The Institute

Description

In the middle of the night, intruders silently murder young Luke Ellis’s parents and steal him away from his suburban Minneapolis home–an operation that takes less than two minutes. Like wake up in a faraway room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are several other doors, behind which are several other kids with very special abilities, who arrived at wherever here is in the same way Luke did. They’re all confined to the area known as Front Half, which is a good thing–no one ever returns from Back Half. Nevertheless, the incarcerated children are intended to serve, given that the staff is ruthlessly dedicated to extracting the force of their extranormal gifts. Cooperation is rewarded and resistance punished, brutally. As each new victim disappears to the Back Half, Luke becomes increasingly desperate to somehow find a way out and get help–even though no one has ever escaped from the living hell known as the Institute…