"Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town" is another fun installment in the Stranger Things series. I liked this one more than the first.

I was slightly wary going into this story because my history with book adaptations is not always the greatest! And Stranger Things has such a magnificent nostalgic vibe I wasn’t sure how it would translate on the page, but Darkness on the Edge of Town honestly ended up being a really enjoyable read for me!

In this book, we start out with Hopper and Eleven trying to occupy themselves during their first Christmas together. Eleven finds a box that ends up raising questions about Hopper’s past and he precedes to tell her a story about his old life as a detective in New York City.

It’s 1977, and New York City is going through a dark time; plentiful street gangs, serial killings, and other criminal activities are beginning to overwhelm the city. Hopper and his new partner begin their investigation of a suspected serial killer when unannounced federal agents show up and seize their case. As Hopper and his partner attempt to continue their investigation on the sly, they begin to realize that what is happening is even darker than they first assumed.

Even though I was worried that this book wouldn’t carry the same nostalgic vibe with it as Stranger Things does, I was not disappointed in this book's ability to evoke nostalgic vibes, albeit much darker ones than even Stranger Things! I really enjoyed the way the author was able to capture New York City at the height of this gritty, dark period. The serial killer plotline, the creepy semi-cult involvement and the noir detecting all spoke so heavily to my little murderino self! (They even throw in a Son of Sam reference!)

This was a fun, quick read for me and I really enjoyed spending more time in the Stranger Things world, even if it was an earlier, darker era. I would recommend this to fans of the show, and people who haven’t watched the show as well. There is very little reference to the plot of the show itself aside from the beginning and it would be pretty easy for someone who has never experienced the show before to still enjoy this story.

I loved this book! I love Hopper, I love Eleven/Jane, I love stranger things. I love that we got a look into Hopper's life before the show started and things were explained in a lot of detail so we know why Hopper is the person he is when we first meet him in the show. Once you've read this book his character is so much richer and interesting and you can't help to cheer for him a little more, you know? He was changed by what happened New York City, as anyone would be. I would recommend this book to any Stranger Things fans. It is absolutely brilliant and so well written. You'll fall completely into the story and not want out until the very end. 5 out of 5 stars.

DNF @ 64%

I'll start by saying I've yet to watch the Stranger Things series (I am VERY behind on my tv backlog), which is likely a huge factor in my rating. Judging from other reviews, fans of the series will enjoy this book much more than I did.

Unfortunately, this isn't a book for a non-fan. It's not incomprehensible to someone unfamiliar to the series—there weren't really any references or callbacks that I couldn't immediately understand from context. It's simply a book that lacks a strong narrative or interesting characterisations to someone who's not already a fan of Hopper.

While there were some charming scenes between the main character, Detective Hopper, and his adopted daughter El, and also between him and his partner Detective Rosario Delgado (who reminds me a bit of Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn 99 with her take-no-shit attitude), the bulk of the book is a standard police procedural—unfortunately one rather flimsy and dull. I love a good mystery; alas, there is none to be found here. The pacing was slow, the tension absent, the twists and turns tepid rather than surprising. The writer is technically skilled, but the prose would nonetheless venture into over-exposition so often that any sense of suspense would vanish halfway through a paragraph.

Several characters would do things that defied logic, bits and pieces of dialogue would read as cartoonish rather than dramatic. The scene where a certain character blackmails Hopper into helping him was absurd considering how the detective was already upfront about his willingness to help. No, seriously, Hopper is outright begging to work on the case ("we can work together!"), and he then has his life and family threatened...to force him to help with the case? Say what? It felt like a weird galaxy-brain meme rather than logical, realistic dialogue.

I will say that I liked the peek into the crime-ridden New York of the 70s. Very cool, and the author's research into the era really shone. I just wish the rest of the book had as much personality and style injected into it.

Let me preface this by saying that I have watch Stranger Things, seasons 1 and 2. I really like Stranger Things, the Netflix series. It has a nice combination of 80's nostalgia, supernatural, Government conspiracy, and mystery.

This book, though...it fell flat. It includes two characters from the series (Hopper and Eleven), but is primarily centered on Hopper and his past as a detective in New York. Honestly, I spent half of the book wondering why the book had Hopper moving from Hawkins to New York, when he obviously ends up in Hawkins again at some point in his life. It just seemed to be a plot location of convenience.

The story itself was pretty generic. Set in New York in the late 70's, Hopper is a detective that is tracking down a serial killer. While he is trying to figure out the clues, the Feds come in and take over the case. For whatever reason, the head honcho of the Feds decides Hopper must go undercover and infiltrate a "supergang" run by Saint John, a persuasive leader that has united multiple gangs in the city to create The Vipers. Apparently, Saint John is setting up some secret Army of his own...and that's about all the information you will get from the book, too.

I just didn't find this book very compelling, but I kept reading it thinking it might get better. Overall, it was pretty forgettable. It didn't really add anything to Hopper's backstory (you meet Diane and Sara, but just barely) other than to tell you that he was in Vietnam. Okay, great. But I didn't really see how most of this book tied into the show, or anything I know about the character from the show. As a detective/thriller sort of novel...it was a light read that I would never pick up again.

Huge fan of the show and this novel did not disappoint! Couldn’t put it down. Was up all night!

Great look into a fan favorite character’s past, even teasing more story beats for other possible novels....(What REALLY happened in Vietnam?)

Gripping murder mystery with a Stranger Things Sci-fi twist that will hold me over until Season 3 in July.

An uninteresting police procedural serial killer story with a thin gene of Stranger Things on top of it, as tonally convincing as cheap laminate wood. This is the kind of tie-in book that makes people hate tie-ins.

A solid thriller novel with dark undertones that gives a backstory about Hoppers' time in New York. Told in flashbacks as he relates it to Eleven. It starts with Hopper and his partner (I have a nagging feeling, that we will get to see her in the coming series, but maybe that's just me) on a trail of a serial killer, but things turn weirder.
The book is good, but not stellar. Part of the reason is that there is not much tension - we know Hopper survived and his partner did, too (in an early scene, which could be avoided or put in a later part of the book he tells it to Eleven).
The atmosphere of NY in the 70s is interesting and feels real, but I'm too young to know for sure.
Overall, not a bad addition to the Stranger Things universe, but doesn't feel like a required reading.

If you are a fan of Stranger Things like I am you need to get this book. This is my fix until the next episodes come out in July. While I was reading it was like I was watching an episode. I hope this is just the first of many of these books.
Hopper is telling Eleven about his past when he was a detective in New York City. He knows the subject matter is too advanced for Eleven but she is no normal girl. His story helps Eleven better understand Hopper and his past. It helps her understand his dedication to his job.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this ebook.

While I’m a huge fan of Stranger Things, this book, which takes place between Seasons 2 and 3, read way too much like fanfiction. We get a semi-interesting look into Hopper’s backstory (his life as a homicide detective in 1970’s NYC with his wife and daughter), but it only served a limited purpose of going deeper into a character I personally don’t care enough about (sorry, but I don’t).

Sure, for the most part I didn’t hate this book, but I wasn’t necessarily craving an average crime/thriller story slash flashback character study. It could’ve worked as its own separate entity away from the Stranger Things world if the chance was given: as any stereotypical detective story. Because honestly, although written well, it’s packed with crime story clichés, and the baseline here is that it’s simply generic. The actual reasoning of Hopper and Delgado going behind the backs of federal agents and their superiors is flimsy and unconvincing, “This is our city” blah blah blah. I didn’t buy it. I found myself skimming entire paragraphs of overstuffed exposition, too, because this book is also unnecessarily long. It could’ve easily been 100 pages less, and the impact would’ve been a bit better. Instead, it’s wordy, bloated, and frankly boring.

Vignettes between Hopper and El are sprinkled throughout, which was kind of nice, and their “father/daughter” rapport is pretty spot on from what’s been seen on the show, but... I don’t know. I just wasn’t entertained. I wanted more, well, Stranger Things, and this very barely delivered.

Honestly, this didn't really need the Stranger Things tie to work. The scenes of Hopper in New York in the 70s work on their own. It's a solid mystery. We have the city already on edge with the heat wave, the Son of Sam, and inherent racism. There are some minor magical/sci-fi elements. Really though, its a murder mystery and decent entertainment.

A suspenseful and compelling plunge into Police Chief Jim Hopper’s backstory, exploring his days as a homicide detective.

Just after Christmas 1984, in Hopper's cabin, Eleven finds a box labeled "New York." Within this box contains Hopper's memories from a particular time in his life when he worked for NYPD as a homicide detective. Eleven begs Hopper to tell her the story behind it and he reluctantly agrees to. The story takes place between the kitchen table in 1984 in Hopper's cabin and his time in 1977 solving a bizarre string of murders in New York and hops back and forth as Hopper relays the story to Eleven.

When compared to Suspicious Minds, I feel this is a stronger, original story. It doesn't feel like an already existent episode of Stranger Things drawn out over 400 pages. There is mystery, crime, and quite a bit of action. The middle does feel a little like it is filled with some fluff. I lost some interest in the middle.

There is also an attempt to bring in some of the supernatural elements and science fiction that Stranger Things is known for but I feel like they don't totally commit to it. They mentioned a few odd things that happen, and mention the MK Ultra project in one conversation, and suggest that the main antagonist may have some special powers, but that idea is completely forgotten by the end. Sooo.... did he have abilities like Eleven? Or was he just suffering from PTSD and had delusions and formed a cult? Kind of unclear.

Overall I would probably give it a 3.5 because I thought it was better than Suspicious Minds but felt a little forced to fit into the Stranger Things world.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Stranger Things is one of my favorite shows and I enjoyed the first novel so I was thrilled to get approved for this next installment. I think I actually liked Darkness on the Edge of Town a little more than Suspicious Minds. This novel primarily follows Jim Hopper, my favorite adult character in the series, at Christmas 1984 with Eleven as he tells her about his past as a detective in NYC 1977 with his wife and daughter. The brutal serial killer case he tells her about is that last one he was on before everything in his life changed. I enjoyed this look into Hopper's past. We don't know much about his life before the series aside from the fact that he's no longer married and that his daughter died, but I liked this glimpse into his past. The novel doesn't go into the family tragedy aspect which is just fine with me, but it does a good job of showing just how dedicated he was to his wife and daughter. As a mystery/ crime novel, it really stands up too. There is a bit of a Stranger Things twist, but it isn't as focused on it which still works even if I would have liked a some more on that front. As for the characters, Delgado was easily my favorite of the new characters and Hopper himself felt entirely true to form, but Eleven seemed closer to her season one self rather than how we leave her at the end of the second season. Finally, if you are a fan of Stranger Things on Netflix or even crime novels in general, I highly recommend picking this up. I can't wait to see more of this novel series.

Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town by Adam Christopher is the second novel that takes place in the Stranger Things universe. I did not read the first one which was about Eleven's mother, but I wanted too and was very interested, but wasn't able to, so when this novel came available on netgalley i had to request it. I was super excited to receive it early for any honest review. I'm a big fan of the show and eagerly awaiting the third season of Stranger Things July 4th on Netflix. So approaching this book review as a fan. Do you have to read this to get a deeper lore for the series? No. This novel is a total fan fiction and deeper character study of Detective Harper. Is there any hint to what happens in Season 3? No, this novel does happen between season 2 and 3, so we do get quick update to what characters have been doing since the Night Flyer, but mainly this is a book about the characters of Eleven and Detective James Hopper. I want to think netgalley and Del Rey Publishing for sending me an early copy of Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town by Adam Christopher in exchange for an honest review.

The Plot: Eleven and Hopper are alone together on dreary day, all El's friends have gone out of town so she's stuck alone with Hopper. Hopper makes a reference to the Vietnam War which makes Eleven ask questions, that he refuses to answer or talk about. Eleven ask about New York, which he starts telling her about then, she brings a box down with files, that has New York on it, and he proceeds to tell the story of New York in the Summer of 1977. There's a big serial killer making the news called the Son of Sam, and Hopper and his new partner Delgado, one of the first female detectives, are busy trying to solve the Card Killer a new serial killer, they're trying to keep out of the press. Detective Hopper finds a connection to gangs that could lead to solving it when he's taken off the case and the FBI takes over. Hopper and his partner are upset. Then a clue walks in, a gang member that knows things and wants to save his sister from the gang, Hopper and Delgado the only people who know about the gang connection decide to follow the connection, and it leads to cover up, murder, Hopper framed as a cop killer and a whole lot more.

What I Liked: Seeing Hopper as a true family man with his wife and kid, not the broken man we meet in the first season. There still is a stranger things vibe to the story, but not copying on the show. The Eleven and Hopper relationship is a fun one and often unintentionally funny. The villain was really good and terrifying in his conviction and goals for New York. Delgado was a good character. I liked the way the story was told flipping back to Hopper telling the story to Eleven.

What I Disliked: Eleven had no teenage angst she had in Season 2 so it felt like Eleven from Season 1. We didn't get the closure I wanted on how Hopper came back to Hawkins. There's an action scene that goes on too long, and a got lost in where the characters were in the action.

Recommendation: if you're even a casual fan of the show, there's a lot to get out of it, so I do recommend it. If you've never seen the show the Eleven and Hopper relationship is going to be a little weird and you will probably be lost with all the show references, but you can totally understand Hopper's story. I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars.

This has been the perfect holdover until Stranger Things continue on July 4th! It is a story told from Hopper’s POV about his time in NYC to Eleven as a story to keep her occupied. The flow of the writing is amazing, I love the alternations between edge-of-your-seat excitement during Hopper’s story and the sweet moments between him and El. If you’re a Stranger Things fan at all, you need to pick up this book. If you like fantasy at all, you need to pick up this book. If you like crime dramas, you need to pick up this book. Catch my drift?

5/5

This was just a FANTASTIC read, and an amazing companion for the show! This was my intro, and its got me HOOKED! Amazing!

Highly recommended for any Stranger Things fan - a great way to get more insight into one of the more mysterious and interesting characters - Chief Jim Hopper and the experiences and losses that made him.

Wasn't sure what to expect from this Stranger Things novel. The only other one, Suspicious Minds, received mixed reviews from fans of the TV series. Darkness on the Edge of Town, however, is a backstory of one of the most beloved characters from the show, Jim Hopper, as a detective in the NYPD, seven years before he first meets Eleven. The majority of the text is set in 1977, but there are several intercut scenes in 1984, where Hopper is recalling the events of the story to Eleven. It's kind of like a Princess Bride thing.

It starts as any by-the-book police procedural. Hopper investigating multiple homicides, a rookie cop, Feds vs local police conflict, etc. Don't expect much in the realism department here. He's a rogue cop who plays by his own rules & that's miraculously always in the right. Hopper in the book doesn't really seem to have the temperament to be a detective, and it didn't do much to make his character more sympathetic.

A lot of the stakes for him seem melodramatic. Someone threatens his family in a completely unnecessary and cartoonishly villainous way. The bad guys don't seem coherent, and law enforcements eventual solution makes no sense. There's several cliches, my least favorite is the "I can't tell my wife what's going on because reasons." The back half of the book, though, picks up and gets pretty exciting. I'd just set both your expectations from the franchise and how police officers work aside before jumping in.

I did really like the portions with Eleven, though, and wish there were more of them. Hopper at one point was explaining to a young girl in the 80s about sexism and racism in the 70s (for an audience in 2019). I get why they can't really put more of 1984 Hawkins in a novel while the show is still coming out, but this book feels like filler. Entertaining filler, but pretty disconnected.

Stranger Things is returning to screens this summer for its third season and it seems that Netflix is pulling out all the stops to promote it. With multiple novels and comic mini-series, the Stranger Things universe just seems to be growing and growing. And, here's the thing: these Stranger Things novels are really turning out to be pretty enjoyable reads. I loved the first one, Suspicious Minds (written by Gwenda Bond) and I quite enjoyed this second one, Darkness on the Edge of Town. It's not quite as spectacular as the first one - and it doesn't quite reveal anything as shocking or interesting as that book - but it ends up being a pretty solid crime novel with a Stranger Things twist.

This novel, like Suspicious Minds, focuses on the backstory of one of the characters of Stranger Things. This time, it's James Hopper (played by David Harbour in the series). The novel opens on the day after Christmas, 1984, with Eleven asking Hopper to tell her a story about his past. After some persuasion, he eventually relents and tells this story. The majority of the novel is the story itself, a case that Hopper worked on while in New York, and the case ends up being pretty interesting. It starts out as a serial killer committing oddly ritualistic murders and quickly morphs into something much bigger and a bit weirder.

Don't go into this novel expecting any grand revelations about Hopper's past. We don't learn what happened to his wife or his daughter in this book, two characters noticeably missing from the TV series but given decently-sized roles in the novel. Unlike Suspicious Minds - a novel that set out to reveal all the secrets behind Eleven's mom's past, Darkness on the Edge of Town is content with simply telling the story of one of Hopper's past cases and this isn't really a bad thing because the case it tells is a damn interesting one. Written like a crime novel, the mystery at the heart of Darkness on the Edge of Town unfolds at a decent pace. The audience is thrown into the case several weeks after it began - a wise decision from author Adam Christopher - and the pace never slows down from there.

This mystery isn't really one that could be figured out by readers as they read it. It's less of a whodunnit and more of an insight as to how Hopper operated as a detective. Even so, it's a lot of fun watching the various elements of the case come together at the end, with everything getting explained in a pretty satisfying way. I do wish the mystery had done a bit more with some of the weirder elements that were initially introduced - this is a serial killer who kills people in a ritualistic manner in order to bring about something called "The Day of the Serpent" and then the book never really goes as far as you'd like it to with that element of the story - especially when considering it's set within the Stranger Things universe. This isn't really a big problem, though; just more of a personal taste. Overall, it's a well-written mystery that unfolds in an engaging, surprising, and satisfying way.

As previously mentioned, the novel sets up a framing story in which Eleven asks Hopper to tell her something about his past and we're reading the story he tells her. However, the entirety of the novel is written in a third-person point-of-view, which does break that illusion a bit. I feel like it was a missed opportunity to not have the majority of the novel told in a first-person point-of-view to better tie in the bulk of the story with the framing device but, again, it's a minor nitpick. The writing is superb, with plenty of time being spent on taking us into Hopper's head and allowing us to see how he's feeling and how he thinks his way through situations. Christopher should be pleased with how well-executed the writing in this novel is.

Mystery novels live and die off of the strength of the main character and the mystery. As we've already discussed, Darkness on the Edge of Town has a pretty good mystery, so it all comes down to how good the main character is. Hopper was always one of the more interesting characters on the show because of his mysterious past and that remains true here. While I wish the novel had gone a bit further into revealing some of Hopper's mysteries (like what happened to his wife and daughter!), it's extremely nice getting to see a younger version of Hopper who still has some kind of hope in the world left. He's cynical, but not quite as cynical as he was in the first season of the show. Here, we get to see him in his element, solving a huge case and risking everything in order to do so. Christopher captures Hopper's voice extremely well and nails the characterization just as well. Hopper is the obvious main character here, but the other characters are just as well-written, even if they don't play a particularly big role in the story. Christopher is great at writing his characters and all that work definitely pays off.

All in all, Darkness at the Edge of Town is another deeply enjoyable entry in the growing series of Stranger Things novels. While it's significantly more grounded in reality than the previous entry and doesn't contain as many massive revelations as that first book, it's still a great exploration of a fan-favorite character. At the heart of the story is an interesting, well-written character in James Hopper and an engaging, surprising, and satisfying mystery. It's a well-written, well-paced, fast read and it should easily please fans of the series who are craving any new Stranger Things stories.