The Best Books For Fans Of Stranger Things
“What are the best books to read for fans of Stranger Things?” We looked at 174 different books, aggregating and ranking them to answer that very question!
The books we found that are similar to Stranger Things are similar for a variety of different reasons. In some cases, they take place in the same 80’s time period, in some they are stories of young females with extraordinary powers or groups of young friends battling supernatural beings, and in others, they simply give you the same feeling you might get while watching the show. Pretty much whatever reason you might be a fan of Stranger Things there is bound to be a book listed below for you.
The top 34 books, all appearing on 3 or more lists, are below with images, links, and descriptions. The remaining titles, as well as the sources we used, can be found in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
The Top Books Similar To Stranger Things
34 .) Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
Lists It Appears On:
- Library Point
- Goodreads
- The Verge
“Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies. But this one is unique even by Detroit’s standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams?
If you’re Detective Versado’s geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you’re desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story. If you’re Thomas Keen, known on the street as TK, you’ll do what you can to keep your homeless family safe–and find the monster who is possessed by the dream of violently remaking the world.”
33 .) Carrie by Stephen King
Lists It Appears On:
- Bradford Library
- Clermont Library
- The Book Bird
Carrie White may be picked on by her classmates, but she has a gift. She can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. This is her power and her problem. Then, an act of kindness, as spontaneous as the vicious taunts of her classmates, offers Carrie a chance to be a normal…until an unexpected cruelty turns her gift into a weapon of horror and destruction that no one will ever forget.
32 .) Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale
Lists It Appears On:
- Bustle
- Goodreads
- Criminal Element
“May Lynn is a pretty girl who dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. Until her dead body is dredged up from the Sabine River.
Sue Ellen, May Lynn’s strong-willed teenage friend, her friends Terry and Jinx, and Sue Ellen’s mother set out to dig up May Lynn’s body, burn it to ash, and take those ashes to Hollywood. If May Lynn can’t become a star, at least her remains can be spread in the land of her dreams.
Pursued by Uncle Gene and Constable Sy, who’re after the money they’ve found, and Skunk, an all-too-real legendary killer who’s after their lives, they begin to understand that when you set out to make the dreams of a friend your own, your worst nightmares might come along for the ride.”
31 .) House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini
Lists It Appears On:
- AM Reading
- Geeks
- Bustle
“Siblings Brendan, Eleanor, and Cordelia Walker once had everything they could ever want. But everything changed when Dr. Walker lost his job. Now the family must relocate to an old Victorian house, formerly the home of occult novelist Denver Kristoff—a house that simultaneously feels creepy and too good to be true. By the time the Walkers realize that one of their neighbors has sinister plans for them, they’re banished to a primeval forest way off the grid.
Bloodthirsty medieval warriors patrol the woods around them, supernatural pirates roam the neighboring seas, and a power-hungry queen rules the land. To survive, the siblings will have to be braver than they ever thought possible—and to fight against their darkest impulses. The key may lie in their own connection to the secret Kristoff legacy. But as they unravel that legacy, they’ll discover that it’s not just their family that’s in danger . . . it’s the entire world.”
30 .) Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
Lists It Appears On:
- Geeks
- Bustle
- Goodreads
“It’s Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked “”Midnight Robbers”” waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. To young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favorite costume to wear at the festival-until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgiveable crime.
Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen’s legendary powers can save her life . . . and set her free.”
29 .) Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Nerdy But Flirty
- The Verge
“Mexico City, 1988: Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said “I love you” with a mixtape. Meche, awkward and fifteen, has two equally unhip friends — Sebastian and Daniela — and a whole lot of vinyl records to keep her company. When she discovers how to cast spells using music, the future looks brighter for the trio. With help from this newfound magic, the three friends will piece together their broken families, change their status as non-entities, and maybe even find love…
Mexico City, 2009: Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father’s funeral. It’s hard enough to cope with her family, but then she runs into Sebastian, and it revives memories from her childhood she thought she buried a long time ago. What really happened back then? What precipitated the bitter falling out with her father? And, is there any magic left?”
28 .) Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Lists It Appears On:
- AM Reading
- Book Riot
- San Jose Public Library
When Odilia and her four sisters find a dead body in the swimming hole, they embark on a hero’s journey to return the dead man to his family in Mexico. But returning home to Texas turns into an odyssey that would rival Homer s original tale. With the supernatural aid of ghostly La Llorona via a magical earring, Odilia and her little sisters travel a road of tribulation to their long-lost grandmother s house. Along the way, they must outsmart a witch and her Evil Trinity: a wily warlock, a coven of vicious half-human barn owls, and a bloodthirsty livestock-hunting chupacabras. Can these fantastic trials prepare Odilia and her sisters for what happens when they face their final test, returning home to the real world, where goddesses and ghosts can no longer help them? Summer of the Mariposas is not just a magical Mexican American retelling of The Odyssey, it is a celebration of sisterhood and maternal love.
27 .) The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Lists It Appears On:
- Bustle
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
Spellbinding, haunting, The Age of Miracles is a beautiful novel of catastrophe and survival, growth and change, the story of Julia and her family as they struggle to live in an extraordinary time. On an ordinary Saturday, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer, gravity is affected, the birds, the tides, human behavior and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world of danger and loss, Julia faces surprising developments in herself, and her personal world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by Hannah and other friends, the vulnerability of first love, a sense of isolation, and a rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking story of people finding ways to go on, in an ever-evolving world
26 .) The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts
Lists It Appears On:
- Books & Cupcakes
- Geeks
- Bustle
A 10-year-old girl, who has always looked different from other children, discovers that she not only has unusual powers but that there are others like her.
25 .) The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman
Lists It Appears On:
- Waukegan Public Library
- Goodreads
- Book Riot
“They called it the killing day. Twelve people murdered, in the space of a few hours, their killers also all dead by their own hand . . . except one. And that one has no answers to offer the shattered town.
Something is waking in the sleepy town of Oleander, Kansas—something dark and hungry that lives in the flat earth and the open sky, in the vengeful hearts of its upstanding citizens. As the town begins a descent into blood and madness, five survivors of the killing day are the only ones who can stop Oleander from destroying itself.
They have nothing in common. They have nothing left to lose. And they have no way out. Which means they have no choice but to stand and fight, to face the darkness in their town—and in themselves.”
24 .) Watchers by Dean Koontz
Lists It Appears On:
- Books & Cupcakes
- AM Reading
- Goodreads
“On his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever, who will let him go no further into the dark woods.
That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life. What he finds is a friend—a dog of alarming intelligence—and a threat that could only have come from the darkest corners of man’s imagination…”
23 .) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Lists It Appears On:
- Books & Cupcakes
- Geeks
- Bustle
- Goodreads
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting– he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd– whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself– Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.
22 .) Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
Lists It Appears On:
- Hallo Giggles
- Nerdy But Flirty
- The Verge
- Goodreads
“Area X-a remote and lush terrain-has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
This is the twelfth expedition.”
21 .) Black Hole by Charles Burns
Lists It Appears On:
- 13th Dimension
- Goodreads
- The Book Bird
- Penguin
“Suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the out-set that a strange plague has descended upon the area’s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways — from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable) — but once you’ve got it, that’s it. There’s no turning back.
As we inhabit the heads of several key characters — some kids who have it, some who don’t, some who are about to get it — what unfolds isn’t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it , or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself — the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape.
And then the murders start.”
20 .) Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
Lists It Appears On:
- Books & Cupcakes
- Library Point
- Goodreads
- Criminal Element
“Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson—a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake—and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible vision of death that will haunt him forever.
As Cory struggles to understand his father’s pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that are manifested in Zephyr. From an ancient, mystical woman who can hear the dead and bewitch the living, to a violent clan of moonshiners, Cory must confront the secrets that hide in the shadows of his hometown—for his father’s sanity and his own life hang in the balance.”
19 .) Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang by Joyce Carol Oates
Lists It Appears On:
- Geeks
- Popsugar
- Bustle
- Criminal Element
The time is the 1950s. The place is a blue-collar town in upstate New York, where five high school girls are joined in a gang dedicated to pride, power, and vengeance on a world that seems made to denigrate and destroy them. Foxfire is Joyce Carol Oates’s strongest and most unsparing novel yet—an always engrossing, often shocking evocation of female rage, gallantry, and grit. Here is the secret history of a sisterhood of blood, a haven from a world of male oppressors, marked by a liberating fury that burns too hot to last. Above all, it is the story of Legs Sadovsky, with her lean, on-the-edge, icy beauty, whose nerve, muscle, hate, and hurt make her the spark of Foxfire, its guiding spirit, its burning core. At once brutal and lyrical, this is a careening joyride of a novel—charged with outlaw energy and lit by intense emotion. Amid scenes of violence and vengeance lies this novel’s greatest power: the exquisite, astonishing rendering of the bonds that link the Foxfire girls together.
18 .) Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Lists It Appears On:
- Books & Cupcakes
- Bustle
- Goodreads
- Popsugar
“It is autumn 1981 when inconceivable horror comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenager is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.
But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night. . “
17 .) Pines (Wayward Pines, #1) by Blake Crouch
Lists It Appears On:
- Clermont Library
- Library Point
- Goodreads
- Glommable
Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He wakes up in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels . . . off.
16 .) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Lists It Appears On:
- Bustle
- Goodreads
- Popsugar
- Nerdy But Flirty
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
15 .) White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
Lists It Appears On:
- Books & Cupcakes
- Geeks
- Bustle
- Goodreads
There’s something strange about the Silver family house in the closed-off town of Dover, England. Grand and cavernous with hidden passages and buried secrets, it’s been home to four generations of Silver women—Anna, Jennifer, Lily, and now Miranda, who has lived in the house with her twin brother, Eliot, ever since their father converted it to a bed-and-breakfast. The Silver women have always had a strong connection, a pull over one another that reaches across time and space, and when Lily, Miranda’s mother, passes away suddenly while on a trip abroad, Miranda begins suffering strange ailments. An eating disorder starves her. She begins hearing voices. When she brings a friend home, Dover’s hostility toward outsiders physically manifests within the four walls of the Silver house, and the lives of everyone inside are irrevocably changed. At once an unforgettable mystery and a meditation on race, nationality, and family legacies, White is for Witching is a boldly original, terrifying, and elegant novel by a prodigious talent.
14 .) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Electric Lit
- The Verge
- Penguin
- Goodreads
A Wrinkle in Time is one of the most significant novels of our time. This fabulous, ground-breaking science-fiction and fantasy story is the first of five in the Time Quintet series about the Murry family.
13 .) Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Lists It Appears On:
- Library Point
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
- The Book Bird
- Penguin
“On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.
For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.
Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.”
12 .) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bustle
- Goodreads
- Criminal Element
- The Verge
- Penguin
“Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.”
11 .) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Lists It Appears On:
- Clermont Library
- Novelist
- Hallo Giggles
- Popsugar
- Penguin
- San Jose Public Library
“In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.
But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.”
10 .) Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
Lists It Appears On:
- Blum House
- Library Point
- Quirk Books
- Goodreads
- Nerdy But Flirty
- Criminal Element
It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic middle-childhood. But amid the sundrenched cornfields their loyalty will be pitilessly tested. When a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the night, the townsfolk know it marks the end of their carefree days. From the depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is rising. Strange and horrifying events begin to overtake everyday life, spreading terror through the once idyllic town. Determined to exorcize this ancient plague, Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a war of blood―against an arcane abomination who owns the night…
9 .) The Boy who Draws Monsters by Keith Donohue
Lists It Appears On:
- Geeks
- Books & Cupcakes
- Library Point
- Bustle
- Novelist
- Goodreads
- Popsugar
Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean, and she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper, who fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange apparition running wild in the dunes. And the boy’s only friend, Nick, becomes helplessly entangled in the eerie power of the drawings. While those around Jack Peter are haunted by what they think they see, only he knows the truth behind the frightful occurrences as the outside world encroaches upon them all.
8 .) Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay
Lists It Appears On:
- 13th Dimension
- Goodreads
- Library Point
- Nerdy But Flirty
- Novelist
- The Book Bird
- The Verge
- Waukegan Public Library
“Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her thirteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.
The search isn’t yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend Tommy’s disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration: the local and state police have uncovered no leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he vanished, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock.
Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connects them.”
7 .) The Boys of Summer by Richard Cox
Lists It Appears On:
- AM Reading
- Bustle
- Geeks
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
- Nerdy But Flirty
- Popsugar
- The Verge
“In 1979, a massive tornado devastates the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, leaving scores dead, thousands homeless, and nine-year-old Todd Willis in a coma, fighting for his life.
Four years later, Todd awakens to a world that looks the same but feels different in a way he can’t quite grasp. For Todd, it’s a struggle to separate fact from fiction as he battles lingering hallucinations from his long sleep.
The new friends Todd makes in 1983 are fascinated with his experience and become mesmerized by his strange relationship with the world. Together the five boys come of age during a dark, fiery summer where they find first love, betrayal, and a secret so terrible they agree to never speak of it again.
But darkness returns to Wichita Falls twenty-five years later, and the boys–now men–are forced to reunite and confront the wounds from their past. When their memories of that childhood summer refuse to align with reality, the friends embark upon a search for truth that will threaten their lives, and transform their understanding of each other–and the world itself–forever.”
6 .) My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Lists It Appears On:
- Clermont Library
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
- Library Point
- Nerdy But Flirty
- Novelist
- Popsugar
- Quirk Books
- Waukegan Public Library
A heartwarming story of friendship and demonic possession. The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil? Like an unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist, My Best Friend’s Exorcism blends teen angst, adolescent drama, unspeakable horrors, and a mix of ’80s pop songs into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller.
5 .) The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Lists It Appears On:
- AM Reading
- Clermont Library
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
- Nerdy But Flirty
- Novelist
- Popsugar
- San Jose Public Library
- Waukegan Public Library
“Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “”our little genius.””
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.
The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.”
4 .) Firestarter by Stephen King
Lists It Appears On:
- AM Reading
- Bradford Library
- Clermont Library
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
- Library Point
- Nerdy But Flirty
- Popsugar
- Quirk Books
- San Jose Public Library
- Vox Magazine
“First, a man and a woman are subjects of a top-secret government experiment designed to produce extraordinary psychic powers.
Then, they are married and have a child. A daughter.
Early on the daughter shows signs of a wild and horrifying force growing within her. Desperately, her parents try to train her to keep that force in check, to “act normal.”
Now the government wants its brainchild back—for its own insane ends.”
3 .) Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Lists It Appears On:
- Blum House
- Books & Cupcakes
- Bustle
- Criminal Element
- Electric Lit
- Geeks
- Goodreads
- Library Point
- Quirk Books
- The Book Bird
- The Verge
Few American novels written this century have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary classic SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin.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.
2 .) It by Stephen King
Lists It Appears On:
- Blum House
- Bradford Library
- Bustle
- Clermont Library
- Geeks
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
- Library Point
- Novelist
- Popsugar
- Quirk Books
- San Jose Public Library
- The Verge
- Vox Magazine
- Waukegan Public Library
“Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.”
1 .) Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Lists It Appears On:
- 13th Dimension
- AM Reading
- Blum House
- Book Riot
- Bustle
- Criminal Element
- Electric Lit
- Epic Reads
- Geeks
- Goodreads
- Hallo Giggles
- Library Point
- Nerdy But Flirty
- Popsugar
- Quirk Books
- Vox Magazine
- Waukegan Public Library
In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.
The Remaining Best Books Similar To Stranger Things
| # | Book | Author | Lists |
| (Books Appear On 2 Lists Each) | |||
| 35 | Another Little Piece | Kate Karyus Quinn | Epic Reads |
| Yalsa | |||
| 36 | Arclight | Josin L. McQuein | Epic Reads |
| Waukegan Public Library | |||
| 37 | Dark Matter | Blake Crouch | Library Point |
| Goodreads | |||
| 38 | Girls On Fire | Robin Wasserman | Epic Reads |
| Bustle | |||
| 39 | Harrow County | Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook | 13th Dimension |
| Goodreads | |||
| 40 | Lizard Radio | Pat Schmatz | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 41 | Lumberjanes | Noelle Stevenson | Quirk Books |
| Bustle | |||
| 42 | Magic for Beginners | Kelly Link | 13th Dimension |
| Goodreads | |||
| 43 | Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children | Ransom Riggs | San Jose Public Library |
| Clermont Library | |||
| 44 | Paralell | Lauren Miller | Yalsa |
| Popsugar | |||
| 45 | Rooms | Lauren Oliver | Goodreads |
| The Verge | |||
| 46 | Shadowshaper | Daniel José Older | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 47 | The Drifting Classroom | Kazuo Umezo | 13th Dimension |
| Goodreads | |||
| 48 | The End of Everything | Megan Abbott | Goodreads |
| Criminal Element | |||
| 49 | The Last Child | John Hart | Goodreads |
| Criminal Element | |||
| 50 | The Loney | Andrew Michael Hurley | Goodreads |
| Criminal Element | |||
| 51 | The Lost Estate | Alan-Fournier | Books & Cupcakes |
| Electric Lit | |||
| 52 | The Monster Variations | Daniel Kraus | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 53 | The Ocean at the End of the Lane | Neil Gaiman | Goodreads |
| The Verge | |||
| 54 | The Replacement | Brenna Yovanoff | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 55 | The Shining | Stephen King | Clermont Library |
| The Book Bird | |||
| 56 | The Silent End | Samuel Sattin | 13th Dimension |
| Goodreads | |||
| 57 | The Stand | Stephen King | Bradford Library |
| The Book Bird | |||
| 58 | The Tommyknockers | Stephen King | Popsugar |
| The Book Bird | |||
| 59 | The White People | Arthur Machen | Electric Lit |
| Goodreads | |||
| 60 | The Wrenchies | Farel Dalrymple | 13th Dimension |
| Goodreads | |||
| 61 | Wonders of the Invisible World | Christopher Barzak | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| (Titles Appear On 1 list Each) | |||
| 62 | 3:59 | Gretchen McNeil | Yalsa |
| 63 | 3 | Jean-Christophe Valtat | Electric Lit |
| 64 | 11/22/63 | Stephen King | Clermont Library |
| 65 | (Don’t You) Forget About Me | Kate Karyus Quinn | Epic Reads |
| 66 | 100 DEADLY SKILLS: SURVIVAL EDITION | CLINT EMERSON | Glommable |
| 67 | 17 & Gone | Nova Ren Suma | Epic Reads |
| 68 | A Darker Shade of Magic | VE Schwab | Yalsa |
| 69 | A Girl of the Limberlost | Gene Stratton-Porter | Electric Lit |
| 70 | A Summer of Drowning | John Burnside | Penguin |
| 71 | A Thousand Pieces of You | Claudia Gray | Yalsa |
| 72 | Adaptation | Malinda Lo | Epic Reads |
| 73 | Akira, Vol. 1 | Katsuhiro Otomo | Goodreads |
| 74 | American Elsewhere | Robert JacksonBennett | Novelist |
| 75 | An American Childhood | Annie Dillard | Glommable |
| 76 | And the Trees Crept In | Dawn Kurtagich | Quirk Books |
| 77 | Anya’s Ghost | Vera Brosgol | 13th Dimension |
| 78 | Ascending The Boneyard | C.G. Watson | YA Books Central |
| 79 | Beasts of Burden | Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson | 13th Dimension |
| 80 | BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP | S. J. WATSON | Glommable |
| 81 | Before Wings | Beth Goobie | Bustle |
| 82 | Beware The Wild | Natalie Parker | Epic Reads |
| 83 | Black House (The Talisman, #2) | Stephen King | Goodreads |
| 84 | Bone Gap | Laura Ru | Yalsa |
| 85 | Costume Quest: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers | Zac Gorman | 13th Dimension |
| 86 | Dangerous Laughter | Steven Millhauser | Electric Lit |
| 87 | Dare Me | Megan Abbott | Electric Lit |
| 88 | Dark Energy | Robison Wells | YA Books Central |
| 89 | Dracula | Bram Stoker | Glommable |
| 90 | Dreamwood | Heather Mackey | San Jose Public Library |
| 91 | E.T. the Extraterrestrial Storybook | William Kotzwinkle | AM Reading |
| 92 | ELEANOR & PARK | RAINBOW ROWELL | Glommable |
| 93 | Faust | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Glommable |
| 94 | Found | Margaret Peterson Haddix | Yalsa |
| 95 | Ghost Stories | M.R. James | Penguin |
| 96 | HIS BLOODY PROJECT | GRAEME MACRAE BURNET | Glommable |
| 97 | House of Leaves | Mark Z. Danielewski | The Book Bird |
| 98 | I Am Not a Serial Killer | Dan Wells | Clermont Library |
| 99 | Imaginary Girls | Nova Ren Suma | Book Riot |
| 100 | In the Woods | Tana French | Criminal Element |
| 101 | Jesus Saves | Darcey Steinke | Electric Lit |
| 102 | John Dies at the End | David Wong | Clermont Library |
| 103 | JULIUS CAESAR | WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE | Glommable |
| 104 | Kama Sutra | Vātsyāyana | Glommable |
| 105 | KILLER PIZZA | Greg Taylor | Blum House |
| 106 | Lisey’s Story | Stephen King | Clermont Library |
| 107 | Little Women | Louisa May Alcott | Glommable |
| 108 | Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft | Joe Hill | Goodreads |
| 109 | Mad Max Fury Road | Bradford Library | |
| 110 | Mila 2.0 | Debra Driza | Yalsa |
| 111 | Mr. Fahrenheit | T. Michael Martin | YA Books Central |
| 112 | Neverland | Douglas Clegg | Novelist |
| 113 | North American Lake Monsters: Stories | Nathan Ballingrud | 13th Dimension |
| 114 | Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck | Glommable |
| 115 | One Door Away from Heaven | Dean Koontz | Library Point |
| 116 | Pivot Point | Kasie West | Yalsa |
| 117 | Reboot | Amy Tintera | Yalsa |
| 118 | Remember Mia | Alexandera Burt | Library Point |
| 119 | Replica | Lauren Oliver | Epic Reads |
| 120 | Salem’s Lot | Stephen King | Clermont Library |
| 121 | Secret History | Donna Tartt | The Book Bird |
| 122 | Shadowland | Peter Straub | The Book Bird |
| 123 | Shallow Graves | Kali Wallace | Epic Reads |
| 124 | Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, edited | April Genevieve Tucholke | Quirk Books |
| 125 | So Close To You | Rachel Carter | Epic Reads |
| 126 | Sorry Please Thank You: Stories | Charles Yu | 13th Dimension |
| 127 | Starr Creek | Nathan Carson | Goodreads |
| 128 | STATION ELEVEN | EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL | Glommable |
| 129 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay | Michael Chabon | Bustle |
| 130 | The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All: Stories | Laird Barron | Goodreads |
| 131 | The Body | Stephen King | Bradford Library |
| 132 | The Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief & Sinister | Stephan Bachmann | San Jose Public Library |
| 133 | The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories | H.P. Lovecraft | Penguin |
| 134 | The Cemetery Boys | Heather Brewer | Epic Reads |
| 135 | The Chaos | Nalo Hopkinson | Book Riot |
| 136 | The City & The City | China Miéville | Nerdy But Flirty |
| 137 | The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo | Drew Weing. This amazing webcomic | 13th Dimension |
| 138 | The Darkest Minds | Alexandra Bracken | Yalsa |
| 139 | The Distance Between Lost and Found | Kathryn Holmes | Library Point |
| 140 | The Fold | Peter Clines | Goodreads |
| 141 | THE FOREVER WAR | JOE HALDEMAN | Vox Magazine |
| 142 | The Forgetting | Sharon Cameron | Yalsa |
| 143 | The Good House | Tannative Due | San Jose Public Library |
| 144 | The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien | The Verge |
| 145 | The Inn Between | Marina Cohen | San Jose Public Library |
| 146 | The Jumbies | Tracey Baptiste | San Jose Public Library |
| 147 | The Lost Boy | Greg Ruth | San Jose Public Library |
| 148 | The Mind Readers | Lori Brighton | Quirk Books |
| 149 | The Mist | Stephen King | Bradford Library |
| 150 | THE NEAPOLITAN QUARTET | ELENA FERRANTE | Glommable |
| 151 | THE NIX | NATHAN HILL | Glommable |
| 152 | The Outliers | Kimberly McCreight | Epic Reads |
| 153 | The Passage | Justin Cronin | Quirk Books |
| 154 | The Passion of Dolssa | Julie Berry | Yalsa |
| 155 | THE PRINCESS BRIDE | WILLIAM GOLDMAN | Glommable |
| 156 | The Rules | Stacey Kade | Yalsa |
| 157 | The Running Man | Stephen King | Bradford Library |
| 158 | The Santaroga Barrier | Frank Herbert | Goodreads |
| 159 | The Stories of Laird Barron | Criminal Element | |
| 160 | The Summer of Blind Joe Death | Criminal Element | |
| 161 | The Taking | Kimberly Derting | YA Books Central |
| 162 | The Talisman (The Talisman, #1) | Stephen King | Goodreads |
| 163 | The Tooth Fairy | Graham Joyce | Goodreads |
| 164 | This Savage Song | Victoria Schwab | Yalsa |
| 165 | UNDER THE DOME | STEPHEN KING | Vox Magazine |
| 166 | Unknown | Wendy Higgins | YA Books Central |
| 167 | Unremembered | Jessica Brody | Yalsa |
| 168 | Unstoppable | Bill Nye | Glommable |
| 169 | Utopia, Iowa | Brian Yansky | Book Riot |
| 170 | We Are The Ants | Shaun David Hutchinson | Book Riot |
| 171 | When the Moon Was Ours | Anna-Marie McLemore | Yalsa |
| 172 | Wolf by Wolf | Ryan Graudin | Yalsa |
| 173 | Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë | Glommable |
| 174 | X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga | Chris Claremont | Goodreads |
The Top Books For Stranger Things Lists
| Source | Article |
| 13th Dimension | 13 Books to Read After STRANGER THINGS |
| AM Reading | ‘Stranger Things’ Fans: Here Are 8 Books To Tide You Over Until Season 2 |
| Blum House | 5 Books to Read After Binging on STRANGER THINGS |
| Book Riot | YA BOOKS FOR FANS OF STRANGER THINGS |
| Books & Cupcakes | Book Recommendations For Fans Of ‘Stranger Things’ |
| Bradford Library | Stranger Things Influences and Read-alikes |
| Bustle | 20 Books For ‘Stranger Things’ Fans To Read Before Season 2 Comes Out |
| Clermont Library | 7 Books for Stranger Things Fans |
| Criminal Element | 13 Books to Read If You Loved Stranger Things |
| Electric Lit | Keep Culture Weird: 10 Eerie & Monstrous Books for Fans of Netflix’s Stranger Things |
| Epic Reads | 13 YA Books That Will Ease Your Stranger Things Withdrawal |
| Geeks | Must Read Books for ‘Stranger Things’ Fans |
| Glommable | Here’s What Book You Should Read Based On Your Favorite Stranger Things Character |
| Goodreads | Books like Stranger Things |
| Hallo Giggles | 10 really creepy books to read if you’re overly obsessed with “Stranger Things” |
| Library Point | If you like the TV series Stranger Things |
| Nerdy But Flirty | 11 Books for Fans of Stranger Things |
| Novelist | Binge-worthy reads for fans of Stranger Things |
| Penguin | 8 eerie books to indulge your Stranger Things obsession |
| Popsugar | 13 Books to Read If You Love Stranger Things |
| Quirk Books | 11 BOOKS FOR ELEVEN FROM STRANGER THINGS |
| San Jose Public Library | Stranger Reads for Fans of Stranger Things |
| The Book Bird | Stranger Things: Booklist Readalikes |
| The Verge | Finished binging Netflix’s Stranger Things? Pick up these 12 books next |
| Vox Magazine | Five books all ‘Stranger Things’ fans need to read before Season 2 |
| Waukegan Public Library | IF YOU LIKED “STRANGER THINGS”… |
| YA Books Central | Five books to read if you loved Stranger Things on Netflix!! |
| Yalsa | 18 Books if You Liked Stranger Things |
