Stranger Things’ New Spinoff Is Out Now, Set Between Season 4 & 5

A new Stranger Things tie-in will explore more of what happened between seasons 4 and 5. The first volume of Stranger Things Season 5 released on November 27, and it showed a very different Hawkins. The town had been rocked by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, one that came alongside the opening of new gates to the Upside Down – gates that remained open even 20 months later, in November 1987. Hawkins was placed in quarantine after the town was coated with particles from the Upside Down, with the military imposing martial law.

A new novel, “One Way or Another” by Stranger Things writer Caitlin Scheiderhan – whose credits include the Season 5 episode “The Turnbow Trap” – is set during those 20 months. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Hawkins, Indiana, is in recovery. It’s been two months since Vecna’s earthquake tore through the town, and its residents are still reeling from the devastation. Nancy Wheeler has spent every waking minute on the hunt for Vecna, but he’s continued to elude her. How can she head to Emerson for college in the fall if Hawkins is still under the influence of the Upside Down?

When fellow classmate Joey Taft starts acting shifty at graduation, Nancy is convinced Vecna’s found his newest victim. Joined by fellow amateur sleuth Robin Buckley, Nancy doesn’t waste any time questioning Joey. What the girls discover leads them down the path of a bigger story than The Hawkins Post could ever have assigned Nancy. Why are people around town suddenly getting sick? Why is there a strange man tailing Nancy as she investigates? And, most important, does this even have anything to do with the Upside Down?

Is This The First of Many Nancy Wheeler Mysteries?

Readers will note that the book cover carries a banner declaring this “A Nancy Wheeler Mystery.” This is actually a smart Easter egg in its own right, because it calls out the popular “Nancy Drew Mystery” series of books that ran from 1930 to 2003. Nancy has often been jokingly (sometimes scornfully) paralleled with Nancy Drew in Stranger Things, with the Hawkins Post in particular dismissive of a girl’s ability to investigate Hawkins’ strange goings-on. They have, of course, been consistently proved wrong.

That said, Netflix is determined to launch Stranger Things spinoffs. It can only be hoped this is a proof of concept, whether for a book series or an actual spinoff TV show. Regardless, this book certainly gives a sense of what life was like in Hawkins between seasons 4 and 5, and in so doing it shines a light on the different characters. It stars Nancy and Robin, an enjoyable partnership from Season 4, which is sure to make it a delight to read.

Stranger Things: One Way or Another is on sale now from Amazon.

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