Sunday, May 29, 2011

Stranger with my Face.

Title/Author: Stranger with my Face by Lois Duncan.

Read by: Alyssa Bresnahan

Genre: Supernatural/YA

Publisher: Recorded Books.

Source: Library.

Favorite character: Meg.

Favorite quote: n/a

All in All: Cute.

Synopsis: Have you ever been haunted by the feeling that someone is spying on you, lurking around your house and yard, even entering your bedroom? Are your friends plotting against you when they say they've seen you do things you know you haven't done? What's going on -- and does Laurie really want to find out?~Product Description.

My Thoughts: Lois Duncan is a huge name in the literary world, who has written many, (many, many) books and received many (manymanymany) awards.  I Know What You Did Last Summer may be her most recognizable.  However, I can't remember reading any of her books growing up, but I recognized her name when I picked up this audio book in the library.  My other reasons for checking this out were 1) We don't have a huge selection in our library and 2) It was earmarked as Supernatural.  I'm not sure I would really recommend it, but it did win a ton of awards. 

The story was published in 1981 and yes, the book is a bit dated. Not just because the father who is a writer uses a typewriter, but it just didn’t have a contemporary feel. However, the story holds up and the plot is fun. Although it is a bit predictable, I didn’t know everything that was going to happen and I do like how it was all resolved.

I didn’t really connect to any of the characters, I felt they were kind of stereotyped. The boyfriend who is Mr. Perfect and a tad arrogant, the bad boy who is sullen and most of Laurie's friends who happened to be in the popular crowd. Laurie is nice and perhaps a typical teenager.  Her reaction to her parent's secret is understandable but her continuing anger had me a little annoyed.

It took me a while to get into the tone of voice of the narrator. At first I felt as if she was reading a bit too deliberately and it just sounded funny. But I did get used to it.

Some of the writing sounded odd to me. I’m sure it is correct and I’m not a Grammer expert, but she kept using sentences, like “We, both of us saw you.” “We, none of us…” or “We, all of us…” It just stuck out. I also thought it kind of odd that the main character Lori, who is 17, calls her younger siblings who are 8 and 11 “the children.” I don’t know, maybe it’s because that’s what her parents call them. Also, the issue of adoption is pretty dated. It kind of had me laughing.

I think this book would appeal more to middle grade students than young adults.

Other Editions:











5 comments:

La Toya said...

haha! I would still love to read this! It makes me think of RL Stine or something. I think it would be a good scary book for me since I'm not such a scaredy cat :)

xo,
Lah

Jenny said...

It would be kind of fun to read this one now just to pick out the things that are ridiculously dated:) Characters are vital for me though, so the fact that you couldn't connect to them is problematic. Even though this one was written a while ago, I feel like the characters should always easy to connect to despite when they're written.

Missie, The Unread Reader said...

You never think of book becoming dated until you read back, huh. I wonder if this book was better received back in it's day. I'm not saying you didn't like it, I'm just wondering if the characters would have seemed less stereotypical and more authentic based on when it came out.

I was trying to remember if I'd heard of this author growing up, but of course, I know what you did last summer was the only one I recognized because of the movie.

Midnyte Reader said...

I never read RL Stine, but from what I've heard, it does sound a bit similar.

You are right Jenny, even books written centuries ago should have characters we can connect to. Just look at Jane Austen's characters.

Missie, I think this book was very well received. It won many awards. It was also made into a tv movie. I think I may have to look for it.

Jennifer said...

I loved this book. But I read it when I was around 11 years old. I imagine I would feel differently reading it for the first time as an adult.

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...