You watched all of Stranger Things in one day and now you’re just going back and watching all your favorite scenes again while secretly wishing you’d exercised slightly more self-control. But it’s too late for that so it’s time to go to Option B: this list.
Welcome! We’re so happy you decided to come to us on your quest to find something to satisfy the part of your mind that craves three things and three things only: 1) Gripping narratives 2) A healthy dose of darkness 3) Relationships that show you that maybe the real stranger things were the friends we made along the way. We’re here to give you titles that deliver all three.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin -- Follow Genly Ai, a Terran diplomat, as he tries to convince the planet of Gethen to join an interplanetary alliance only to find himself foiled time and again by his ignorance of alien customs, rules, and mannerisms. His task will take him across nations, friendly and antagonistic, and into a profound, unexpected relationship with a Gethenian official. In the book that launched her to legendary status, Ursula K. Le Guin explores gender, communication, and conflict.
It by Stephen King -- A horror classic, for those who like a marathon read. Clocking in at just over 1100 pages, Stephen King’s terrifying epic follows a group of pals, known (affectionately by some, less affectionately by others) as “the Losers Club” as they battle in the past and present against an unspeakable evil that lives under their small town in Maine. Stranger Things draws a lot of its dynamic from the template laid out by King and it works every time. A great beach read for people who are already afraid of things that lurk beneath the surface.
East by Edith Pattou -- A Scandinavian fairytale retold from the perspective of a 16 year old girl as she leaves behind her beloved family in order to save them from a fate that seems inescapable. She forges a tense relationship with her companion, a polar bear with the inexplicable ability to speak, as he goes on his own journey to break a curse. Lush, mysterious, and spell- binding, this journey will take you all the way to the top of the world and back again. It’s a wild ride with wilder friendships.
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer -- Set in the near- yet- undefined future, in a City that is a chemical wasteland, Jeff Vandermeer chronicles the relationship between Rachel, a human scavenger, and her quarry, a strange and charming creature named Borne. As the relationship changes from object and owner to mother and child and, eventually, to vengeful god and terrified subject, Vandermeer unearths the way environment, fear, love, memory, and hunger all work to break or forge the bonds that drive people (or not- people) together.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman follows Nobody “Bod” Owens who is adopted and raised by the ghosts who occupy an English graveyard after Bod’s family is brutally murdered by a mysterious man named Jack. In this yarn spun in the style of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman takes an insular, near- romantic, and definitely whimsical approach to the blurry lines between the dead and the living, guardians and their charges, and the mundane and the magical.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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