By Matt DiDesidero
Lois Duncan’s book, Stranger With My Face, is a novel that takes place on an island in New England named Brighton Island. The main character of the story is a 17 year-old girl named Laurie Stratton. Laurie’s parents both work for a living. Her father has become a well known author, and her mother is an artist. Both of the parents spend many hours per day working, but this does not prevent them from being good parents. Laurie also has two younger siblings, a brother, Neal, who is eleven, and a sister, Megan, who is eight. Laurie gets along very well with her brother and sister. In fact, the entire Stratton family gets along very well with one another.
The story begins by explaining who Laurie’s friends are and how she got mixed into the crowd she hung out with. One of the important topics of the book is the cliques at Laurie's high school. If you don’t live on the island and you don’t have a lot of money and you are not good looking enough then you would not fit into the “popular” crowd. Laurie was not part of this popular crowd until she met her handsome boyfriend, Gordon Ahearn. Gordon quickly introduced Laurie to the group who never became true friends to Laurie they were more like acquaintances. A couple of the names of the people in the group include Natalie Coleson and Darlene Briggs. Neither Natalie nor Darlene plays important roles in the book. Laurie mentions one more character that we do not hear the name of until later in the book. This character is the “stranger” who shares a similar appearance with Laurie and this character constantly and supernaturally appears to and talks to Laurie wherever Laurie goes. In fact, this character appears to the people who are close with Laurie trying to cause confusion and hurt, both physically and mentally. This character is her twin sister she had never met, or even knew existed, Lia.
After Laurie is invited to a party she becomes very ill. She contacts her boyfriend, Gordon, and tells him that she won’t make the party that night. Since Laurie lives on an island the kids have to take a ferry across to the mainland to get to school every day. The next day on the way to school Laurie feels much better. She see’s Gordon on the ferry, but he doesn’t act his usual self because he thinks that he saw Laurie and another guy on the beach the night of the party, kissing. Laurie has no idea what Gordon is talking about, but Gordon has a witness who claims to have seen her as well. As time goes on even the family say that they see Laurie walking up to her bedroom or standing outside their window. The problem is Laurie had not been home for hours when they claim to have seen her. This is bizarre to Laurie and she does not understand.
One of Laurie’s new friends, who Laurie’s “friends” do not approve of, is named Helen. Laurie hangs out with Helen a good amount of time. One weekend when Helen stays the night at Laurie’s she encounters Laurie’s twin while she is sleeping. Helen thinks that Laurie is standing by the bed just looking at Helen, but when Helen realizes that Laurie was still in bed Laurie has to explain the whole story to Helen about the strange occurrences her family and other people have had with this “stranger.” Helen comes up with the idea that this stranger must be a twin. At first Laurie is very skeptical of the whole idea, but gets up enough courage to ask her parents about a potential twin she might have. When Laurie brings this subject up to her parents they play dumb acting as if they don’t know what she is talking about, but after Laurie does not give up they end up telling her the whole story. Laurie was adopted in New Mexico as a baby and when the parents went to pick her up from the hospital they could only afford one of the babies. Laurie is not very happy about the story and is determined to find her twin. However, the twin ends up coming to Laurie, but not in physical form.
By strange coincidence, Helen came over to New England from New Mexico. When Helen lived there she lived in a community of Navajo Indians, she heard about something that only people with Navajo blood could perform called astral projection. Astral projection is where the spirit leaves the body and can go anywhere the person thinks about, so when Lia went to see Laurie she was using this Navajo trick. Laurie becomes very interested and wishes to try, but Helen advises against the idea saying that she thinks it will be very dangerous. Helen has a necklace that she always wears that she received from a Navajo boy back in New Mexico. The necklace was said to protect a person from evil spirits. This necklace will play a big part towards the end of the book. One night Lia appears to Laurie to talk to her about projecting herself. Lia explains how the process is done and vigorously forces Laurie to do it. However, Laurie is not successful in her attempts angering Lia. Laurie is confused as to why it is so important that she learn how to project herself. Helen decides to purchase some books for Laurie to read on astral projection so she can study up on it, however the books do not make it to Laurie’s hands through Helen’s.
Anyone who knows Lia exists is in danger. One night as Helen was hanging out with her friend, Jeff Rankin, who later becomes Laurie’s boyfriend, Jeff sends Helen home on a taxi, but Helen never makes it home she was found at the park across the street from her house knocked unconscious. Helen is transported to the hospital and does not wake up as though she were in a coma. When Laurie goes to visit Helen, she is told that Helen will be moved to a better hospital, Dukes Hospital, who specializes in head trauma. Laurie is very disappointed feeling as though she may never see Helen again. After this situation had occurred, Laurie and Jeff become better friends. Jeff was burned on one side of his face caused from an explosion. After Laurie and Jeff hang out Jeff also learns about Lia and he believes everything that Laurie has told him. Lia knows about Jeff and threatens Laurie to dump him and never see him again, otherwise Lia will harm Jeff. Laurie ignores the threat and invites Jeff over for Thanksgiving dinner. Jeff never shows and Laurie doesn’t think much about it until she receives a phone call from Jeff’s father about his unusual disappearance. Laurie goes out and searches for Jeff when she spots the books that Helen had purchased for Laurie on the beach. Helen gave the books to Jeff to give to Laurie before her accident. Laurie goes over to expect the situation when she climbs up some near by rocks and falls down a hole. To her surprise she lands right next to Jeff who is badly wounded. Jeff is in need of serious help, but neither can climb 12 feet to the top, and no one can hear them yell.
Just when all hope is lost, suddenly Laurie projects herself above the situation for the first time. As she is looking down through the projected body she spots her brother Neal on his bike. He spots her and runs to get their father. Both Jeff and Laurie end up fine, but the reason that Jeff went over to the rocks was because Lia had projected herself over there in hopes that he would fall into the whole. After Laurie learns about Lia’s misguidance, she and Jeff come up with the plan that Laurie project herself in the morning when Lia does not normally project herself to spot where she is located.
Firstly, before Laurie goes to find Lia, Laurie projects herself as a practice trial to Duke’s Hospital to see Helen. While Laurie is at the hospital, she learns that Helen does not even remember even living in New England. Sadly Laurie informs Jeff on the news, but tells him that she was able to successfully project herself. She agrees that the next morning will be when she goes to find Lia. When the next morning rolls around Laurie appears at a home in New Mexico where a couple is lying in bed when the woman wakes up from a bad dream yelling the name “Kathy.” Laurie has no idea what this means and moves through the house. She goes through a room which has a year book opened with the pictures of Kathy Abbot and a picture of Lia, who’s last name is also Abbot. Laurie doesn’t know what to take from her projection, but comes up with the idea to call the Abbot household and get some more information on Lia.
The man of the Abbot household, Art, talks with Laurie for a bit, but Laurie learns through the conversation that Lia is in a hospital. Laurie is shocked and doesn’t understand how or why she would be there. Soon after, Laurie decides to visit the hospital that Lia was said to be at. From the hospital we learn from two reminiscing nurses that Lia had killed Kathy while they were horseback riding, and that the hospital that Lia was located at was an insane asylum. Lia pleaded insane after the accident. During the mornings Lia would participate with the drills the hospital put her through, but when she was done she would go back to her room and “sleep” as the hospital thought, but really Lia was projecting her body any where she wanted. On Laurie’s return, however, things take a turn for the worse. As Laurie is about to jump back into her body she notices her body is waking up without her being back inside. Lia had wanted Laurie to leave the whole time so she could intercept Laurie’s body. Lia warns Laurie that if she is going to live she needs to recharge her body inside of a body, but with Laurie’s body occupied it leaves her with two options. Live out the rest of her days in Lia’s sentence, or get her body back. To find out what happens in the end you’ll have to read the book. Enjoy!