The second official Stranger Things novel succeeds at detailing Jim Hopper’s detective days in New York, but fails to bring the strange we know and love.
With just a few months to go before a new season of Stranger Things comes to Netflix, fans are eager for anything and everything that will preoccupy their minds — and it helps if it’s Stranger Things related. Thus it seems perfect for Del Rey to put out the second official Stranger Things novel now — Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town by Adam Christopher.
Darkness on the Edge of Town succeeds in giving Chief Hopper an interesting backstory. Much of the novel follows Hopper as a detective in New York during the summer of 1977. While this is the Summer of Sam, Hopper and his partner, Detective Rosario Delgado, find there’s something much more sinister going down in the city that never sleeps. We also get glimpses of Hopper as a father and husband before sickness took hold of his daughter Sara and his wife, Diane, and he divorced. Hopper’s tasked with using all his skills, include those he acquired while serving in Vietnam, to take down a Satanic cult leader.
While all of that is exciting and thrilling, Darkness on the Edge of Town doesn’t fully feel like it fits well into the Stranger Things world. Instead, it reads more like a classic detective novel with sprinkles of sci-fi. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it weren’t for the fact that fans like myself are used to Demogorgons and laboratory experiments. We expect similar elements in this novel — only the second Stranger Things novel to be published.
Darkness is dark, absolutely, but it isn’t as strange as this reader would like, except perhaps when it comes to its characterization of the story’s two leading ladies.
To his credit, Christopher does a great job with Chief Hopper — both the present-day, grizzled Hopper we know from the Netflix series, and a much younger, less jaded Hopper with a loving family and hope to do some good in this world. I could easily hear David Harbour in Christopher’s portrayal of the Hawkins police chief.
The issue with characters comes down to the story’s two key women — Eleven, Hopper’s now adopted daughter, and his partner, Detective Delgado.
Attempts to illustrate Eleven as curious about everything Hopper experienced in New York and Vietnam end up making her seem dull and naive. And that is not the Eleven we’ve come to love.
Yes, she’s a kid who’s been closeted most of her life. But having Eleven slowly sound out words like Vietnam or thinking a serial killer kills cereal is beyond frustrating to read. To compare, Gwenda Bond’s writing of Eight in Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds succeeded in depicting her as curious, without making her appear like a foolish girl. Even in the Stranger Things series, kids like Mike and Dustin or new girl Max have been inquisitive without looking stupid. To do this to Eleven hurts her character and diminishes her story.
As for Hopper’s partner, Delgado, the issue here isn’t so much her character herself. I’ll give one thumb up for inclusion — a Cuban female detective working in homicide, and one who could run circles on Hopper any day of the week to boot, is commendable. What isn’t so much is the phrasing of her attitude, her sass, and at times what she’s wearing.
Within the story itself, Hopper’s discussion with Eleven about why male NYPD cops did not appreciate a female homicide detective left a lot to be desired. Phrases like “this was a long time ago, and things were different then” when it comes to sexism in the workplace are entirely too old, even for a story that’s set in the ’80s.
Overall, this second Stranger Things novel accomplishes its goal of fleshing out Chief Hopper — and it’ll be interesting to see if any of the experiences noted in Darkness are mentioned in season 3 of the series. However, if you’re seeking the creepy oddities that we’ve come to know and love from the franchise, or are like me and are eager for strong, well-written female leads, this might not be the best way to entertain yourself ahead of the new season.
Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town is available now. Netflix’s Stranger Things returns to Netflix for its third season on July 4.