Patricia (Patty) Neely, alias Karen Peterson, is the heroine and first-person narrator of This Stranger, My Father.

The most fully developed character in the story, she reports not only the events but also the results of her observations and reflections. Patty undergoes drastic and permanent changes physically and emotionally as a result of the experiences and events into which she is thrust. From a typical teen-ager at the start of the story, Patty changes to anything but typical at its end. Before the critical event that turns her world upside down, Patty has stayed out of trouble and maintained average academic and attendance records at school. Her major concerns, when the story starts, involve how to tell the first boy she has promised a date that she has changed her mind and decided to accept a date with someone else. She is also concerned...