From #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King whose u201cstorytelling transcends genreu201d (Newsday) comes u201canother winner: creepy and touching and horrifyingly believableu201d (The Boston Globe) about a group of kids confronting evil.nnIn the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellisu2019s 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 thereu2019s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talentsu2014telekinesis and telepathyu2014who 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, u201clike the roach motel,u201d Kalisha says. u201cYou check in, but you donu2019t check out.u201dnnIn 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 donu2019t, 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.
