Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds: The First Official Stranger Things Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A mysterious lab. A sinister scientist. A secret history. If you think you know the truth behind Eleven’s mother, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in this thrilling prequel to the hit show Stranger Things. It’s the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America, both at home and abroad. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn’t be farther from the front lines of Vietnam or the incendiary protests in Washington. But the world is changing, and Terry isn’t content to watch from the sidelines. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, code-named MKULTRA. Unmarked vans, a remote lab deep in the woods, mind-altering substances administered by tight-lipped researchers . . . and a mystery the young and restless Terry is determined to uncover. But behind the walls of Hawkins National Laboratory—and the piercing gaze of its director, Dr. Martin Brenner—lurks a conspiracy greater than Terry could have ever imagined. To face it, she’ll need the help of her fellow test subjects, including one so mysterious the world doesn’t know she exists—a young girl with unexplainable superhuman powers and a number instead of a name: 008. Amid the rising tensions of the new decade, Terry Ives and Martin Brenner have begun a different kind of war—one where the human mind is the battlefield.Praise for Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds“You’re left hungry for more, but in the best way possible, as the book manages the balancing act between interconnected prequel and standalone story.”—Cinelinx “Suspicious Minds is the prequel story that fans have been waiting for.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highly recommended for those readers interested in expanding their knowledge of the Stranger Things’ universe, this book is also a dark and captivating story that will stick in the readers’ minds even if they are not fans of the franchise.”—The Unseen Library

Review

“You’re left hungry for more, but in the best way possible, as the book manages the balancing act between interconnected prequel and standalone story.”—Cinelinx

“Suspicious Minds is the prequel story that fans have been waiting for.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Highly recommended for those readers interested in expanding their knowledge of the Stranger Things’ universe, this book is also a dark and captivating story that will stick in the readers’ minds even if they are not fans of the franchise.”—The Unseen Library

About the Author

Gwenda Bond writes YA and children’s fiction, among other things. Her novels include the Lois Lane series (Fallout, Double Down, Triple Threat), which brings the iconic comic book character front and center, and the Cirque American series (Girl on a Wire, Girl Over Paris, Girl in the Shadows), about daredevil heroines who discover magic and mystery lurking under the big top. She and her husband, Christopher Rowe, also co-write a middle-grade series, The Supernormal Sleuthing Service. Bond’s nonfiction writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, Locus, and many other publications. She has an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and their unruly pets. There are rumors she escaped from a screwball comedy, and she might have a journalism degree because of her childhood love of Lois Lane.

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A mysterious lab. A sinister scientist. A secret history. If you think you know the truth behind Eleven’s mother, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in this thrilling prequel to the hit show Stranger Things. It’s the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America, both at home and abroad. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn’t be farther from the front lines of Vietnam or the incendiary protests in Washington. But the world is changing, and Terry isn’t content to watch from the sidelines. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, code-named MKULTRA. Unmarked vans, a remote lab deep in the woods, mind-altering substances administered by tight-lipped researchers . . . and a mystery the young and restless Terry is determined to uncover. But behind the walls of Hawkins National Laboratory—and the piercing gaze of its director, Dr. Martin Brenner—lurks a conspiracy greater than Terry could have ever imagined. To face it, she’ll need the help of her fellow test subjects, including one so mysterious the world doesn’t know she exists—a young girl with unexplainable superhuman powers and a number instead of a name: 008. Amid the rising tensions of the new decade, Terry Ives and Martin Brenner have begun a different kind of war—one where the human mind is the battlefield.Praise for Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds“You’re left hungry for more, but in the best way possible, as the book manages the balancing act between interconnected prequel and standalone story.”—Cinelinx “Suspicious Minds is the prequel story that fans have been waiting for.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highly recommended for those readers interested in expanding their knowledge of the Stranger Things’ universe, this book is also a dark and captivating story that will stick in the readers’ minds even if they are not fans of the franchise.”—The Unseen Library