Posted on September 11, 2019 at 12:24 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Malcolm Gladwell and Stephen King both released new books yesterday, though with The Testaments by Margaret Atwood hitting shelves, you could be forgiven for perhaps missing or forgetting them.

So far, reviewers seem a little more pleased with King’s The Institute.

Both the Washington Post and the Guardian describe the novel about a shadowy organization that collects children with supernatural powers as quintessentially King.

However, it’s said as a compliment from the former and as a criticism from the latter.

The New York Times, meanwhile, considers The Institute to possibly be King’s scariest novel yet.

Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know also could receive a superlative from The Atlanticits review may not outright call it his worst or most confusing yet, but one can easily draw that conclusion.

NPR’s reviewer is slightly kinder to it while acknowledging some weak and problematic points.

The Guardian, though, goes heavy on the sarcasm to criticize Gladwell’s attempts to induce empathy for some of the wrongdoers in the examples he cites.

Feel free to share your thoughts with us, if you’ve made it through any amount of either book!

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