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Stranger Things #8
Stranger Things: Starcourt Mall Escape
Explore Hawkins with fan-favorite character Eleven in a novel based on the iconic Netflix series Stranger Things.
It’s summer vacation, and everyone in Hawkins has plans—everyone except Eleven. She feels trapped by her overprotective father and wants to break out and find a normal teen life like she sees in her magazines. Luckily, Eleven’s not alone. Her friend Max needs to flee a troubling home life and an increasingly dangerous older brother. They decide to escape together, and in Hawkins in the summer of 1985, there is only one place to the all-new Starcourt Mall. Will midnight movies and an overnight party in the food court be the solution to their problems? Or will Eleven and Max discover that a little freedom can lead to a lot of trouble, and that the ghosts of the past are never far away? Filled with details from Netflix’s series Stranger Things, this novel explores Hawkins—and Eleven’s place in it—like never before.
It’s summer vacation, and everyone in Hawkins has plans—everyone except Eleven. She feels trapped by her overprotective father and wants to break out and find a normal teen life like she sees in her magazines. Luckily, Eleven’s not alone. Her friend Max needs to flee a troubling home life and an increasingly dangerous older brother. They decide to escape together, and in Hawkins in the summer of 1985, there is only one place to the all-new Starcourt Mall. Will midnight movies and an overnight party in the food court be the solution to their problems? Or will Eleven and Max discover that a little freedom can lead to a lot of trouble, and that the ghosts of the past are never far away? Filled with details from Netflix’s series Stranger Things, this novel explores Hawkins—and Eleven’s place in it—like never before.
- GenresAudiobook
Audible Audio
Published November 4, 2025
38 people are currently reading
363 people want to read
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Jennifer Brody
9 books42 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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December 23, 2025I know there are fifteen year-olds on AO3 cooking up fanfics better than this...
November 5, 2025
I actually hid this review because it's snarky/mean. It's essentially spoiler-free.
Because I am a nerd, I have read ALL of the official YA Stranger Things tie-in novels (Runaway Max, Rebel Robin, Lucas on the Line, The Dustin Experiment, and Starcourt Mall Escape) and this one is... very much the worst one by a hilarious margin. All the other ones are essentially character studies that use the characters from the show and fill in some gaps or explore in some of the empty narrative space. There are arguments to be made about whether they're effective at what they're doing, but at least they have some clear purpose.
This one... I honestly don't even know what it was trying to do. It is less a novel and more a collection of references. Remember when, post-breakup, the boys laughed about smelly farts? I hope you thought that was hilarious, because it's referenced at least four times. And the phrase "dump your ass" is included dozens and dozens of times. And that might be fine and fun if you're just a fan hoping for some bonus content between seasons. That would have been fine for me, because that's what I was looking for. I mean, this is an Eleven book and Eleven is a character who spends all her time doing supernatural stuff. I am always hoping for more everyday El. My favorite version of El is the one who dumps Mike and hangs out with Max. I was hoping to see more of that El, the one who is figuring out who she is and what she likes and how to be a normal girl without pressure from either the men in her life OR the forces of evil that need battled. This book obviously had no intention of digging into anything, which is disappointing, but whatever. Silly fun times with the kiddos of Stranger Things. That should be fun, right?
The problem is that Starcourt Mall Escape just has so. many. continuity. errors. And mischaracterizations. Like, a ludicrous amount. As someone who just rewatched the show and has a decent memory, these were egregious and pulled me out repeatedly. Some are just weird and unnecessarily wrong. Like when El spots a photo of herself in her pink dress from the Snow Ball (El's dress was blue). Or when Max references living in a trailer (this novel takes place before season three; she moves into the trailer after Billy's death between seasons three and four). Or how Lucas and to a lesser extent Mike spend the entire book trying to beat Dustin's high score on Dragon's Lair despite not being good at the game (in season two, Dustin can't beat Lucas' high score on Dragon's Lair). Or when the boys all confidently predict that Dustin will come home from science camp with a girlfriend (when, in fact, they were so surprised by this development that they assumed he'd made her up).
Whatever, you might be thinking. Those are small details. Who cares about the color of El's dress or the fact that Mike specifically requests couples' portraits at the mall (despite canonically hating having his picture taken; in this book, Will is the photo-shy one)? That's just the start of the problems. A lot of them run deeper. There are just plot points and character details attributed to the wrong character, or inserted before their time. For instance, El makes absolutely no effort to keep herself hidden and uses her powers repeatedly and publicly (in front of, inexhausively, Billy, Robin pre-Russian-base, and Troy's cousin). She also repeatedly has visions of the future and senses danger nearby (she essentially gets a more powerful version of Will's neck-tingles). She also overhears the Lynx workers speaking Russian, and spots rats everywhere. Why does El have everyone's season three plot to herself? And remember Hopper's super secret cabin and how it's a great place to go whenever they need to be safe from prying eyes? It would be awkward if Max just randomly stumbled across it on her way home from skateboarding, right? Well, she does. She finds it by accident and it just like "hey, I bet this is where Eleven lives. I'll drop in on her!" Also, remember how everyone is able to figure out complicated lore and make logical plans in life-or-death situations? I hope not, because when the crew is given a clue that LITERALLY INVOLVES THE SLOGAN FOR SCOOPS AHOY it takes them a full page and a half of debate to figure out that they have to go to Scoops Ahoy.
Then there's bad characterization. Can you see Will snatching a walkie talkie to brag to Max and El about never having been dumped? Will in general is WILD in this book. Aside from when he's asking to play D&D and, at the end, forgiving a bully he's unrecognizable. There's a weird broishness to him that is very inconsistent for him, which is disappointing in particular because he's absent for most of these books. Max, during a game of truth or dare, dares Mike and El to kiss each other despite the fact that they've been PDAing all day. I'm sorry... in a game of truth or dare you dare someone... to kiss his own girlfriend... even though they've been kissing so much that day that... you've already told them to stop? What? Max, do better.
And there's bad writing on top of all that. If Robin has a single line of dialogue without the word "dingus" then it's an outlier. Billy's mullet gets a special shout-out just about every time he's on the page (and ditto for Will's haunted eyes). And I would LOVE (hate) to get a kiss tally for Mike and El because it is too much. Admittedly I hate El and Mike as a couple (I love them both independently when they're broken up, but I hate them together) so I'm biased, but if we got a kiss-to-page ratio it would be shocking.
Honestly, Starcourt Mall Escape is so bad that it's funny. It manages to absolutely mangle the continuity from the show, butcher just about all the characterizations, and not get any deeper into Eleven—its supposed main character—than "likes to kiss Mike" and "is sad she's not in a yearbook." I'm almost impressed. If someone told me that this was published as a joke, I'd believe it. I spent half the book thinking "surely the end of this is going to reveal it's some sort of Vecna-vision or trap" because I could think of no other explanation for how it could manage to simultaneously be so surface-level and get so many things wrong.
Because I am a nerd, I have read ALL of the official YA Stranger Things tie-in novels (Runaway Max, Rebel Robin, Lucas on the Line, The Dustin Experiment, and Starcourt Mall Escape) and this one is... very much the worst one by a hilarious margin. All the other ones are essentially character studies that use the characters from the show and fill in some gaps or explore in some of the empty narrative space. There are arguments to be made about whether they're effective at what they're doing, but at least they have some clear purpose.
This one... I honestly don't even know what it was trying to do. It is less a novel and more a collection of references. Remember when, post-breakup, the boys laughed about smelly farts? I hope you thought that was hilarious, because it's referenced at least four times. And the phrase "dump your ass" is included dozens and dozens of times. And that might be fine and fun if you're just a fan hoping for some bonus content between seasons. That would have been fine for me, because that's what I was looking for. I mean, this is an Eleven book and Eleven is a character who spends all her time doing supernatural stuff. I am always hoping for more everyday El. My favorite version of El is the one who dumps Mike and hangs out with Max. I was hoping to see more of that El, the one who is figuring out who she is and what she likes and how to be a normal girl without pressure from either the men in her life OR the forces of evil that need battled. This book obviously had no intention of digging into anything, which is disappointing, but whatever. Silly fun times with the kiddos of Stranger Things. That should be fun, right?
The problem is that Starcourt Mall Escape just has so. many. continuity. errors. And mischaracterizations. Like, a ludicrous amount. As someone who just rewatched the show and has a decent memory, these were egregious and pulled me out repeatedly. Some are just weird and unnecessarily wrong. Like when El spots a photo of herself in her pink dress from the Snow Ball (El's dress was blue). Or when Max references living in a trailer (this novel takes place before season three; she moves into the trailer after Billy's death between seasons three and four). Or how Lucas and to a lesser extent Mike spend the entire book trying to beat Dustin's high score on Dragon's Lair despite not being good at the game (in season two, Dustin can't beat Lucas' high score on Dragon's Lair). Or when the boys all confidently predict that Dustin will come home from science camp with a girlfriend (when, in fact, they were so surprised by this development that they assumed he'd made her up).
Whatever, you might be thinking. Those are small details. Who cares about the color of El's dress or the fact that Mike specifically requests couples' portraits at the mall (despite canonically hating having his picture taken; in this book, Will is the photo-shy one)? That's just the start of the problems. A lot of them run deeper. There are just plot points and character details attributed to the wrong character, or inserted before their time. For instance, El makes absolutely no effort to keep herself hidden and uses her powers repeatedly and publicly (in front of, inexhausively, Billy, Robin pre-Russian-base, and Troy's cousin). She also repeatedly has visions of the future and senses danger nearby (she essentially gets a more powerful version of Will's neck-tingles). She also overhears the Lynx workers speaking Russian, and spots rats everywhere. Why does El have everyone's season three plot to herself? And remember Hopper's super secret cabin and how it's a great place to go whenever they need to be safe from prying eyes? It would be awkward if Max just randomly stumbled across it on her way home from skateboarding, right? Well, she does. She finds it by accident and it just like "hey, I bet this is where Eleven lives. I'll drop in on her!" Also, remember how everyone is able to figure out complicated lore and make logical plans in life-or-death situations? I hope not, because when the crew is given a clue that LITERALLY INVOLVES THE SLOGAN FOR SCOOPS AHOY it takes them a full page and a half of debate to figure out that they have to go to Scoops Ahoy.
Then there's bad characterization. Can you see Will snatching a walkie talkie to brag to Max and El about never having been dumped? Will in general is WILD in this book. Aside from when he's asking to play D&D and, at the end, forgiving a bully he's unrecognizable. There's a weird broishness to him that is very inconsistent for him, which is disappointing in particular because he's absent for most of these books. Max, during a game of truth or dare, dares Mike and El to kiss each other despite the fact that they've been PDAing all day. I'm sorry... in a game of truth or dare you dare someone... to kiss his own girlfriend... even though they've been kissing so much that day that... you've already told them to stop? What? Max, do better.
And there's bad writing on top of all that. If Robin has a single line of dialogue without the word "dingus" then it's an outlier. Billy's mullet gets a special shout-out just about every time he's on the page (and ditto for Will's haunted eyes). And I would LOVE (hate) to get a kiss tally for Mike and El because it is too much. Admittedly I hate El and Mike as a couple (I love them both independently when they're broken up, but I hate them together) so I'm biased, but if we got a kiss-to-page ratio it would be shocking.
Honestly, Starcourt Mall Escape is so bad that it's funny. It manages to absolutely mangle the continuity from the show, butcher just about all the characterizations, and not get any deeper into Eleven—its supposed main character—than "likes to kiss Mike" and "is sad she's not in a yearbook." I'm almost impressed. If someone told me that this was published as a joke, I'd believe it. I spent half the book thinking "surely the end of this is going to reveal it's some sort of Vecna-vision or trap" because I could think of no other explanation for how it could manage to simultaneously be so surface-level and get so many things wrong.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 3, 2025
Too many inconsistencies with the show’s timeline and characters for me to be able to enjoy. I find it hard to believe this was proofread by anyone who works on or even knows the show. Also an odd choice for an Eleven novel story, I’d much rather have seen her post season 3 - moving to CA, getting to know Will, Jonathan, and Joyce as family, struggling with losing Hopper and her powers, missing Mike, and dealing with school bullies. This was just blah.
November 20, 2025
ehhhhhhh I'm being generous. A lot of the writing felt dumbed down and there were SO MANY timeline errors. To the point it didn't make sense.
I liked that we had more Billy/Max sibling banter.
The story itself was cute.
If you overlook A LOT of it...it's fine.
Some of it was so damn cringe though. Max yells "That's my man!" about Lucas (???) and Billy at one point yells "Pedal to the metal!" and "Party on!"
I don't want to accuse anyone of using AI but...it...did feel possible, lol
I liked that we had more Billy/Max sibling banter.
The story itself was cute.
If you overlook A LOT of it...it's fine.
Some of it was so damn cringe though. Max yells "That's my man!" about Lucas (???) and Billy at one point yells "Pedal to the metal!" and "Party on!"
I don't want to accuse anyone of using AI but...it...did feel possible, lol
December 18, 2025
debating if i wanna be a nice person or not. longer review to come if i decide i don't.
but i'll just say, i know that there’s debate on these novelizations being canon, but the others i’ve read so far at least TRY to be canon compliant. this was irritating enough for that reason, and the writing did not help. i've never accused a book of being written by ai before, but this may have to be the first time.
but i'll just say, i know that there’s debate on these novelizations being canon, but the others i’ve read so far at least TRY to be canon compliant. this was irritating enough for that reason, and the writing did not help. i've never accused a book of being written by ai before, but this may have to be the first time.
November 26, 2025
1.5 stars
I'll start with the good. I enjoyed the idea of the plot overall, I love when these kids get a chance to hang out and just have fun! So that was nice to see. There were also some pretty fun moments. There was a moment where El and Max talked about Will being her stepbrother if Hopper and Joyce ever end up together and that was really sweet.
Now for the bad. I genuinely hate to accuse an author of using ai, but I have a VERY strong feeling that the author wrote this with assistance from ai. I'm marking this review as a spoiler just in case because I'm going to give a couple of examples that have slight plot spoilers.
1.There are multiple sentences that repeat several times. Some of the ones I caught were, every single time Spencer's gifts was brought up (more on that in the next point), "dodging teens with glow in the dark trinkets and kids carrying sleeping bags", and the word Buzzed/Buzzing was used constantly. There were a lot more, but those are the only examples that are coming to mind while I'm writing this.
2. Spencer's gifts only and constantly being described as a place that sells "black light posters and lava lamps" when there's so many other ways to describe the store. I swear it feels like this book was sponsored by Spencer's gifts, it was brought up SO MANY times.
3. The strange inconsistencies like saying that Max and Billy live in a trailer home but that doesn't happen until season 4 and this book is set in season 3 (and Billy never lived in the trailer home). Another big one was saying that El wore a pink dress to the snow ball, but her dress was blue. The pink dress was worn a completely different time in a completely different season. And there was one point towards the beginning of the book where El contacts Max to let her know that Billy needs to move his car so Hopper doesn't find it, but El never says this to Max? But somehow right after they talk Max knew about Billy having to hide his car?
It's possible that the author isn't really a fan of Stranger Things and skimmed through the show to understand some of the plot?? That could explain the inconsistencies. I'm not sure, all I do know is that this book was very unenjoyable overall. What makes it even more disappointing is that Rebel Robin, Runaway Max, and Lucas on the Line were all SO GOOD! The idea of a book like those from El's pov sounded so exciting, but it just wasn't.
I'll start with the good. I enjoyed the idea of the plot overall, I love when these kids get a chance to hang out and just have fun! So that was nice to see. There were also some pretty fun moments. There was a moment where El and Max talked about Will being her stepbrother if Hopper and Joyce ever end up together and that was really sweet.
Now for the bad. I genuinely hate to accuse an author of using ai, but I have a VERY strong feeling that the author wrote this with assistance from ai. I'm marking this review as a spoiler just in case because I'm going to give a couple of examples that have slight plot spoilers.
1.There are multiple sentences that repeat several times. Some of the ones I caught were, every single time Spencer's gifts was brought up (more on that in the next point), "dodging teens with glow in the dark trinkets and kids carrying sleeping bags", and the word Buzzed/Buzzing was used constantly. There were a lot more, but those are the only examples that are coming to mind while I'm writing this.
2. Spencer's gifts only and constantly being described as a place that sells "black light posters and lava lamps" when there's so many other ways to describe the store. I swear it feels like this book was sponsored by Spencer's gifts, it was brought up SO MANY times.
3. The strange inconsistencies like saying that Max and Billy live in a trailer home but that doesn't happen until season 4 and this book is set in season 3 (and Billy never lived in the trailer home). Another big one was saying that El wore a pink dress to the snow ball, but her dress was blue. The pink dress was worn a completely different time in a completely different season. And there was one point towards the beginning of the book where El contacts Max to let her know that Billy needs to move his car so Hopper doesn't find it, but El never says this to Max? But somehow right after they talk Max knew about Billy having to hide his car?
It's possible that the author isn't really a fan of Stranger Things and skimmed through the show to understand some of the plot?? That could explain the inconsistencies. I'm not sure, all I do know is that this book was very unenjoyable overall. What makes it even more disappointing is that Rebel Robin, Runaway Max, and Lucas on the Line were all SO GOOD! The idea of a book like those from El's pov sounded so exciting, but it just wasn't.
December 9, 2025
this may be the worst thing i’ve ever read what is happening
it’s fanfic but not even good fanfic
ive read a LOT of stranger things fanfic and this is still the worst thing ive read related to this show
it’s fanfic but not even good fanfic
ive read a LOT of stranger things fanfic and this is still the worst thing ive read related to this show
December 12, 2025
This book feels like it was written last minute using erroneous episode and character summaries sourced from AI.
November 24, 2025
Well I was kinda enjoying it until they mistook Jim Hopper’s name for James Hopper.
December 3, 2025
This doesn’t even pretend to fit in with the established canon ☠️
November 27, 2025
As a massive fan of Stranger Things, I have read all the other books and comics. Let me tell you why this one should be avoided.
The characters are written terribly to the point they are nothing like themselves in the series. The plot doesn't tie into the show due to many continuity errors (Max and Billy living in a trailer, show fans will know why that's wrong). A lot of the writing is absolutely cringeworthy, to the point it feels like fan fiction rather than an official novel. Lines are repeated far too many times. I don't understand how this got approved, so my honest advice is don't waste your time on this mess.
The characters are written terribly to the point they are nothing like themselves in the series. The plot doesn't tie into the show due to many continuity errors (Max and Billy living in a trailer, show fans will know why that's wrong). A lot of the writing is absolutely cringeworthy, to the point it feels like fan fiction rather than an official novel. Lines are repeated far too many times. I don't understand how this got approved, so my honest advice is don't waste your time on this mess.
November 25, 2025
99% sure this was written by ChatGPT. Not really, but also…um.
December 13, 2025
Skip this one, you won't miss a thing other than boredom.
Max wasn't in the trailer until after season 3 and Billy definitely wasn't there.
Lucas pumping fist, ankle forgotten repeated so many times. I hope I never have to hear about those lava lamps again. I will never get that time back.
Suspicious minds, Darkness on the edge of town, Runway Max and Rebel Robin are all great, pretend this one doesn't exist.
Max wasn't in the trailer until after season 3 and Billy definitely wasn't there.
Lucas pumping fist, ankle forgotten repeated so many times. I hope I never have to hear about those lava lamps again. I will never get that time back.
Suspicious minds, Darkness on the edge of town, Runway Max and Rebel Robin are all great, pretend this one doesn't exist.
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December 8, 2025there is so many continuity errors and character changes in this book. it’s like the author didn’t watch the show at all. I have read all the other books and they match so well.
December 17, 2025
so unbelievably bad I felt like I needed to leave a review even though I never leave reviews. wow!
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November 20, 2025Other reviewers covered it better than I can, but I’m so bummed about this book. It gets details about the characters wrong, it feels like it’s retconning important moments from the show… the scenes with just El and Max were so important in the show and this kind of erases all of that by bringing the boys in. It could have been so much more.
(Yes I know there’s debate about the books being canon or not, but so far they’ve all added -something- to the lore. This one does not.)
(Yes I know there’s debate about the books being canon or not, but so far they’ve all added -something- to the lore. This one does not.)
December 12, 2025
i made a whole good reads account just so i could come
on here and write a review about how insanely despicable the very existence of book is. like this must be a joke. making people pay for this slop gotta be a form of scamming. this book isn’t even worth FIVE of my precious dollars, so imagine paying anything above that. this isn’t even stranger things anymore. you can’t even call this an alternative universe, this must be a brand new franchise. not only is everyone out of character, the timeline makes zero sense. how is max living in a trailer with billy when the only reason she lives in a trailer in the first place is because billy died and susan and neil split up? why is mike acting like he’s okay with eleven being out in public? why are they making out in the middle of the arcade? why is mike not only okay with, but also ENCOURAGING el to come to the mall when he was 100% against it in season three? why are max and el cool at the beginning of the book when el didn’t like max at all until after she and mike split? why is billy fighting a cop’s girlfriend? somehow will managed to mention d&d more than he does in the show. every time robin pops up she’s saying “dingus” over and over and over again. i can’t even sit here and list out everything wrong with this book because we’d be here for days. my biggest question: who the hell approved this? and who can i speak to to get it rectified because this is actually ridiculous. i just don’t understand how you can butcher a canon compliant book THIS bad. i’ve written and read better stranger things canon compliant body’s of work on ao3. a fanfiction site. i’ve read better on WATTPAD. do you know how shameful that is? this is impressively terrible. people writing for free can and have cooked up work that’s a hundred times better than this monstrosity. if you were confused about the timeline while writing it, you could've just gone and watched the show. was there zero guidance from anyone involved in writing the actual show? this truly is absurd and i would never put this on my resume if i wrote it. if you told me ai was responsible for the execution of this sad excuse of a story, i wouldn’t even flinch. it’s honestly incredible how awful this book is, especially compared to the others. nobody should waste their money on it. to whoever wrote this, you need to rewrite it cause you played. real bad.
on here and write a review about how insanely despicable the very existence of book is. like this must be a joke. making people pay for this slop gotta be a form of scamming. this book isn’t even worth FIVE of my precious dollars, so imagine paying anything above that. this isn’t even stranger things anymore. you can’t even call this an alternative universe, this must be a brand new franchise. not only is everyone out of character, the timeline makes zero sense. how is max living in a trailer with billy when the only reason she lives in a trailer in the first place is because billy died and susan and neil split up? why is mike acting like he’s okay with eleven being out in public? why are they making out in the middle of the arcade? why is mike not only okay with, but also ENCOURAGING el to come to the mall when he was 100% against it in season three? why are max and el cool at the beginning of the book when el didn’t like max at all until after she and mike split? why is billy fighting a cop’s girlfriend? somehow will managed to mention d&d more than he does in the show. every time robin pops up she’s saying “dingus” over and over and over again. i can’t even sit here and list out everything wrong with this book because we’d be here for days. my biggest question: who the hell approved this? and who can i speak to to get it rectified because this is actually ridiculous. i just don’t understand how you can butcher a canon compliant book THIS bad. i’ve written and read better stranger things canon compliant body’s of work on ao3. a fanfiction site. i’ve read better on WATTPAD. do you know how shameful that is? this is impressively terrible. people writing for free can and have cooked up work that’s a hundred times better than this monstrosity. if you were confused about the timeline while writing it, you could've just gone and watched the show. was there zero guidance from anyone involved in writing the actual show? this truly is absurd and i would never put this on my resume if i wrote it. if you told me ai was responsible for the execution of this sad excuse of a story, i wouldn’t even flinch. it’s honestly incredible how awful this book is, especially compared to the others. nobody should waste their money on it. to whoever wrote this, you need to rewrite it cause you played. real bad.
December 30, 2025
This book was probably the worst of this year for me, so much so that it was almost funny how bad it was.
To preface this, I love Stranger Things with all of my heart and each and every character live rent free in my head.
I read this book to keep me sain between volume 2 and volume 3. The author got canon details from the show wrong, and if any of the Stranger Things books are canon this one shouldn't even be considered Stranger Things with ulw inaccurate it is. In this book the Mind Flayer is still only a D & D character from Will's campaign, but at this point in the show Will had been possessed by the Mind Flayer. This messed the entire plot line and ruined many things for this book. This season of the show seems to subtly hint at the fact that Mike might simply not being in love with El (that's how I viewed the end of that season and some of the subtle hints) with him seeming to reject El's advances in the show and ignore her and not care, but in this book he was very into her, even more so than in season 2 or 3, even though this tends to be mostly brought up by Byler shippers, Mileven fans will still notice something off with Mike's dialoge towards El, and either way their romance is too cheesy in this book and a little toxic or childish in the show.
It has been mentioned before but the writing of this book seems to have been aided or completely done by ai with how phrases are repeated alot. And characters like Billy have a completely different vibe, I would never have imagined Billy saying "Pedal to the metal" and "My car only goes one speed RDF... Really damn fast" and he generally is not a great stepbrother to Max, but in this book he just cringe in every scene. This just doesn't seem like him at all. As well as El calling Hopper "daddy", could be wrong but I don't recall a single time that she called him daddy. Many things were either off or just completely wrong in this book. I simply think that this book was poorly written and payed no attention to the canon plot of the show.
To preface this, I love Stranger Things with all of my heart and each and every character live rent free in my head.
I read this book to keep me sain between volume 2 and volume 3. The author got canon details from the show wrong, and if any of the Stranger Things books are canon this one shouldn't even be considered Stranger Things with ulw inaccurate it is. In this book the Mind Flayer is still only a D & D character from Will's campaign, but at this point in the show Will had been possessed by the Mind Flayer. This messed the entire plot line and ruined many things for this book. This season of the show seems to subtly hint at the fact that Mike might simply not being in love with El (that's how I viewed the end of that season and some of the subtle hints) with him seeming to reject El's advances in the show and ignore her and not care, but in this book he was very into her, even more so than in season 2 or 3, even though this tends to be mostly brought up by Byler shippers, Mileven fans will still notice something off with Mike's dialoge towards El, and either way their romance is too cheesy in this book and a little toxic or childish in the show.
It has been mentioned before but the writing of this book seems to have been aided or completely done by ai with how phrases are repeated alot. And characters like Billy have a completely different vibe, I would never have imagined Billy saying "Pedal to the metal" and "My car only goes one speed RDF... Really damn fast" and he generally is not a great stepbrother to Max, but in this book he just cringe in every scene. This just doesn't seem like him at all. As well as El calling Hopper "daddy", could be wrong but I don't recall a single time that she called him daddy. Many things were either off or just completely wrong in this book. I simply think that this book was poorly written and payed no attention to the canon plot of the show.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2025
I wanted to like this book. I wanted to like this because of the love I have for the show and for the characters but... in good conscience, I cannot rate this book well. The characters are so severely inconsistent with what we see of them in the show. The dialogue is clunky at BEST, details are INCREDIBLY WRONG throughout, and everything just feels like it was written by AI. It reads like it was written by someone that has only seen season 3 of Stranger Things.
Every character is highly infantilized. Like I said, details are missing or completely wrong, and they are simple things that one small Google search could have solved. (Hey, fun fact, Max didn't live in a trailer until AFTER Billy died. Billy dying and her step-dad leaving are the REASON WHY SHE LIVES THERE.)
I wanted to like this book, I really did. I hate that this is going to end up being the one Stranger Things book I don't finish.
Every character is highly infantilized. Like I said, details are missing or completely wrong, and they are simple things that one small Google search could have solved. (Hey, fun fact, Max didn't live in a trailer until AFTER Billy died. Billy dying and her step-dad leaving are the REASON WHY SHE LIVES THERE.)
I wanted to like this book, I really did. I hate that this is going to end up being the one Stranger Things book I don't finish.
December 31, 2025
Ta książka jest… momentami mało wiarygodna.
Zacznijmy od tego, że dzieje się przed wydarzeniami z trzeciego sezonu, Nastka ma już szczerze dosyć siedzenia w zamknięciu i razem z Max i ekipą postanawiają udać się na nocowanie z filmami i poszukiwaniem wskazówek, by wygrać 50 dolców w Starcourt. Brzmi super, nie? W teorii tak, jednak sposób, w jaki nasza bohaterka przekonuje Hoppera, jest… mało przekonujący, Max wraz z Billym mieszkają w przyczepie (co się kompletnie nie spina, jeśli ktoś dobrze zna drugi sezon), sam Billy jest nagle irytujący i POMOCNY? I do tego jeszcze podwozi dziewczyny na nockę do galerii handlowej?
Oczywiście, wszystko to jest poprzeplatane rozważaniami Nastki o Mike’u, o całowaniu się z nim, drobnymi fochami o to, że nie zadzwonił, że ona nie ma księgi pamiątkowej ze zdjęciami… A, no i Lumax się rozeszli. Znowu.
Ogółem, to mogła być naprawdę świetna historia, która wprowadziłaby jakiś niuans do historii, którą znamy. Wyszło jak wyszło.
Zacznijmy od tego, że dzieje się przed wydarzeniami z trzeciego sezonu, Nastka ma już szczerze dosyć siedzenia w zamknięciu i razem z Max i ekipą postanawiają udać się na nocowanie z filmami i poszukiwaniem wskazówek, by wygrać 50 dolców w Starcourt. Brzmi super, nie? W teorii tak, jednak sposób, w jaki nasza bohaterka przekonuje Hoppera, jest… mało przekonujący, Max wraz z Billym mieszkają w przyczepie (co się kompletnie nie spina, jeśli ktoś dobrze zna drugi sezon), sam Billy jest nagle irytujący i POMOCNY? I do tego jeszcze podwozi dziewczyny na nockę do galerii handlowej?
Oczywiście, wszystko to jest poprzeplatane rozważaniami Nastki o Mike’u, o całowaniu się z nim, drobnymi fochami o to, że nie zadzwonił, że ona nie ma księgi pamiątkowej ze zdjęciami… A, no i Lumax się rozeszli. Znowu.
Ogółem, to mogła być naprawdę świetna historia, która wprowadziłaby jakiś niuans do historii, którą znamy. Wyszło jak wyszło.
November 29, 2025
2,5/5⭐
December 28, 2025
do NOT read 💔💔
AI cornball slop 🥀🥀
AI cornball slop 🥀🥀
November 6, 2025
I wanted to like this book. I wanted to like this because of the love I have for the show and for the characters but... in good conscience, I cannot rate this book well. The characters are so severely inconsistent with what we see of them in the show. The dialogue is clunky at BEST, details are INCREDIBLY WRONG throughout, and everything just feels like it was written by AI. It reads like it was written by someone that has only seen season 3 of Stranger Things.
Every character is highly infantilized. Like I said, details are missing or completely wrong, and they are simple things that one small Google search could have solved. (Hey, fun fact, Max didn't live in a trailer until AFTER Billy died. Billy dying and her step-dad leaving are the REASON WHY SHE LIVES THERE.)
I wanted to like this book, I really did. I hate that this is going to end up being the one Stranger Things book I don't finish.
Every character is highly infantilized. Like I said, details are missing or completely wrong, and they are simple things that one small Google search could have solved. (Hey, fun fact, Max didn't live in a trailer until AFTER Billy died. Billy dying and her step-dad leaving are the REASON WHY SHE LIVES THERE.)
I wanted to like this book, I really did. I hate that this is going to end up being the one Stranger Things book I don't finish.
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