I really should’ve been more careful when picking this book for media tie-in. I love Stranger Things, big fan, love the concept, think it’s very well done, etc. I really hate the feeling of dread that comes from knowing things aren’t gonna end well. I’ve got some anxiety issues, and I really don’t read to get more anxiety issues. So why, you may ask, did I pick a book about Eleven’s mum knowing how she ends up? I have no clue but it was not a good choice, and it took me ages to get over the stress and start enjoying this book. 

Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1) by Gwenda Bond  is the story of how Eleven’s mum met doctor Brennan and the experiment she was involved in. We meet her as an energetic young student who wants to change the world. It is set on the backdrop of the Vietnam war and Woodstock. 

11’s mum and a few other students sign up for an experiment, to make some extra cash during uni, they make fast friends, and I really enjoyed all the main characters, they quirks and their dynamics as a group. Also the shift in portrayal of doctor Brennan from competent if harsh professional to ruthless monster was interesting. I’m curious to look up how many of the questionable if not outright immoral experiment practices from the book here actually happening during 60s, but afraid to find out. I was worried that it would just be expanding on the plot related to 11’s mum that we see in the show, but it was set well before that. Oh and we see a very young Kali, who is very sweet and powerful. 

Personally, I loved this next part, but I can imagine that some readers will have the opposite reaction. I loved how modern the book felt; I’m not saying that reasonable views about people of color or women wouldn’t have existed back then, but I just haven’t found them in fantasy books all that much. Things like the MC’s dad describing the horrors of WW2 concentration camps, the way the guards could be so horrible and not see that what they were doing was wrong, and the insistence that nothing like that could happen in American because people wouldn’t let it all really stuck out to me. I loved that the smartest person in the group is a black woman and she talks about challenges that raises for her, in town or at school.

Overall I think Suspicious Minds is a great addition to the Stranger Things universe, and fans should give it a try, but maybe not anxious fans like myself. 

Bingo squares: published in 2019, audiobook, media tie-in hard mode,