So you just finished Stranger Things. Maybe you binged the final season in one weekend. Maybe you stretched it out, savoring every last moment with the Hawkins crew. Either way, now it’s over, and you’re staring at your screen wondering what to do with yourself.

I’ve been there. That empty feeling when a show you love ends is real.

But here’s the good news. The Duffer Brothers didn’t invent this world out of nothing. They grew up reading books that had the same vibes, the same scares, the same heart. And those books are still waiting for you.

I’ve put together a list of reads that capture what makes Stranger Things special. The friendship. The 80s nostalgia. The small-town secrets. The kids facing ancient evils that adults can’t see. Some are modern, some are classics. But they all feel like they belong in Hawkins.

1. The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

This one hits different.

It’s the 1980s in Niagara Falls. A young boy named Calvin spends his summers with his eccentric uncle, who runs a “ghost club” investigating local legends and haunted spots. Calvin and his new friends bike around town, chasing rumors of the supernatural, having the kind of adventures that define childhood.

But here’s the thing. This book isn’t really about ghosts. It’s about growing up, about the stories we tell ourselves, about how the monsters we face as kids aren’t always the ones lurking in the dark .

The Stranger Things connection is obvious. Kids on bikes. Small-town mystery. That line between harmless fun and something darker. But this book has a tenderness to it that caught me off guard. By the end, I was crying. Not sad crying exactly. Just moved.

Craig Davidson wrote another book you might know called A Long Way Down. He knows how to write about boys becoming men, about friendship that matters.

2. My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Okay, this one is wild.

It’s 1988. Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since grade school. They do everything together. Then Gretchen goes missing for a night, and when she comes back, something is wrong with her.

This book is like if Stranger Things and The Exorcist had a baby, and that baby grew up listening to 80s pop music . It’s gross and scary and sad and sweet all at the same time. The friendship between Abby and Gretchen is the heart of everything. Abby refuses to give up on her friend, even when Gretchen starts acting like someone else entirely. Even when that someone else might be Satan.

Grady Hendrix writes horror that feels human. His books are scary, sure, but they’re also funny and warm and weirdly relatable. This one has a scene involving a exorcism that I’ll never forget. It’s set in a gymnasium. There’s a soundtrack. It’s bizarre and perfect.

3. It by Stephen King

I know, I know. Everyone recommends Stephen King when you mention Stranger Things. But there’s a reason for that.

The show practically wears its influences on its sleeve. The kids riding bikes. The small town with dark secrets. The ancient evil that wakes up every generation. The friend group that has to stick together to survive. All of that comes straight from King .

It follows seven kids in Derry, Maine, who call themselves the Losers Club. They’re outcasts, misfits, kids who don’t fit in anywhere else. And they’re the only ones who can see the truth about the thing that’s been taking children from their town.

The book is massive. Over a thousand pages. But it earns every single one. King takes his time building these kids, making you love them, making you believe in their friendship. So when the horror comes, it actually matters.

Plus, there’s a fun connection for Stranger Things fans. Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler, played young Richie Tozier in the 2017 movie adaptation . So it’s like the universe coming full circle.

4. Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan

This one is a graphic novel, which means you get the double pleasure of great writing and gorgeous art.

It’s 1988. Four twelve-year-old newspaper delivery girls are making their rounds the morning after Halloween. That’s when things get weird. They stumble into a conflict involving time-travelers, future versions of themselves, and forces they can’t begin to understand .

The 80s nostalgia is thick here. The music, the clothes, the bikes. But what makes it work is the girls themselves. They’re not all friends at first. They’re just kids with a job, thrown together by circumstance. Watching them become a team, watching them fight for each other, that’s the heart of the story.

Brian K. Vaughan wrote Y: The Last Man and Saga. He knows how to do epic stories with real emotional weight. Cliff Chiang’s art is beautiful, expressive, and perfect for the tone.

There was an Amazon Prime adaptation a few years back that didn’t quite capture the magic. The comics are where it’s at.

5. The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune

If your favorite part of Stranger Things is the bond between Hopper and Eleven, this book is for you.

The story follows a journalist who crosses paths with a soldier and the remarkable little girl he’s vowed to protect. The girl is special in ways that aren’t immediately clear. She has abilities. She’s being hunted. And the two adults will do anything to keep her safe .

T.J. Klune writes with so much heart. His books feel like warm hugs, even when they’re dealing with dark material. The House in the Cerulean Sea fans will recognize his touch here. There’s danger and suspense, sure. But there’s also found family, the kind that chooses each other against all odds.

I won’t spoil what makes the girl special. Part of the joy is discovering it alongside the characters. Just know that by the end, you’ll be emotionally wrecked in the best way.

6. The Institute by Stephen King

Another King book, I know. But this one is specifically for fans of the Hawkins lab stuff.

Luke Ellis is twelve years old. He’s smart, maybe genius-level smart. His parents are murdered in the night, and he’s kidnapped and taken to a place called the Institute. It’s a facility hidden in the woods of Maine, filled with other kids who have special abilities. Telekinesis. Telepathy. Things that make them valuable to the people running the place .

The kids are kept in a place called the Front Half, where they’re tested and studied. If they don’t cooperate, or if their powers aren’t strong enough, they’re sent to the Back Half. And no one comes back from the Back Half.

This book is King doing what he does best. Taking a terrifying premise and filling it with kids you love, kids you root for, kids you desperately want to see escape. The Institute feels like a darker, more modern version of the Hawkins lab. The experiments are more brutal. The stakes are just as high.

7. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

This one leans more YA, but don’t let that stop you.

A mysterious disease has killed most of America’s children. The ones who survived are left with dangerous powers. The government, terrified of what these kids can do, rounds them up and puts them in camps. Ruby is one of the strongest, so she’s kept in a special facility, studied, controlled, treated like a weapon .

Then she escapes. She joins a group of teens on the run, kids who’ve built their own family in the ruins of the old world. Together, they fight for freedom while the adults around them debate whether they should be saved or eliminated.

The parallels to Eleven are obvious. A girl with powers she can’t fully control. A government that sees her as a tool. A found family that teaches her she’s more than just a weapon.

8. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

This is the book that set the template.

Two boys, Will and Jim, live in a small Midwestern town. It’s October, the best time of year. Then a traveling carnival arrives, and something feels wrong about it from the start. The carnival offers people their deepest desires. But there’s always a price .

Bradbury’s prose is like poetry. He writes fear softly, letting it creep up on you rather than jumping out. The friendship between Will and Jim feels real, feels like something you remember from your own childhood. And the carnival, with its mirrors and its secrets and its promises, is one of the great horror creations.

The line that gets me every time: “First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.”  That one sentence captures everything Stranger Things is about. The magic of childhood, the turning of seasons, the sense that something is about to happen.

9. Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Here’s a fun one.

Remember those teen detective shows from the 70s and 80s? Scooby-Doo, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew? This book takes that idea and twists it into something dark and strange.

The Blyton Summer Detective Club solved their last big case back in 1977. They caught the villain, saved the day, went their separate ways. But years later, they’re all haunted by what they found. The case never really made sense. The answers they got never quite fit. And the monster they thought was fake? It might have been real after all .

Now they’re adults, damaged and broken by experiences they never understood. They have to come back together, return to that old town, and face what they ran from all those years ago.

This book is wild. It’s funny and scary and weirdly touching. It plays with genre conventions, winks at the reader, then punches you in the gut when you’re not looking.

10. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

In 1986, a group of kids use chalk figures to send secret messages to each other. It’s a game, a way to communicate without adults knowing. Then they find a body in the woods.

Years later, the chalk figures start appearing again. The past comes back, demanding attention, demanding answers. The kids are adults now, with lives and secrets of their own. But they can’t escape what happened that summer .

This is a psychological thriller more than a horror novel, but it captures that Stranger Things energy of childhood secrets casting long shadows into adulthood. The small-town setting feels real, feels claustrophobic in the best way. And the mystery kept me guessing until the very end.

Where to Start

If you’re not sure which one to pick up first, here’s my advice.

Go with The Saturday Night Ghost Club if you want the heart. Go with My Best Friend’s Exorcism if you want the 80s and the scares with a side of humor. Go with Paper Girls if you want something visual and fast-paced. Go with It if you want to commit to something massive and rewarding.

Or just pick whichever sounds most interesting. You can’t go wrong.

The great thing about books is they’re patient. They’ve been waiting for you, some of them for decades. They’ll still be there when you’re ready.

Where to buy

Get all 10 books on Amazon or Audiobooks and enjoy your listening.

Physical book -> Amazon.com

Audiobook -> Audiobooks.com

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