The Prologue to One of Stranger Things’ Hidden Treasures
In 2016, Netflix disrupted the streaming game with the launch of the original series, Stranger Things. Created by Batt and Ross Duffer, the show dove immediately into 1980’s nostalgia. The soundtrack, costumes and set design were right out of the 80’s. The first scene opened with a group of kids playing Dungeons & Dragons. The boys rode their bikes everywhere. Even the spooky light through the trees and quick camera work were reminiscent of 80’s horror movies.
Following the success of Season One, the Duffer Brothers were introduced to a new challenge. For the following season(s), how closely would they rely on their core characters. If they brought in new characters, would the ensemble become too watered down or too confusing? If they didn’t, would there ever be any real life-threatening drama around the core kids?
Fortunately, the Duffers and their expert writing room continued to inject new characters, actors and personalities into the story. Season Two brought gems like Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and Max (Sadie Sink). Season Four introduced the flamboyant head of the Hellfire Club, Eddie (Joseph Quinn.) Season Three, however, brought in one of the show’s most underrated and complex characters, Robin (Maya Hawke.)
Robin works at the mall ice cream shop, Scoops Ahoy! Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) is a new employee, and she is tasked with showing him the general job requirements of slinging scoops of ice cream for mall rats. This odd pairing spends a great deal of the season trying to decode puzzles and figure out the Russian involvement in all of Hawkins’ dark affairs.
Before the mall and getting pulled into the strange part of Stranger Things, Robin faced a lot of social challenges. She was a band geek who relied on a small group of friends, stayed relatively off the radar of the larger high school cliques, and dreamt about going to Europe someday.
Expertly written by author A.R. Capetta, Robin’s backstory is the subject of the Stranger Things companion novel, Rebel Robin. The book starts as Robin and her friends are trying to navigate their sophomore year at Hawkins High. Despite being one of the most purely intelligent students, social anxiety and some other undefined challenges have Robin feeling unsteady.
The novel provides an excellent portrait of a geeky girl full of high school angst. Readers get to find out where Robin was when Will goes missing (launching the first season of the show.) She has some brief conversations with Joyce and Johnathon and seems to always be in some sort of orbit with Steve. Where the who has viewers immediately immersed in the major plot points, this novel is akin to watching a reaction video. Robin is not intimately familiar with Will or his family. Instead, those events serve more to tie the novel to the show than to forward the plot or character development.
Rebel Robin is a great read. Readers don’t have to have gone to a rural high school or have endured high school in the 80’s to appreciate Robin’s never-ending list of obstacles. She wants to be happy, but Hawkins has her trapped. Will Operation: Croissant be a success? Read on to find out.