Table of Contents
Acknowledgments: Our Party Members xi
Introduction: Look for the Demogorgon xv
I Friending
1 "Friends Don't Lie": Friendship Theory and Components 3
2 Navigating the Upside Down: Nonnormative and Typical Adolescent Development 13
3 The Upside (and Downside) of Being Social 23
II Fracturing
4 Boys' Party: How to Fail or Save vs. Toxic Masculinity 33
5 An '80s Daydream or a Comforting Nightmare? An Examination of Black Racial Representation in Hawkins 46
6 Bullying: What It Is and What to Do about It 56
III Missing
7 Missing Children and the Impact on Their Loved Ones 69
8 Missing You: An Exploration into Missing Persons, Ambiguous Loss, and the Journey to Acceptance 78
9 Lonely Things: Surviving Trauma and Loneliness with Some Help from Our Friends 89
IV Feeling
10 The Flow-Memories: The Nostalgic Appeal of Stranger Things 99
11 A Strange Feeling: Investigating Murray Bauman's Grand Conspiracy 108
12 Shame, Survival, and Trauma Processing in the State We Call Fear 118
V Healing
13 Stranger Things in the First Episodes: Lessons from the Start 133
14 The Strangest Things: Choices, Chances, and the Dungeons & Dragons of Life 148
15 It's All in the Game: How Fighting Fake Foes Teaches Us to Face Our Fears 166
Final Word: Finding 175
Notes 179
References 199
Index 223
About the Editor 233