[In Duncan's Stranger with My Face, protagonist Laurie Stratton] eventually discovered that she was an adopted child, one of a pair of identical twins of an American Indian mother and a white father; she was both fascinated and repelled by her twin, Lia, who became more and more visible and began to exert great influence. But Lia was an envious, malevolent person with a secret aim to inhabit Laurie's body. After several near-tragedies, Lia did take over her twin, and only the quick-witted action of Laurie's sister Megan saved Laurie from roaming forever as a disembodied spirit. The ghostly Lia is deliciously evil; the idea of astral projection—Lia's method of travel—is novel; the island setting is vivid; and the relationships among the young people are realistic in the smoothly written supernatural tale.
Ann A. Flowers, in her review of "Stranger with My Face," in The Horn Book Magazine (copyright © 1982 by The Horn Book, Inc., Boston), Vol. LVIII, No. 1, February, 1982, p. 51.
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