Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan

Article first published as Book Review: Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan on Blogcritics.

One of my all-time favorite books is The Third Eye by Lois Duncan. I’ve read this book at least half a dozen times since I first read it in high school. Funnily enough, I haven’t read any of Duncan’s better known books, like Stranger with My Face, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Killing Mr. Griffin.

I finally got a hold of a copy of Stranger with My Face, and it was so exciting that I finished reading it in one day. At first glance, the plot sounds like a cliché; Laurie Stratton is a sixteen-year-old girl with an evil twin who wants to take over her life.

It's an overdone plot, but consider the fact that this evil twin can astral travel and is strong enough in astral form that she can cause harm to others, and factor in that it was written in 1981, and you can’t help feeling really impressed with Duncan’s vision. As far as I know, no one else has ever told this story with a paranormal twist, and again, remember that it was written thirty years ago.

I’ve loved her writing ever since I read The Third Eye, and now I can add Stranger with My Face to my ever growing list of favorite books.

This new edition of Stranger with My Face also features a Q&A with the author that, to be quite honest, was my favorite part of the book. I never knew before that she had a teenage daughter who was murdered in 1989, and that psychic detectives played a big role in discovering information about her murder.

It must have been devastating to Duncan and her family, but it sheds a new light on her books and their subject matter. She has also written a book about her daughter’s murder, Who Killed My Daughter?, which I am definitely going to read.