Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds

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Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds
Author	Gwenda Bond
Published on	February 5, 2019 (US) February 7, 2019 (UK)
Publisher	Penguin Random House
Publication order
Next	Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town

Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds is the first official novel based on the Netflix original series, Stranger Things. Written by Gwenda Bond, it serves as a prequel to the series. The novel focuses on Eleven's mother, Terry Ives, and her time as an MKUltra test subject. It was officially released on February 5, 2019.

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • If you think you know the truth behind Dr. Brenner's experiments at Hawkins Laboratory, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in the first official Stranger Things novel—"the prequel story that fans have been waiting for" (Kirkus Reviews).

It's the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn't be farther from the front lines of Vietnam or the protests in Washington.

But the world is changing, and Terry isn't content to watch. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, code-named MKULTRA. The remote lab, deep in the woods, contains a mystery Terry is determined to uncover.

Behind the walls of Hawkins National Laboratory—and the piercing gaze of its director, Dr. Martin Brenner—lurks a conspiracy greater than Terry could have ever imagined. To face it, she'll need the help of her fellow test subjects.

Amid the rising tensions of the new decade, Terry Ives and Martin Brenner have begun a different kind of war—one where the human mind is the battlefield.

Plot

At Hawkins National Laboratory in July 1969, Dr. Brenner arrives for Project MKUltra. Briefly reminiscing about Vietnam and the Cold War, he parks and takes subject Eight in. He meets the acting principal investigator, Dr. Richard Moses and takes Eight to the other subjects. Next, he heads to a meeting where he explains the project.

Meanwhile, in Bloomington, Terry Ives returns home from an exhausting day from a diner. She finds her boyfriend, Andrew Rich, his friend, Dave, her roommate, Stacey Sullivan, and her sister, Becky, watching the Apollo 11 landing. As Terry gets herself a Schlitz, Stacey mentions signing up for a lab experiment. However, she says they injected herself with something that made her feel funny, she wasn’t going back. Since she said she would get fifteen dollars per session, Terry decides to take her place.

When Terry arrives at the campus, she witnesses Alice Johnson go into the building. She lies saying she’s Stacey so the lady would think she’s on the list. Alice bonds with her in the elevator, she got in due to her uncle and “remarkable skill.” Next, Terry meets Gloria Flowers, whose family runs a store named Flowers’ Flowers and Gifts, she worked as a biology student. There is also Ken, who claims to be a psychic, Terry likes all three of them. She also remembers her parents talking about a Nazi concentration camp that her dad, Bill, once freed, and how her mother always believed in him. When Brenner takes Terry in, she reveals that he knows that she is not Stacey due to some description notes. Nonetheless, he agrees to let Terry take her place after some convincing. Despite nothing happening yet, she manages to get the money and she and Andrew go to the Starlight for dinner and see The Wild Bunch.

The following month, Terry’s friends head for Woodstock, but she has to go back to Brenner (and was worried about the Mansons as well as Dave’s friends). Later, Terry learns that Gloria is doing this to earn credits due to some sexism and racism from her college, Alice wants a Firebird, and Ken just knows she should be here. She is working with Brenner, who has her changed into a hospital gown. He next gives her a hallucinogenic to open her mind to suggestibility, it causes her to look differently at a crystal. Alice’s tests were with Dr. Parks, she actually fixes some of her machines. However, upon using it, Alice saw spores and vines. Terry remembers her parent’s funeral, Brenner has her take away only the pain from that day. It was hard but she didn’t, reminding Brenner of Eight. He later gives her some SweeTarts, but she wants friends. Terry doesn’t ask her new friends what they experienced.

Another month later, Terry is assigned to be submerged into a tank to explore and expand her consciousness. First, she took a drink that tasted like acid. She actually finds the tank quite pleasant, Brenner instructs her to look for comfortable memories, like happily hanging out with her family or marrying Andrew. Later, the two of them go to the administrations office at their school. The woman there tells her that due to the credit of Brenner’s project, she won’t have to do her Thursday classes here. The two got suspicious of how they were tying this to her grades.

On Tuesday, Terry meets with Ken, Alice, and Gloria at the diner. They have also been excused from their classes and have their academics tied to the experiment; this makes them think. Soon Andrew arrives, they all suspect that the feds might be involved with this. During an electronic session, Alice feels somewhat uncomfortable about something, but says she is fine. Eventually, however, she sees a monster with a head that looked like a flower. Gloria has a series of tests instructed by Dr. Green, which included him asking a few questions. Meanwhile, Terry is looking for Brenner’s office, until she finds a room with a child named Kali! The two decide to keep this meeting a secret.

However, she tells Andrew about this a month later. She wants to find out the purpose of this experiment after finding Kali. She decides to visit the school library to find out more information on Brenner, but she couldn’t find anything. The doctor assures her that this is going well, thinking she is hypnotized, he wants her to plant a bug on the phone in Gloria’s flower shop. Gloria agrees to do it for her, realizing that they are experimenting on their memories. Terry also invites Gloria and her other new friends to Andrew’s Halloween party. During that party, Alice meets Stacey and enjoys Beatles’ music with the others, all having a great time. Gloria, however, asks if they had seen the monsters she saw, Alice confesses that she has during her electric shock therapy, which angers Gloria. Terry then tells them about Kali, that was probably the reason for the bug. Alice is worried, especially considering the possibility of those monsters coming after them. Meanwhile, Brenner decides to now work with Kali, but the result is not quite as successful. While eating Hostess cupcakes, she has a meltdown and casts an illusion of ocean waves. She also accidentally reveals to him that she met Terry.

In November, Terry is in the cafeteria watching President Nixon’s address about Vietnam. Once her friends arrive, everyone yells at the tv, they are the disgusted by his actions. Unfortunately for them, this gets them arrested on charges of disturbing peace and trespassing, including Andrew. It costs $100 to bail him out, Terry uses the money she earned from Hawkins. When she goes on her break at the diner, she and her friends come up with a plan to rescue Kali. Alice managed to memorize the code to the room she is in, if Ken creates a diversion, one of them could go in and get her. Alice can pick locks and Gloria could get some drug samples to analyze. Ken’s distraction is convincing the guards that he was crazy using some Zotz, allowing Terry to sneak in for some proof of Brenner’s seedy activities. The alarm goes off and Brenner himself is trying to give Ken sedatives to calm him down. Terry finds that Kali has apparently been moved and she didn’t have time to read all the files in Brenner’s office, then she gets caught! Meanwhile, Alice comes up with other plans, she demands electroshock therapy to prove that the monsters were real, but Brenner does it to Terry instead. Once it is over, she tells her friends how the lab is working with children for some project called Indigo. Unfortunately, Brenner finds out what she did upon looking at the surveillance footage. He listens to some of her phone lines of her talking about Andrew. Although surprised, Brenner decides to call his contact in Washington D.C. for a favor. As for Andrew, his parents kicked him out of the house.

In the following month of December, Andrew and his friends learn from the draft lottery that he is the first-round draft pick. Dave becomes miserable, Andrew just hopes he won’t be in Vietnam until after he’s out of school. During one of Alice’s experiments, she sees a girl with “011” on her forearm. Terry is feeling terrible due to Andrew leaving, but Brenner now wanted some blood samples, and he refuses to explain anything about these experiments. When he leaves, Kali apparently visits Terry, they talk about Brenner and Kali gives her a painful illusion of sunflowers and a rainbow as a warning. Brenner was watching the two nearby, while this was going on someone came up to him announcing that Terry was pregnant! Brenner decides to increase her protocols and keep this secret.

Later, Terry and her friends decide to go to the garage where Alice’s uncle works. While there, they begin to suspect Brenner had something to do with Andrew leaving. Alice tells them about her vision of the girl, but it doesn’t look like Kali. They know they couldn’t try and save her again, otherwise they would look like kidnappers. They need to look for proper evidence, but they officially become a fellowship like in Lord of the Rings. Andrew and Terry manage to celebrate Christmas at Becky’s house, as there was still time before he had to go.

Now, it was the beginning of 1970, the group meets back at the garage, taking into their surroundings and Terry’s butterscotch pie. Alice has been trying to use her new astral projection ability to help them, Ken apparently has a similar ability but it was more like great feelings. Alice wants them to shock her hoping it would trigger another vision, they reluctantly decided to use the drugs Gloria got and a similar homemade machine. When Terry meets with Kali again, the latter explains her ability of illusions and insists that Brenner isn’t hiding anything. Nonetheless, she considers Terry a friend, she apparently doesn’t have many.

It turns out that Alice’s uncle managed to get video footage of the lab, which Terry’s group could use against the lab’s own footage. Unfortunately for her, Andrew heard her talking in her sleep about Kali and Brenner, so the two have a heart-to-heart while Gloria thinks about going to school in California. Alice’s experiment happens in the woods near the lab, she sees Eleven in some kind of machine. Some men from the lab see the flashlight they are using, forcing them to leave.

The following month, Terry calls Andrew, he has an upcoming physical examination for his draft the next week and Terry knows he’s going to pass. As she drove to the garage, she played Elvis Presly’s “Suspicious Minds” on the radio, her parent’s favorite, it is making her really sad. They talk about Alice’s visions, which contained things that haven’t even been invented yet, confirming that she is seeing the future. Even after what Gloria did, they know they couldn’t just leave Brenner. Terry decides to make a plan with Kali and the Polaroid camera she got for Christmas. Sometime after that, Ken goes to Andrew suggesting that it would be better if he and Terry break up.

Seeing that she was upset during one of her tests, Brenner leaves Terry alone for a while. When she meets with Kali again, the two decide to create a distraction so Terry can meet her friends. She first meets Alice, who says they will help her after discussing their powers. Meanwhile, Brenner suspects that Kali had escaped, but dismisses it thinking he got her to like him. He finds her and bribes her with ice cream. Three weeks later, the Fellowship is getting ready in Alice’s uncle’s firebird car for a fun Saturday activity at a racetrack known as the Brickyard.

In March, Gloria’s parents announce to her that Brenner is coming over for dinner, and the school insisted she stay with him. Alice briefly arrives but is forced to stay due to him arriving at the same moment, he manages to get on Mr. and Mrs. Flowers’ good side. As soon as he leaves, Alice tells Gloria of a terrible future vision of Terry, who is having a nice night with Andrew. Even though they are also upset about things, they agree not to break up and take photos with her camera. At Terry’s diner, Ken and Andrew talk about Terry and his draft and they bond. Ken confesses that his family always saw him as disposable, he told them he broke up with a man and is hoping to fall in love with another one at Hawkins.

Back at the lab, Terry takes vitamins from Brenner, Kali also tells her she has another idea for her distraction. However, they announce a “Code Indigo” over the P. A. system, this gave Terry an opportunity to take pictures of the files about the projects and kids. Unfortunately, Brenner found out about their plan from Kali and takes the photo with his name plate. He claims that there are other countries like Russia who do worse experiments than this, like breeding. Undeterred, Terry secretly calls a reporter telling him to interview Brenner in three weeks.

One April morning, Terry is very paranoid about going to the lab, being concerned about her friends especially. She also gets a postcard from Andrew before he leaves the next day, telling her to live her life and think of him. Director Jim Langely, Bob Walker and other men arrive at the lab to discuss the project with Brenner greeting them. Terry sees that her Gazette reporter also arrived, she tells him that it was fine with her regarding a story on Brenner. They offer to make time for his schedule which he reluctantly agrees to. After a picture and some questions, Brenner privately speaks to Terry asking if she was responsible for this, he demands her to perfectly obey her. He has her with Kali by the tank to perform in front of Jim, Walker and the others. Kali makes fire illusions but she wasn’t happy about it, Terry is thankfully there for her. Jim is impressed, along with the prospect of more kids like her.

Meanwhile, Alice has had a vision of a giant tentacled monster, but she sees Kali all cheered up. When Terry arrives back at the parking lot with her friends, she confesses that she thinks she’s pregnant from Andrew! She doesn’t want to give it up and Brenner seems to already know, with those men it’s clear that he’s untouchable. They all try to think of a plan to escape the lab with the baby, which Ken predicts is a girl. Terry decides to pretend to be Stacey so she could go to her doctor, she agreed to make an appointment.

The appointment takes place in May, but Stacey’s creepy doctor knows Terry. He discovers that she’s in her third trimester, seven months, given the circumstances, the doctor suggests giving it up for adoption. Terry instead asks if it’s healthy, the doctor told her it is, but she should increase her caloric intake, at least her school semester would be over in a week. Later, Terry calls Andrew’s parents to tell him about the baby, but apparently something terrible happened. Ken senses this something too, it was that Andrew was killed in the war! Stacey has the Fellowship come over to try and cheer Terry up and help her study, unsuccessfully. They don’t really want to go to the lab tomorrow, Alice decides to go alone.

Out of advice from the school librarian, Terry decides to fake her own death to get away from Brenner. Ken arrives and talks to her, she has decided to name the baby Jane, she likes it and she read a National Geographic article about Jane Goodall in the doctor’s waiting room. Meanwhile, Brenner is being frustrated by Kali due to Alice not being here. She accidentally mentions the monsters, and Brenner gives Alice a warning when she appears. Terry manages to pass her finals and Becky helps her pack, the latter has decided to take on the identity of Delia Monroe, who died of tuberculosis when she was six. Becky tells her she’ll be fine as a mom, but Terry thinks it would’ve been nice with Andrew. Brenner calls telling Terry that her child will be extra exceptional, and he threatens Alice if she doesn’t come back to the lab, he already found out about her ability. After hanging up, Terry decides to have a Fellowship meeting right here and now. Despite everybody bringing baby gifts, they are shocked about Brenner’s threat. Terry thinks it would be best for Alice to stay with her cousins in Canada for a while. She has also decided to steal some files from the lab and leak them to someone, she is hoping this will shut down the lab and free the kids. Gloria will pull the fire alarm, Alice will disable the electroshock machine, Ken and Kali will also help, but that’s not the whole plan. Suddenly, some men from the lab arrive to take Alice away.

On an early Thursday morning the following month, Terry thinks about herself and her friends, and she was able to reach the void. Brenner is not letting her destroy his life’s work, when a security guard tells him that she and Gloria arrive, he is not concerned about Ken. He only gives Terry an injection for her pregnancy and takes some bloodwork. She manages to talk to Kali using the void, she tells her to use her powers to make Alice look like she’s sleeping. Unfortunately, Kali was very upset about Alice leaving, but after a talk about friendship she agrees.

Gloria picks a lock, but one fire alarm seems to be disabled. She finds another one that works by an orderly with a cleaning cart, she then runs to meet with Ken, their getaway car driver. A security officer gets Brenner telling her that Terry discovered Alice unconscious, it seems the electrodes killed her. Parks tries to get close but Terry demands her to stay away, it was actually an illusion by Kali. She threatens to expose Alice to the world, forcing Brenner to shut down the lab, saying she was leaving with Gloria and Ken. She leaves with Kali to meet up with the Fellowship while Gloria disguised is given permission to take Alice to a morgue. Ken’s car stopped at Unionville’s Greyhound station near Bloomington and Larrabee. Ken has a bus ticket for Canada, Alice also has a suitcase with a different set of clothes, they say their tearful goodbyes to her.

Brenner calls Jim Langely, who heard about what happened, he decides to make a cover story about a drunk driver crashing at the lab. He drives to the Larrabee hospital where Terry is probably giving birth, knowing the drug he injected will take effect. The Fellowship actually arrive at her house to rest, after Terry is dropped off, she feels pain, meaning the baby is coming. Becky drives her to the hospital, where the doctors deliver baby Jane Ives. However, after losing consciousness, Terry couldn’t find Jane, Becky says that the doctors were unable to save her. However, Terry knows that she is alive, she saw the doctors give her to a man.

Five months later, Brenner has a nurse put Jane in a stroller. Kali has no idea of her presence yet. She is a lot of trouble for Brenner with her tantrums, but he knows that her role will come. Soon he introduces her to Kali as her new sister. Meanwhile, Terry was sitting in a park thinking about how everyone refused to listen to her when she mentioned that Brenner took her baby. She also lost her own powers, but on the bright side, Ken found someone, and Alice is working with her cousins and loves Canada. When Gloria comes by Terry, they still get along. Gloria reveals that Ken’s new boyfriend works for the lab; he has managed to get a photo of Jane that was known as “Subject 011”. This makes Terry cry, as she knows she will reunite with her child someday.

Characters

• Terry Ives
• Becky Ives
• Dr. Martin Brenner
• Andrew Rich
• Gloria Flowers
• Alice Johnson
• Ken
• Kali Prasad
• Eleven (as a newborn)

Promotion

On September 27, 2018, Entertainment Weekly published the novel's first chapter, along with the novel's official cover. On January 30, 2019, Variety published another excerpt from the novel which revealed Eleven's mother's first encounter with Dr. Martin Brenner. The Barnes and Noble edition of the book includes a limited edition poster.

Release

While the novel was set to be published on February 5 (US) and February 7 (UK), the release date was unintentionally broken when it was revealed that a few copies were already being sold by some enterprising retailers as early as January 30 at an airport in Jakarta.

Gallery

Alternative Cover

External links

• Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds on Amazon
• Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds on Amazon UK
• Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds on Penguin Random House