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If You Like "Stranger Things", Try These Titles

Looking for books to fulfill your longing for 80s nostalgia and teenage hijinks?

By Kristen BarenthalerPublished 8 months ago 2 min read

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Two boys' lives are changed forever when a sinister travelling carnival stops at their Illinois town.

The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

A short, irresistible, and bittersweet coming-of-age story in the vein of Stranger Things and Stand by Me about a group of misfit kids who spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends.

It by Stephen King

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry, Maine, was just their hometown: familiar, well-ordered, a good place to live. It was the children who saw--and felt--what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, It lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each person's deepest dread. Sometimes It reached up, seizing, tearing, killing ... The adults, knowing better, knew nothing. Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of It was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until the grown-up children were called back, once more to confront It as It stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.

Carrie by Stephen King

A modern classic, Carrie introduced a distinctive new voice in American fiction -- Stephen King. The story of misunderstood high school girl Carrie White, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge, remains one of the most barrier-breaking and shocking novels of all time.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. But the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, and Julian is determined to find out what happened-- and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

Reading List

About the Creator

Kristen Barenthaler

Curious adventurer. Crazed reader. Librarian. Archery instructor. True crime addict.

Instagram: @kristenbarenthaler

Facebook: @kbarenthaler

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