Author Stephen King has issued a defiant message to students after the state of Utah banned his 1998 novel Bag of Bones from public schools. The book was the 23rd to be prohibited under Utah’s 2024 "sensitive materials" law , known as House Bill 29. King tells the story of a grieving novelist entangled in a supernatural mystery and a custody dispute. The law requires that, if a book is deemed to contain "objective sensitive material" and is removed by multiple school districts, it must be