There’s a lot going on in the little town of Hawkins, Indiana, and none of it’s good. With so much going on in the Upside Down and with Vecna, it can be easy to forget that there are plenty of normal problems, too. While searching for Vecna, Nancy stumbles across a mystery that would be life-altering in any other town. Residents are getting sick, and people are turning up dead. The closer Nancy gets to the truth, the more danger she’s in. Can she figure out what’s going on before it’s too late? Take a break from the Upside Down and join Nancy in Stranger Things: One Way or Another by Caitlin Schneiderhan.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Random House Worlds for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of Stranger Things: One Way or Another, a Nancy Wheeler Mystery, contains some spoilers!]
There’s more to Hawkins than the Upside Down and government conspiracies
After everything Hawkins has been through, something mundane but no less scary stalks the town: reconstruction. After Vecna’s earthquake ripped the town apart, the government moved in quickly and quarantined everyone. That made it difficult to repair the earthquake damage. Thank god that Hearth & Home has been let in. A non-profit that helps communities hit by destruction rebuild, Hearth & Home is helping Hawkins recover one building at a time. And it turns out that the founder of Hearth & Home, Georgia Miller, is an old friend of Nancy’s mother.
Seeing this Hawkins girl that got out and made good causes Nancy more distress than you would think. Nancy wants nothing more than to get out of Hawkins. But how can she leave knowing that Vecna is still out there? Well, she can’t. So she is desperately searching Hawkins for any sign of him while avoiding the reason it’s so important to find him. As Nancy becomes more and more frantic to find Vecna, she falls into a mystery that’s a little more human in nature.
Joey Taft, a former classmate, sets off Nancy’s alarm bells. She knows something is off about him, and she keeps pushing him. With Robin’s help, Nancy gets Joey to agree to talk. But when she and Robin go to meet Joey, they find him dead. The only clue Nancy has to go on is a scrap of paper covered in numbers that’s by his body. Nancy keeps digging deeper and finds out that residents of Hawkins are falling mysteriously ill. But not all of them. As she begins to piece together what’s happening in Hawkins, she gets ever closer to an enemy she doesn’t even know is there. Danger is everywhere, and if Nancy isn’t careful, she’s going to become just another name in the roll call of 1986’s dead classmates.
Where does One Way or Another fit into Stranger Things?
With five seasons (almost) that cover four years (not counting flashbacks and backstory) of our young heroes’ lives, just where does One Way or Another fit in? Even though it was released on December 2, 2025, in the middle of season 5, One Way or Another takes place between seasons 4 and 5. It begins with Nancy, Robin, and Jonathan’s graduation and covers the next couple of months. It gives some insight into what is happening when season 5 starts up, like how the Byers came to be living with the Wheelers, or why Robin and Steve are running a radio station. Honestly, I was really confused by a few things in the first part of season 5, and One Way or Another helped clear up that confusion.
Of course, One Way or Another isn’t just meant to explain things that happened in the time jump between seasons 4 and 5. It’s a story all of its own, and it’s a good one. The mystery that Nancy and Robin investigate is interesting and dangerous. In any other place, it would have been a town-changing mystery with Earth-shattering revelations. In Hawkins, it barely makes a ripple. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t an important adventure for Nancy and Robin. What they go through strengthens their friendship. It also pushes Nancy to look inside herself and decide what she really wants out of life. Instead of just reacting to events, she can respond to them moving forward (yes, there is a difference).
One Way or Another offers Nancy and Robin a chance for some big character growth that they never would have seen in Stranger Things. As the main characters of the show, Eleven and Will are going to suck up most of that bandwidth in the final season. But that doesn’t mean that all the good side characters should just be forgotten. Really, after seeing what Schneiderhan has done with Nancy and Robin, I’d like to see her work on a few of the other side characters. All of the characters in Stranger Things are great characters, but the cast has gotten so large that it’s hard to fit any real development in for most of them. A Stranger Things novel series could allow for that character development that we are all craving (are you listening, Netflix and Random House?).
A normal mystery for an abnormal town
It’s easy to forget that normal, everyday humans can be awful too when dealing with supernatural monsters like demogorgans and Vecna. One Way or Another reminds us that regular people suck, too. But it also helps ground a town that can sometimes be too fantastic to take seriously. Sure, it might make you think, “How much can honestly happen in Hawkins?” But attention actually does work that way, and maybe we’re noticing it all in Hawkins because we’re focused on Hawkins. If you don’t believe me, read a few articles on attention and focus. Then read One Way or Another. Even if you haven’t watched Stranger Things, you can enjoy One Way or Another. The story is just removed enough that prior knowledge from Stranger Things isn’t needed. And it’s a regular old mystery. There aren’t any supernatural or other-dimensional aspects, so if science fiction isn’t your thing but mysteries are, this is perfect for you. I really enjoyed getting to know Nancy better (she’s never been a favorite character of mine), and I bet you will too. Use One Way or Another to help you get through until the next part of season five drops, or just to fill in a few winter nights. Either way, enjoy it!
Rating: 9/10
Stranger Things: One Way or Another is now available to purchase at your retailer of choice.
Learn more about the book at the official website for the title.
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