The Stranger Things’ Characters Try to Outspook One Another
One of the great things about the rampant fandom surrounding Netflix’s Stranger Things series is the shear amount of companion media. From books to comics to podcasts, there is no shortage of entertainment between seasons of the hit show. One of these companion pieces is a collection of short stories titled Hawkins Horrors.
Set sometime around the beginning of Season Four, the book opens with familiar characters like Mike, Lucas, Erica, and Dustin as they drop into the Family Video for a late-night movie. Steve and Robin welcome them in, but the power is out. Instead of VCR’s and popcorn machines, the crew is left to entertain themselves with battery-powered flashlights and ghost stories.
The collection of tales, authored by Matthew J. Gilbert, is entertaining if not graphic. The target audience is interested readers anywhere from eight years old to adults. Each story is connected by an interlude of sorts as the characters react to the tales and take their turns as the storyteller intent on scaring the others.
The subject matter varies greatly, and it isn’t unusual for the characters to remind one another (and by extension, the readers) that they have seen some crazy things in Hawkins and in the Upside Down.
A few the stories center around Pennhurst Asylum and the infamous inmates it housed like serial killer Jimmy Ray Cutts. The old penitentiary serves as both backdrop and red herring in several of the stories. Others feature known places around Hawkins, or those that reference stories that the characters have heard in rumors at school.
Hawkins features some great visuals, including a coven of witches, a well-known exterminator in a HAZMAT suit, and a talking Teddy Bear. The anthology itself isn’t very long and each story is the perfect length for a scary nighttime story. Gilbert brings a long list of experience to his writing, including graphic novels like Dragon Kingdom and Creepower, and chaper books like The Super Awful Superheroes of Classroom 13.
Hawkins Horrors is a fun collection of quick reads that will once again scratch the itch that viewers may be feeling while they wait for more Stranger Things.