Stranger Things has been a runaway success on Netflix. Its first tie-in novel, Suspicious Minds, gives the reader an opportunity to see what made antagonist Dr. Brenner, played brilliantly on TV by Matthew Modine, into the man so feared throughout the first series; but does it live up to the same quality as the show?
Suspicious Minds starts in 1969: the moon landings have happened, war in Vietnam is rampant and Woodstock represents the best that counterculture has to offer. With this new decade comes a new opportunity for Terry, who swaps places with her friend Stacey and take part in an experiment conducted by one Dr Martin Brenner. At first it strikes Terry as a very counterculture experiment: dabbles of LSD here and there with an exploration of the human mind, until she comes across Kali, a young child who seems to be an experiment too. However, this child has a number as well as a name – 8 – and possesses powers that the world has never seen the likes of before. For Terry and the rest of the test subjects, the new decade might be bringing a new form of terror.
Suspicious Minds is unashamedly aimed at the fans of the series and there is lots to get out of this book without everything being an enormous nod back to the series:. The existence of 8 shows fans just how long the experiments of the Hawkins National Laboratory have been going on, and you also see a less clinical, less detached Dr. Brenner who’s willing to show his human side. The fact that 8 calls him “Papa” also has a faint tragic irony about it. That said, some may not appreciate the narrative being driven by only three characters – Terry, Brenner and 8. Whilst other characters such as Alice and Ken support Terry’s character development extremely well, it is unfair to expect the same time to be devoted to all characters as you would in the TV series.
Suspicious Minds is a very good read, but it is exactly that – a read. You get the development of Dr. Brenner and the descriptive atmosphere of the TV series, but readers must understand that this is a different story in a different media in the same fictional universe, so adjust your expectations accordingly.
STRANGER THINGS: SUSPICIOUS MINDS / AUTHOR: GWENDA BOND / PUBLISHER: CENTURY / RELEASE DATE: 7TH FEBRUARY
