Books to Read If You Miss Hawkins Already
The final episode has rolled, the synth music fades out, and suddenly there is a familiar feeling. That empty pause when a story you followed for years is truly over. Stranger Things was never just a show, it was a mix of nostalgia, friendship, creeping horror, and the sense that something impossible could be hiding just beneath everyday life.
If you are missing Hawkins and wondering what to watch next, there is good news. Many books explore the same themes and often go even deeper. Here are reading recommendations for fans who want to keep that sense of mystery, danger, and wonder alive.
Small Towns With Dark Secrets
One of Stranger Things’ greatest strengths was its setting. A quiet town where everyone knows each other, and where something is very wrong.
A natural starting point. A group of kids faces an ancient evil that resurfaces every generation. The friendship, fear, and slow realization that adults cannot or will not help will feel very familiar.
by Stephen King
World Fantasy Award nominee 1987.
Derry: a small city in Maine, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own home town. Only in Derry the haunting is real...
It began for the Losers on a day in June of 1958, the day school let out for the summer. That was the day Henry Bowers carved the first letter of his name on Ben Hanscom's belly and chased him into the Barrens, the day Henry and his Neanderthal friends beat up on Stuttering Bill Denbrough and Eddie Kaspbrak, the day Stuttering Bill had to save Eddie from his worst asthma attack ever by riding his bike to beat the devil. It ended in August, with seven desperate children in search of a creature of unspeakable evil in the drains beneath Derry. In search of It. And somehow it ended.
A group of children, a small town, and something terrifying hiding in plain sight. This novel leans heavily into dread and discovery.
by Dan Simmons
On the last day of school, only hours before she would be forced into final retirement, Old Central School still stood upright, holding her secrets and silences firmly within.
Summer: hot, sunny, humid, its days lie ahead like a great banquet, filled with rich, slow time in which to enjoy each course. And as the young people of Elm Haven in Illinois awake on that first delicious morning of the holidays, they have nothing to be concerned about except where to ride their bikes, which pool holds the best fish. But this summer it will be different.
Parallel Worlds and Hidden Realities
The Upside Down captured imaginations because it felt close, like a shadow version of reality.
Fast paced and unsettling. This explores alternate realities and the cost of choice, with a constant sense that the ground under reality is unstable.
by Blake Crouch
A brilliantly plotted, relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy
“Are you happy with your life?”
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.
Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”
A hidden world beneath the surface of modern life. Strange rules, dangerous inhabitants, and the feeling that once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
Neverwhere #1
by Neil Gaiman
Under the streets of London there's a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.
Richard Mayhew is a young businessman who is about to find out more than he bargained for about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his safe and predictable life and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and yet utterly bizarre.
There's a girl named Door and people who are trying to kill her. There's an Angel called Islington, an Earl who holds Court on the carriage of a Tube train, people in the sewers, a Beast in a labyrinth, and dangers and delights beyond imagining... And Richard, who only wants to go home, is to find a strange destiny waiting for him down here, below the streets of his native city – NEVERWHERE.
Nostalgia With a Dark Edge
Stranger Things tapped into a love for 1980s storytelling, without losing emotional depth.
More pop culture heavy and lighter in tone, but steeped in nostalgia and adventure. A good pick if you miss the era as much as the story.
Ready Player One #1
by Ernest Cline
Locus Award nominee 2012, Tähtivaeltaja Award nominee 2013.
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut — part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Older than the 80s vibe, but timeless. Childhood, fear, and the slow loss of innocence are at its core.
by Ray Bradbury
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes... and the stuff of nightmare.
Where To Go Next
If Stranger Things was your gateway into speculative fiction, this is a perfect moment to explore further. Horror, science fiction, and fantasy often overlap in the same way the show did. Start with one book, follow the feeling it leaves behind, and let that guide your next choice.
Stories like these remind us that even when the screen goes dark, there are still other worlds waiting, just a few pages away.