Stranger with My Face, Daughters of Eve, and Gift of Magic

In Stranger with My Face, Laurie begins having problems with her boyfriend, who thinks he saw her on the beach.  Soon, others report seeing Laurie when Laurie knows she was not present.  After Laurie finally sees the mysterious figure, she realizes that she has a double—a double only present in spirit form. Later, Laurie learns that this mysterious person is planning to take over her life.

The story is quite suspenseful.  The reader gradually realizes what the mysterious person is planning and sees the mistakes that Laurie makes that place her in danger.

This is an excellent story.

In Daughters of Eve, several girls become new members of a secret society known as the Daughters of Eve.  Faculty sponsor Ms. Stark insists that women are treated unfairly in society and that the girls must seek revenge.  Some of the girls are uncomfortable with what Ms. Stark wants them to do.

This book introduces too many characters too fast and with minimal description.  I never could keep some of them straight, and this did reduce my enjoyment of the book.

Lois Duncan revised this book by stating several times throughout the text that the small town is stuck in a time warp where men treat women like they did 100 years ago.  In spite of those statements, the text still reads just like a book about feminism written in the 1970s.  Not enough was revised to change any of that.

In this book and in Killing Mr. Griffin, I find it curious how easily the teenagers are able to avoid discovery while perpetrating criminal acts on school property.  The books were revised in 2010, but modern books would have considered the prevalence of security cameras which most all schools now have.  Cameras should have been taken into consideration in the revisions.

This is a very good book, but it would probably not appeal to many male readers due to how negatively most males are portrayed in the story.

In A Gift of Magic, Nancy and her siblings were each given a gift by their grandmother. Nancy's gift allows her to read other people's minds and influence their behavior.  Nancy begins to use her gift to force others to behave the way she wants.  Ultimately, Nancy learns a lesson about life.

On page 174, the phone would have had caller id in a modern book, so that's a flaw in this revised modern edition.  Of course, the scene would not have worked the way it was written if the change had been made.

In the interview section in the back of the book, Lois Duncan mentions that readers tend to skim so she avoids using multiple names that begin with the same first letter.  I wish other authors would realize that all names in books should begin with different letters.

I enjoyed this book.

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