Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down

Taking designs cues from old hardcover Stephen King novels like Firestarter and Cujo, the book’s cover features a jacket with faux worn-and-torn corners, a clear mylar wrap, and even a used book sticker marked “FAIR” from Hawkins’ general store, Melvald’s.

Inside the book, readers will find beautiful four-color character portraits, unit photography, storyboards, and fan art, along with insightful interviews with the show’s starring actors and creative team.

Stranger Things’s creators and directors, twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, provide the book’s foreword, as well as breakout pieces and footnotes where they share the many literary, musical, and TV and film influences that informed the show.

Also included is a fold-out map topographical map of Hawkins, Indiana, a section on the Upside Down that is literally printed upside-down, and even a removable Morse code decoder that readers can use to decipher a secret message about Season 3 hidden throughout the book’s footnotes.

Eagle-eyed readers will discover that if they remove the dust jacket, there’s a detailed drawing of the Upside Down on the back side that matches the ones Will draws on the show—it turns out that he was the book’s previous owner.

Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down went on to be a New York Times bestseller, with nearly a quarter of a million copies in print in multiple languages. The Duffer Brothers also shared that out of all of the merchandise that has been created around the show, the book is their favorite.

“The challenges of creating a guide to a cult-favorite TV hit are enormous. . . You have to dig deep to provide the kind of nuanced context and background that fans expect. Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down goes even further.”