Love is a Ticking Clock

Hawkins, Indiana was supposed to be a burial ground for Lilly Jamison's grief.

Uprooted from the sunny beaches of San Diego after the devastating loss of her brother, Lilly arrives in the dreary, overcast Midwest with a heavy heart and a simple plan: stay invisible, survive senior year, and let the numbness consume her. The suffocating silence of Hawkins High feels like the perfect place to disappear.

Then she literally crashes into Steve Harrington.

Steve is dealing with his own fracturing world-a failing relationship, a fading reputation, and a strange new role as the protector of a bunch of chaotic middle-schoolers. But when he looks at Lilly, he doesn't see a stranger; he sees someone carrying a ghost he recognizes all too well. Armed with terrible jokes, stubborn persistence, and a total lack of boundaries, Steve makes it his personal mission to crack her shell.

But as the autumn leaves fall, the creeping horror of the Upside Down bleeds into reality. Dragged into a fight for survival alongside Steve and a pack of kids with a nailed baseball bat, Lilly is forced to face a terrifying choice: let the darkness take her, or fight for the life she has left.