got fired for a Tamir Rice-esque incident was a choice. Good thing the black sheriff he told the story to was happy to overlook it and hire him.
First parts of both books were genuinely enjoyable. I liked Billy Summers up until he met the woman mentioned earlier, and I liked The Institute up until the two protagonists meet (so, the last quarter of the book I guess). King is very good at scene setting; I love his descriptions of the towns the characters go to. But the endings soured me on both of them sadly. I've read three other King books (11/22/63, Misery, and 'Salem's Lot) and liked all of them ('Salem's Lot and 11/22/63 I found exceptional), and plan to read The Stand at some point. But maybe I'll avoid his newer stuff from now on.
by informallyundecided