Stranger Things, Season Two: The Junior Novelization

by Matthew J. Gilbert

This expanded junior novelization retells the second season of Netflix’s iconic series Stranger Things—and includes 8 pages of full-color images from the show!

It's been a year since Will Byers escaped the Upside Down and Eleven went into hiding, and Hawkins seems to have returned to normal. But when Will sees premonitions of a darker supernatural threat, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin must join him for a new adventure. Can Max, the new girl in school, help them? This 320-page junior novelization, which includes eight pages of full-color images from the show, retells the landmark second season of Stranger Things and is sure to thrill kids ages 7 to 10 as well as fans of all ages.

Welcome to the thrilling world of Netflix's hit series Stranger Things. Follow Eleven, Dustin, Lucas, and their friends for mystery, suspense, and supernatural adventures in 1980s Hawkins.

Genres: Science Fiction, Middle Grade

320 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2025

About the author

Recently named a New York Times Bestselling Author, Matthew J. Gilbert has written several licensed books for some of the world’s biggest franchises, including Stranger Things, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Some of his most notable titles are: the best-selling Little Golden Book, “I Am Jack Skellington,” “Hawkins Horrors: A Collection of Terrifying Tales,” and the official junior novelizations for Netflix's Stranger Things. He is also the co-author of the popular “Classroom 13” chapter book series. In addition to his author life, he’s a former Nickelodeon staff writer, an amateur screenwriter, and a poet when the mood strikes him. He currently lives in far-too-sunny California with his wife, and his loyal cat sidekick, Pepe.

You can follow him on Instagram at @mattgilbertwrites and find him on YouTube as well.

Reviews

[Ross Jeffery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect, fully up to speed, great bit of research…we’re getting a view of how this is done!

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A good written form of season two aimed for younger readers, even with some scenes being chopped up and changed with this being the Junior novelization I really enjoyed revisiting the story of season two again with this novel. All in all this is a faithful adaptation, and I can’t wait to see how seasons 3 & 4 are written up when they are published early next year.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

In preparation for Season 5 and finishing this on Stranger Things Day (November 6th), this sequel novelization is adapted Stranger Things 2. For my actual take on the season itself: it’s really good, though not my favorite of the show by a long shot. Still, it is far better than the train wreck that was a good chunk of ST3–that season needs more hate for its horrid character resets. Back on topic… I was unsure going into this if Matthew’s writing would improve from the first, and most notably scared he’s disregard the queer imagery and tension building up between Mike and Will (they love each other, trust me; Season 5 WILL drop that ball, and the homophobes can screw off). Having read this… shit, I was kinda right. Let’s start positive: this is adapting a good season of television, and it has some upsides from it repeated here to similar degrees. Steve is just as awesome, my favorite episode of the season—Chapter 8: The Mind Flayer—and the episode afterwards are surprisingly the best of his writings and had great delivery, and I blame the length of these chapters for that quality increase. The characters are all really likable, there’s some great scenes and arcs, the action is fun, and I adore the most of the Snow Ball stuff at the end. Most. The infamous Lost Sister episode is also shortened here, which honestly, thank god; I don’t hate it but damn is it mostly a waste of time, having it never get adapted into it’s spinoff and serving jack shit to the plot aside from a hint to ST4 and El’s newfound “power source” (which is just emotions). So yeah, this improves on a few things whilst delivering some solid reworks of the show. For some more exclusive praise… none. Yeah, you know what’s up. With all due respect, Matthew wasn’t the right creative mind for making a junior novelization of the show, let alone all of them. His writing is stiff (at least in these) and it doesn’t recreate that essence the show oozes—it needs a different mind behind it to make it work better. I hate dissing authors, but I’m being brutally honest. And to get it off my chest: the clues set up in this season that Will and Mike love each other are relatively disregarded. There’s the “crazy together” scene, Will’s rainbow spaceship mention (queer imagery and all), and that’s about it; no add-ons to their interactions, no clear tension, and—oh, shit—the Snow Ball. Here, Will is painted as straight-up, well, straight, saying he “feels like himself” whilst dancing with a chick. Oof, that’s not make much sense by this year’s end… and then Matthew doubles down and adds the connotation that Mike has “no one else he’d rather be with than Eleven.” From Mike’s explicitly explored internalized homophobia that is brought to the absolute forefront in Season 4 with a million visual cues, imagery, and his relationship parallels between El and Will to that literal addition in the Snow Ball scene’s script where Mike and Will share a longing glance whilst dancing with their respective girls, this is just Matthew shooting himself in the foot for future novelizations. I’m not deducting much for this, since it’s extremely minuscule, but I’m still a bit peeved that it’s not being explored correctly or at all. It’s gonna be far more jarring in the books when it inevitably comes to be, but oh well. Now to bring up the elephant in the room, or rather, the Bob. Bob Newby (superhero and all) gets half his scenes cut. And HE FUCKING DIES. With this evident lack of build-up for his character and arc, this is just a massively disappointing turn-out for this take on the character. Just stay faithful, add your own flare, and execute everything well—that’s essential in a novelization. None of that happens with Bob. His death is also extremely brushed over—which brings me to pacing. This thing is fast for the first two-thirds, then ramps up—for the better, though, for The Lost Sister—and has a slow down for the final rough-third of the book. I really do mind that initial 200 pages of rampant speed; take a chill pill, slow down, and don’t speed like Billy’s racist being self tries to do every time he sees someone of color. Except, of course, for Chapter 7–slam the gas for that one, please. With this crazy speed, a ton of important scenes and such are left out, namely Joyce and Bob’s romance and—the worst offender to this heinous writing decision—the high schooler’s plot lines, namely Nancy and Jonathan’s getting thrown into the shadows of my coal bin. It’s sad and disappointing, and it would’ve favored if these were longer, as I got a taste of for the last two chapters (mostly good work there, Matthew). And… I think I’ve made my take clear. Enough bashing, let’s rate this sucker. Overall, 4.5/10. I love this show, I really enjoy the season, but this just didn’t do it for me. My best regards for these going forth, but I already know the third will be a train wreck, as that season by default sucks balls aside from the Mind Flayer stuff and most of the last few episodes. Happy Stranger Things Day, ain’t no one reading all of this lol.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Season 2, I will admit, is not my favorite of the five seasons of Stranger Things but it had plenty of positive points.

For me and of course spoilers for anyone who might not be a fan of the show at all, the inclusion of fresh characters like Max and Billy and Bob among the regulars worked.

There was also dealing with the loose ends of the first season concerning Will's troubles, Nancy's guilt, Mike's stages of grief over El and Hawkins Lab receiving justice for causing everything.

For fans of the show since each chapter is basically an episode, there is the one episode that everyone finds divisive about, "The Lost Sister." We get most of it from El's journey in discovering things about herself and her past with everything else just a footnote. Eleven is supposed to be the main character, right?

Can't just have her hidden in Hopper's cabin forever, can we?

We get what we need to understand the plot and since it is a junior novelization, we get some things trimmed down or glossed over. Joyce's relationship with Bob, Billy's extreme personality, Steve and Nancy's fallout, Nancy and Jonathan's hookup, the tension between Billy and Steve along with the scarier aspects of Will being the Mind Flayer's puppet.

Max's relationship with Lucas and Dustin's friendship with Steve forming aren't touched on in detail but I'm glad it wasn't wiped out completely. Also, despite some characters having arcs in the second season we get more insight to character's inner thoughts.

Steve focusing on the kids and Hopper focusing on Will and Bob not just being the new man in Joyce's life are nice to read about.

Everything is succinct to still provide some tension and even a few laughs brought to you by Stranger Things' sophomore season.

[noor. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.6
just finished this for fun! bc stranger things is my fav show i rlly wanted to see how the novelizations were. plus i was in a bit of a reading slump. these are short and fun to read. perfect for younger audience, especially if you think your kid is not mature enough and ready to watch stranger things. there is no swearing in the novelization or any questionable things. there are two kissing scenes but they are not descreptive it just says "they kissed." The description of the monsters is not descriptive. the dialouge and scenes are also not changed, like they say the same exact sentances that are said in the show. its also a quick and fun read! if this was released when i was in middle school, i would have picked it up right away! this is a treasure for all the kiddos! <3 there is also a couple fun pictures from the show in the middle of the book, which were fun to look at. also to those who are able to watch the show u need to watch it, stranger things is the best show everrrrrrr.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A show accurate (and child/young teen friendly aka no drunk Halloween scene, vulgar language etc) enjoyable book.

If your kid (or you! It’s totally enjoyable for any fan of the show) loves science fiction or stranger things, I recommend this book!

It’s totally accurate to season 2 and a fun way to enjoy stranger things beyond watching the show.

[Jacie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars because season 2 is literally the best in the show. Argue with the wall