Stephen King knows his craft.

When I first heard of this book, I wondered if King was at that stage of life when people start recycling ideas. I just listened to Firestarter for the first time and the theme of kids with special powers is featured in both books. But that’s where the similarities end. What happens if the superpower seriously lacks any … power?

Another engaging element of this book is the way King began with two completely different stories before bringing them together in a massive ‘a-ha’ moment. For a while I wondered if there was a problem with the audio book download—could two stories be mixed up here?

One tip for reading a book like this: everything matters. Even small anecdotes come back in big ways. Its rare to find lengthy books where no words are wasted. This is one of those books. It’s one of King’s finest.

King, Stephen. The Institute. Audiobook ed., Simon and Schuster Audio, 2019.