It's been nearly a year since Will's strange disappearance. But life's hardly back to normal in Hawkins. Not even close.

Budding romance. A brand-new mall. And rabid rats running toward danger. It's the summer of 1985 in Hawkins ... and one summer can change everything.

Darkness returns to Hawkins just in time for spring break, igniting fresh terror, disturbing memories — and an ominous new threat.

The First Shadow is set in Stranger Things’ home of Hawkins in 1959, around 25 years before the smash hit TV series. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and leave town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.

A love story set during the Great American Eclipse.